ABC/IDA MAE ASTUTE

A shaken Tom Cruise struggled mightily to describe his feelings on the shocking death of Jett Travolta during an appearanced on The View.

"It's horrific," said Cruise, a close friend of John Travolta and Kelly Preston. "Both of them doting parents, just wonderful people...it's just...

"I remember Jett when he was born. I saw him when he was a few months old and John just adored him," he continued. "It's something I don't have the words..."

With Cruise barely holding it together, View maven Barbara Walters changed the subject, asking if Cruise had a response to critics who claim Scientology prevents parents from giving medication to their ailing children and have suggested the religion's rules played a part in the 16-year-old's death.

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AP Photo/Phil Sandlin

John Travolta and Kelly Preston, along with a small group of family and friends, are preparing to say goodbye to 16-year-old Jett with an intimate memorial service set for this afternoon in Ocala, Fla.

The service is expected to take place at the Travoltas' home at the Jumbolair Aviation Estates around 4 p.m. ET and will reflect the family's Scientology faith.

Fans have already begun leaving flowers, posters and other messages of sympathy for Travolta, Preston and 8-year-old daughter Ella at the gates of their estate.

Forest Whitaker, who costarred with Travolta in both Phenomenon and Battlefield Earth, also offered his condolences.

"Our families have had a long loving friendship, and John and Kelly are amazing parents," he said in a statement. "We have watched each other's children grow and cannot imagine the loss of Jett.

"He was a bright and beautiful young man, and we are honored to have known him. We ask that you continue to send them prayers, love and give them space to mourn."

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Warner Bros. Pictures

At this point, The Dark Knight can only surprise if it isn't a top Oscar nominee.

The Batman blockbuster padded its resume today with a Directors Guild of America Awards nomination for Gotham revisionist Christopher Nolan.

Nolan's competition should look familiar: Slumdog Millionaire's Danny Boyle, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button's David Fincher, Frost/Nixon's Ron Howard and Milk's Gus Van Sant. The five men's film were nominated this week for honors from the Producers Guild and  Writers Guild. 

Only six times since 1948 has the DGA's big winner failed to take the Oscar. Howard, who won the DGA in 1996 for Apollo 13, but didn't rate even a nomination that year from the Academy, isn't especially fond of that stat. 

This year's winner will be announced Jan. 31. 

Will Binns, PacificCoastNews.com

Finally some closure for Dennis Quaid and family.

A Los Angeles judge today signed off on a $750,000 settlement between Dennis and Kimberly Quaid and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center over a potentially fatal overdose of blood thinners given to their newborn twins.

Per the deal struck in December and made official this morning, the hospital did not admit any wrongdoing for the 2007 incident in which Zoe Grace and Thomas Boone Quaid were accidentally administered 1,000 times the recommended amount of heparin (commonly used to flush out I.V.s).

Cedars was earlier fined $25,000 by the California Department of Public Health for the error.

Citing poorly labeled bottles, the Quaids sued heparin manufacturer Baxter Healthcare Corporation for negligence. According to settlement papers, that action was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, because the event happened in California.

Macomb County Sheriff's Dept

We're thinking this really may qualify her as the biggest loser.

Shanon Thomas, a 30-year-old contestant on the NBC weight-loss competition, was charged in Michigan Tuesday with domestic violence.

The incident went down Dec. 16, when Thomas confronted Michael Nolden, a tenant living in her basement, over the volume of his TV. She allegedly broke some Christmas tree bulbs and then tossed an open bag of flour at his head.

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ABC/ RON TOM

Wednesday TV's Big Winner: Patrick Swayze. The ailing star's tough-to-watch, impossible-to-tune-out Barbara Walters interview special averaged 12.6 million viewers, per Nielsen estimates, tops for the night.

Wednesday TV's Big, if Not Entirely Complete Comeback: CBS' People's Choice Awards (9.3 million) was up 55 percent in viewers over last year's writers'-strike-stricken affair. Compared to the show's most recent star-studded ceremony, in 2007, viewership was down about 18 percent.

CW's New Winning Strategy: Psychological terror. The network got, for the CW, a decent premiere from the horror-competition hybrid, 13: Fear Is Real (2.4 million). Among adults 18-34 at 8 p.m., the show was competitive against reruns and an all-new episode of NBC's canceled Knight Rider (5.7 million overall), a franchise that hasn't put a scare into anybody since 1982.

Biggest Surprise, After 27 Dresses Being Named Best Comedy: At 10 p.m., NBC's Law & Order (10.1 million) tied Walters' Swayze interview for first among adults 18-49.

This is one way to avoid any "he fooled around with a stripper" rumors from messing up a marriage.

With their wedding just days away, Fergie and Josh Duhamel decided to commemorate the countdown to consortium by combining their respective bachelor and bachelorette parties into one on Wednesday night, with the bride-to-be's Black Eyed Peas pal, will.i.am, in attendance.

While we don't know if drinks were sipped through penis straws or whether any donkeys were harmed in the making of this shindig at the Dakota Lounge in Santa Monica, bystanders do claim the "Clumsy" singer did get, shall we say, a bit clumsy afterward.

And later, upon arriving home at about 1 a.m., what had been a party became more of a shower, literally, when Fergie's future hubby decided to keep the rest of the evening private from the paps by way of a standard garden hose.

While the photogs may have been temporarily washed out, here's hoping the couple's future together never gets washed up.