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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tom Cruise led New York media and fans on a wild goose chase around the city on Wednesday as he performed stunts designed to publicize his new spy movie "Mission: Impossible III."

In keeping with the theme of the movie, his agents kept his exact whereabouts a secret so the city was littered with packs of photographers, camera crews and reporters wondering if they were in the right place at the right time.

At least one of his dates with admirers was relatively well-known to those who read the tabloid New York Post, which published a leaked itinerary.

Hundreds of camera-wielding fans gathered in Times Square to see Cruise exit the studios of MTV and board a firetruck which sped him to his next destination -- but only after fans disrupted traffic and delayed at least one ambulance which came to a standstill despite its blaring siren.

Charles Sykes, a photographer working for a British agency, said he managed to catch Cruise at Times Square but then lost the scent. "It's been my own mission impossible trying to chase him down," he said after waiting at a helipad on the wrong side of Manhattan with a clutch of other reporters.

"I didn't get any information from the publicist or movie people. I had to get word of mouth," Sykes said.

Arantxa Martinez, a 32-year-old tourist from Madrid, joined the crowd at the East River helipad after hearing a rumor Cruise would make an appearance. "Is that Tom?" she asked as one helicopter landed. "That's it, that's absurd," she said once it became clear he was not going to turn up.

Eleonora Bershadskaya, 18, was among several hundred high-school students who lined up at a downtown Manhattan theater where the film was being screened and Cruise was expected to drop by.

"I don't think anything is too much for him, but I might be really shallow. I love Tom Cruise," she said.

From that screening the movie star, who has crisscrossed the world from Rome to Mexico in recent days to promote the film even though his girlfriend Katie Holmes gave birth last month, went by sports car to a pier where he boarded a boat to travel up to Harlem.

"Hey, man" and "Take care" was pretty much all he had to say to passersby who were lucky enough to get near him.