So, Tom Cruise is having a hell of a month so far, huh? I mean, to be in Iceland shooting your next epic blockbuster and eagerly anticipating an equally epic 50th (!!) birthday celebration with your wife and kid one minute, and being served divorce papers amid allegations said wife didn’t just leave you, she escaped you the next is probably a huge downer, I’m guessing. Not to mention the ensuing media frenzy, complete with renewed-with-a-vengeance speculation around your spiritual beliefs.
I never got the whole Tom-backlash thing, which seemed to really take off after the infamous Oprah-couch-jumping incident. That scene set off cray-dar alarms everywhere, while I mostly saw it as a man so taken with a woman, he became physically unable to prevent his own body from propelling itself onto furniture on national TV, and not exactly without Oprah’s and the entire studio audience’s encouragement. They ate that shit up.
YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE ROMANCE.
I’m also naive, though — a flaw I seem to share with Katie Holmes, who was too blinded by puppy love to see she was on a highway to the danger zone*.
*If you’re awaiting an apology for that, it’s not coming.
Of the TomKat fan base, I’m in the Tom camp. I grew up on Risky Business, Top Gun, Cocktail, Rain Man, Days of Thunder — movies I’m pretty sure, looking back now, I was way too young to watch then, and in one run-on sentence on a pop culture blog, so much of the evolution of my psyche is explained.
JUST SAY YOU LIKE HIS F*CKING HAT, SHANNON.
I couldn’t say I’m nearly as familiar with Katie’s work. I know she’s done some questionable movies since shooting to fame as her husband’s wife, she dated that guy from American Pie, and she was on the show that’s responsible for this being everywhere I look:
I don’t look to my adult celebs to be role models — romantic, spiritual, or otherwise (child celebs are another story entirely, and a little piece of my soul dies every time my kids utter the name “Miley Cyrus“). I don’t know what happened in that marriage, so rather than pass judgment against someone I’ve never met based solely on tabloid gossip, I’m choosing to remember the Tom we fell in love with, the Tom who entertained us movie after movie, the Tom who made a name for himself doing… a hell of a lot of running.
Those who have worked with and know Tom personally are quick to praise him, even amid the scrutiny.
Cuba Gooding, Jr. says of his Jerry Maguire co-star, “Nobody I’ve ever seen has the energy he has,” and adds that 16 years later, Tom still sends his kids birthday gifts. Tom also recently met with Jonathan Lipnicki, the large-headed kid from the same movie, in a career-mentoring capacity.
During shooting for Tropic Thunder promos in LA, Bill Hader received news of a family emergency in New York City. He recalls that Tom made it a point to get him home that night and wrapped up two days of work in 45 minutes. Hader was then presented with flight info for that night’s red-eye by none other than Katie Holmes.
He hasn’t said it explicitly, but I’m comfortable assuming Kenny Loggins credits Tom with the fact that people know who Kenny Loggins is.
Gonna need you to pull double-overtime today, bodies.
So, he doesn’t seem like a bad guy, according to people who know him, and frankly, his personal life is none of my business.
I’m still totally buying the shit out of Katie’s tell-all, though, because WHOO-BOY can you imagine?
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