Tom Cruise has been a true A-lister in Hollywood for years, but the tabloids are saying Hollywood is now turning against him. Is this true? Gossip Cop has the real story.
The cover story of Life & Style wants you to believe that celebrities are all coming out to trash the Jerry Maguire star. The cover quotes Thandie Newton as saying that “he’s a nightmare.” An anonymous source adds that “some say all of his supposed celebrity friendships are phony,” which is both vague and harsh.
The tabloid also cites a story from Rob Lowe, who said Cruise “went ‘ballistic’ after learning he and Rob would be sharing a hotel room.” This is taken out of context — a theme of this cover story — as Lowe left that incident happily and with respect for Cruise.
Tom Cruise was upset at the arrangement, not with Lowe himself. In fact, Lowe said that “it made me laugh” and it made him think Cruise was “the real deal.” If Lowe finds the whole affair funny, then this is hardly a shocking expose on the real Cruise and more an old story from two actors who came up together.
This article is little more than a collection of stories meant to make Cruise look like a bad guy. Gossip Cop can debunk this story. The cover quote for this story, “Hollywood Turns Against Tom,” makes these isolated stories sound like they’re coming from a united industry. However, Cruise isn’t leaving Hollywood, and this article is an extreme exaggeration of a few isolated interviews.
The Thandie Newton story is from July, but it concerns an incident while shooting Mission Impossible II in 2000. The Rob Lowe story is from a recent interview but focuses on the making of The Outsiders in 1983. Cruise is one of Hollywood’s most popular and established actors, so of course there’s always going to be stories going around, both bad and good.
For what it’s worth, Cruise is attached to five movies in addition to Top Gun: Maverick, so rumors of him “moving from Hollywood to London,” as this tabloid previously claimed, are a bit far fetched. Gossip Cop debunked that story earlier this month.
Newton spoke to Vulture recently and said Cruise “tries super hard to be a nice person” and is “a very dominant individual.” In the interview itself, Newton describes a difficult day of shooting where Cruise felt responsible for everything on the set. “There were so many extras with pyrotechnics” in what Newton called not a “well-written scene.” Director John Woo “made a decision at the beginning of the movie… that he didn’t speak English.”
With many extras, a long day of shooting and a director who would not step in, there was an argument between Newton and Cruise. Frustration hardly sounds unreasonable. Newton described the night, not Cruise himself, as “a nightmare.” She also made sure to say, regarding Cruise, “bless him. And I really do mean bless him, because he was trying his damnedest.” Life & Style selectively chose the most aggressive quotes from this interview without painting the whole picture.
Tom Cruise is a common target of this tabloid. In March, it ran a story claiming that Cruise was anxious to do a film with Meghan Markle. That story was completely false, as Cruise is staying very busy with multiple Mission Impossible films currently in the works.
The tabloids can’t seem to decide if Cruise is on the outs of Hollywood or in demand from everyone. OK!, a sister magazine of this tabloid, just reported that Cruise was about to team up with Chris Pratt on a blockbuster. Similarly, in April, the National Enquirer, yet another sister publication of Life & Style, reported that Gwyneth Paltrow was trying to make a film with Cruise. Both of those stories Gossip Cop debunked; Paltrow, Pratt and Cruise all are very busy with their own careers and have no plans to collaborate.
Our Verdict
Gossip Cop believes there to be elements of truth, but the story is ultimately misleading.
