i think what happened is Kubrick slowed Ryan O' Neal's career.
Kubrick was a sort of career killer for a lot of actors. He took them out of the normal rotation for so long to do his movies that they didn't get seen in normal stuff for such a long time that they didn't produce the same impact on the movie industry as those who stayed out of his clutches. Mathew Modine was a perfectly serviceable brat pack type actor until he disappeared for all those years to make Full Metal Jacket. (BTW, see him in Birdy great Peter Gabriel soundtrack).
I think Tom and Nichol as a Hollywood couple did not survive whatever it was that Eyes Wide Shut was. Tom Cruise is just so talented and hard working so he could overcome that sort of thing.