"I have Tom Cruise calling for you," says the assistant. And then the voice, as familiar as family, booms across the telephone line.

"Hey, man, how you doing?" he asks.

"So, we're going to talk about L.A.," I say, getting straight to the central question. Because where else could a peripatetic movie star like Tom Cruise call home? His last four films alone have flung him to locations around the globe, from Tokyo (The Last Samurai) to Virginia (Minority Report) to Sydney (Mission: Impossible 2) to Manhattan (Vanilla Sky), but this month he's back in the City of Angels, in both his new movie and the car from which he's calling me, surely with the top down and sunglasses on.

"So, do you consider Los Angeles home?" I ask him.

"Well, you know, it's interesting, because I've traveled so much," he says. "Where my family is, is where my home is. Even now, I spend a lot of time out on locations. But L.A. is a part of my home. I have my offices here. I feel comfortable here. I remember that night, when I arrived with Sean Penn, I felt comfortable here."

Cruise has had many homes in L.A., from bachelor apartments to married mansions. But one stands out above all others: the Hotel Bel-Air, a sanctuary on 12 wooded acres in the fabled hamlet of Bel-Air. "A few times I've lived at the Bel-Air," says Cruise. "I've stayed there a lot over the years. It's a beautiful hotel. Kind of tucked away, in a very nice area. I always feel very comfortable there. I like walking around in that area. Sometimes, when I've come home from the editing room, I like to go for a walk, clear my head. That whole area, I'll just go walking around and look at the houses. It's very beautiful."

"Where else do you hang out when you're in town?" I ask.

"I like going to the mountains for the bike riding," he answers. "I like going to the beach. We'll go to Santa Monica Beach and rollerblade all the way past the pier and back, and go play volleyball. We go hiking or mountain biking. There are just trails all over that we take. That's the great thing about California: You can go mountain biking, and then you can go rollerblading at the beach."

"You're talking about the sidewalk that runs all along the beaches, from Venice through Santa Monica, right?"

"Yeah. The thing I like about it is … [he pauses, searching for the right words], I like talking to people. You meet people there from all walks of life. Down there, I rarely meet someone who was born and raised in California."

It's a difficult scene to imagine: Tom Cruise amid the great unwashed masses on the public beaches of Los Angeles.

"And are people surprised to see you on the beach, rollerblading?"

"Sometimes," he says.