2022 has seen a new Beyoncé album, two newborn Kardashian babies and the resurgence of… Tom Cruise’s acting career.
That’s right, Cruise is back after starring in Top Gun: Maverick earlier this year. According to reports, the film made $1.3 billion at the box office.
It’s clear that despite decades of questionable behaviour on Cruise’s part, the actor has gotten himself back in Hollywood’s good books.
Watch: Top Gun: Maverick, the official trailer. Post continues after video.
However, despite a boost in his public reputation, there are some celebrities who have made it clear they have no intention to support, or work with, Cruise.
Below, is a list of five A-listers who reportedly refuse to work with Tom Cruise.
Brooke Shields
Image: Instagram @naomiwatts
In 2005, actor Brooke Shields opened up about needing antidepressants to help with postpartum depression. For some reason, Cruise disapproved and told Access Hollywood in 2005: “When someone says [medication] has helped them, it is to cope, it didn’t cure anything. There is no science. There is nothing that can cure them whatsoever.”
The Top Gun actor went on to label Shields as “irresponsible,” adding: “I care about Brooke Shields because I think she is an incredibly talented woman, (but) look at where has her career gone.”
As you can imagine, Shields wasn’t too happy with his comments, and told People later that year, “Tom should stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them.”
Her comments were in direct reference to the Church of Scientology’s alleged belief in aliens.
The pair have starred in one movie together (Endless Love, 1981), but it’s been 17 years since Cruise made those comments and it’s looking like another film will never happen.
John Travolta
Image: Getty.
Despite both being devout believers in Scientology, rumours have been circulating for years that Grease actor John Travolta is not all that fond of his religious comrade, Mr Cruise.
In 2018, the allegations were confirmed when a former member of the church, Brendan Tighe, told New Idea that Travolta was madly jealous of Cruise.
The reason why? According to the publication, Cruise’s position in the Church of Scientology was of higher ranking and he was reportedly one of the few people in their religion who had direct access to the Scientology chief, David Miscavige.
“Cruise is the only celeb with a direct line to Miscavige,” Tighe said. “Travolta didn’t have that. Travolta doesn’t get anything for free, no one is giving him absurd gifts like an airplane hangar, custom-made bikes, or over-the-top favours.”
Tighe added: “It’s no secret that Cruise and Travolta despised each other.”
Brad Pitt
Image: Getty.
Buckle up, because this relationship is downright messy.
It comes as no surprise that Cruise and fellow actor, Brad Pitt, run in the same circles – but apparently there has been tension between the two for decades.
Their rivalry dates back to 1994, when the pair starred alongside each other in Interview with the Vampire.
According to reports from that time, Pitt allegedly couldn’t stand Cruise. The World War Z actor was reported saying that Cruise had “bugged him”.
“He bugged me. There came a point during filming when I started really resenting him. He’s North Pole, I’m South,” he reportedly said, as per Radar Online.
“He’s always coming at you with a handshake, whereas I may bump into you. There was this underlying competition that got in the way of any real conversation.”
It appears the pair never settled their rift, and it’s looking like Pitt has no plans to play nice with the Oblivion actor.
Mark Wahlberg
Image: Getty.
Despite not being a very popular celebrity himself, it turns out Mark Wahlberg has absolutely no time for Cruise.
The two actors have not worked together in the past and it’s looking like they never will, after comments Cruise made in 2013 seriously offended Wahlberg.
In that year, reports said Cruise had been comparing the nature of his work for a new movie to being as intense as “fighting in Afghanistan”.
Later that year, Wahlberg addressed the statement made by Cruise (without mentioning the fellow actor’s name at all).
“For actors to sit there and talk about ‘Oh I went to SEAL training,’ and I slept on the… I don’t give a f**k what you did,” he said, according to TMZ. “You don’t do what these guys did. For somebody to sit there and say my job was as difficult as somebody in the military. How f**king dare you. While you sit in a makeup chair for two hours.”
Not too soon after, Cruise’s lawyer told People that the actor had clearly been joking.
“Tom is a staunch supporter of our troops,” the statement read.
Listen to this episode of Cancelled, where Clare and Jessie Stephens discuss the cancellation of Tom Cruise.
Russell Crowe
Image: Getty.
Considering Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s divorce was fairly public, it’s no surprise their celebrity friends were pushed to take sides.
For Russell Crowe, he reportedly chose his long-term mate Kidman over the Top Gun actor.
The pair did manage to work together for the 2017 reboot of The Mummy, but not without its issues. At the time of filming, reports claimed that Crowe could not stand his co-star.
A source claiming to be close to the A-lister said Cruise hadn’t been in Crowe’s good books for over a decade.
“He hasn’t been able to stand Tom for years,” the insider explained. “Russell is a loyal guy and never forgave Tom for the way he treated Nicole… If they’d stayed friends, he would’ve felt he was betraying Nic, so he froze Tom out of his life.”
Interestingly enough, Crowe and Kidman have known each other since they were relatively ‘normal’ people living in Australia.
According to an interview with Vanity Fair in 2018, the pair became well acquainted with each other after he turned up to one of her parties.
From memory, Kidman explained that she had met “Russell in a place in Darlinghurst [a suburb of Sydney] at my boyfriend’s house, and Russell came to a party where we invited I think 500 people.
“And I attempted to cook paella. And I didn’t cook the rice, so it was crunchy. Not good. Throw it out, bring out the beer.”
Feature Image: Getty.
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