Spectator: No Tariff on Tom Cruise

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Despite the pop ubiquity, U.S. trade hawks say foreign governments contrive to deprive American show business of its due. "Without the barriers," says a senior Administration official, the U.S. take "would be significantly higher." Still, the repeatedly cited trade deficit that's creeping past $100 billion is just for manufactured goods -- cars, stuffed animals, nonferrous metals. In the services category, which includes all show-business output, the U.S. is running a $50 billion worldwide trade surplus. Hooray for Hollywood? Sure, except that nearly all our current hit movies -- Jurassic Park, Sleepless in Seattle, In the Line of Fire -- were released by studios that happen to be owned by the Japanese.