Lauren Bacall goes crazy-old-lady on Tom Cruise


Lauren Bacall does not like Tom Cruise. She’s never worked directly with Cruise, but she worked with his ex-wife, Nicole Kidman, in Dogville and Birth and feels she has some insight into Tom’s personality and personal life because of it. And when Lauren Bacall has something to say, she says it.

Screen legend Bacall worked with Cruise’s ex-wife Nicole Kidman on 2003 film ‘Dogville’, soon after her divorce from the ‘Mission: Impossible’ actor, and says she appeared “unhappy” during filming, before launching an astonishing and scathing attack on Cruise.

Bacall told Elle magazine: “Tom had taken off for Penelope Cruz or some goddamn thing – one of his more ridiculous moves. Tom Cruise is a maniac. I can’t understand the way he conducts his life.”
This is not the first time ‘The Big Sleep’ actress has hit out at Cruise.

In 2005, Bacall said: “When you talk about a great actor, you’re not talking about Tom Cruise. His whole behaviour is so shocking. It’s inappropriate and vulgar and absolutely unacceptable to use your private life to sell anything commercially, but, I think, it’s kind of a sickness.”

[From FemaleFirst]

Rather ironic, in a way, from Bacall, who has been in some highly public and controversial relationships in her private life that were gossip fodder and pushed her own career to previously unknown heights. Her affair and subsequent marriage to Humphrey Bogart has become so commercial it’s been used in song lyrics. Her autobiography chronicles the relationship she had with Frank Sinatra and how disclosing personal information to renowned gossip columnist at the time, Louella Parsons, caused Sinatra to be so annoyed with Bacall that he recinded his marriage proposal and cut off all contact with her. And she’s been called shocking a time or two in her life.

But Lauren Bacall has never been one to hold back, and at 84 she’s reached that magical age. That crazy-old-lady age where she feels she’s doing the world a great service by telling her crabby opinions on everyone and everything and we should all be thankful for it. You gotta love her for it, and Lord knows I can’t wait to reach that age. Oh, the liberating glory!

Picture note by Celebitchy: Lauren Bacall is shown in the header at a fan screening of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in NY on 5/21/08. She is shown below at an adorable photo shoot at the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Boca Raton, FL on 8/1/07. Credit: Jay Kravetz / PR Photos

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38 Responses to “Lauren Bacall goes crazy-old-lady on Tom Cruise”

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  1. Orangejulius says:

    Something to look forward to: the liberating glory! There has to be some consolation for going from what she was to what she looks like in that top picture…

  2. Anne says:

    Maybe she sees how his behaviour is like hers was. She knows how messed up it is because she lived it and now has regrets? She’s right about Cruise.

  3. geronimo says:

    “Tom Cruise is a maniac. I can’t understand the way he conducts his life.”

    Crazy old lady or not, difficult to fault her here. 😈

  4. anony says:

    Crabby old people are funny. She makes me laugh and it’s nice having someone who will make balls out incendiary random comments in LA LA land. Please, someone do a reality show with Gary Busey hanging out with Lauren Bacall. They both spew random speeches and shoot from the hip.The two could do an old school Road Rules kind of deal.

    (Just look at ‘My Life With Gary Busey’ clips in You Tube. Utter hilarity.)

  5. lol says:

    people in glass house shouldnt throw stones or whatever

  6. Jinxy says:

    Remind me of what she said that was crazy? She’s exactly right about La Cruise and it’s destroyed his career. Far from using Bogart, they were crazy in love, and I believe she loved Sinatra but he wanted a woman he could beat with no fear of exposure and she wasn’t going to be that woman. Sinatra was truly a dreadful human being. Becall dodged a bullet with that one. I think she’s got a right to voice her opinions if she’s asked questions. Plus she actually knows them.

    I kind of feel she may have illuminated something I had never thought of, which is that he left Nicole for Penny – why either of those women found him attractive is a question for another day.

  7. Yer Mom says:

    Bacall may be cantankerous, but what she said about Cruise is right. Cruise demanded that Scientology tents be set up on the lots of movies he starred in, and that is certainly a case of him using his celebrity status to push his BS religious beliefs off on other people.

  8. Zoe says:

    Good points Jinxy, especially about Sinatra wanting a woman who would keep her mouth shut.

    Let’s just hope she doesn’t “slip” in the shower over this. COS = 👿

  9. anony says:

    Jinxy- Sinatra was a beater (I know little about him..) really? did Bacall spill that little detail? Good for her then!

  10. Cinderella says:

    Lauren would be fun to have at parties. Keep telling it, Ms. Bacall.

  11. vdantev says:

    I love curmudgeons !! 😆 She’s got more street cred in her little finger than Tiny Tom does in his entire body.

  12. blackdahlia says:

    I think she has a right to speak about that looney tunes. She has been in the biz for so long. From age 19 to now. Maybe Tom should listen to her advice.

  13. Codzilla says:

    “Tom had taken off for Penelope Cruz or some goddamn thing …”

    Ha! Lauren’s speaking my language.

  14. Antlers says:

    She sympathizes with Nicole because both of them got famous for banging actors. And both deep down know that they are really glorified models. Without Tom Cruise no one would have ever heard of Nicole Kidman. He is crazy but has talent. She is equally crazy but does not.

  15. Bodhi says:

    I LOVE this woman! I think she is one of the coolest people ever in Hollywood.

    Plus she is 100% right about TinyTom…

  16. anony says:

    Codzilla- that one sentence stood out to me too. MAde me laugh. SO dismissive and perfect. Or some goddamned thing… she has a way with words. She WOULD be great to have at a party, ha,

  17. Bodhi says:

    My fiance (for the next 24 days!) LOVES Bogey & after seeing Key Largo for the first time, I told him that we could name a little girl Lauren Bacall [last name] if he really wanted to! 😆

  18. LucieHenriette says:

    Yeah, she’s turning into a Candi Spelling. Next thing you know, Bacall will be publishing letters criticizing Joe Francis! Lauren, Bogey was married when you started your affair with him, so you’re really not one to accuse others of vulgarity…

  19. Syko says:

    Candi Spelling doesn’t come anywhere CLOSE to Bacall. This lady is a legend.

    Being old really IS liberating. I’m loving it. I used to be rude, now I’m a curmudgeon. It’s a great relief.

    I don’t suck in my tummy any more either.

    Next thing you know, I’ll be farting in public.

  20. Bodhi says:

    Woot! Hear hear Syko!

    I was trying to come up with something to respond with, but as always, true wisdom comes from those in the know 😀

    You remind me so much of my favy aunt. It makes me so happy! 😀

  21. Gossipgrrl says:

    that’s quite an intense flood of insults.i am with her though, mostly because i am sad that tom went psycho, when i loved him so much!

  22. snappyfish says:

    I love Bacall….and God was she gorgeous when she was young.

    I think the little old lady ‘tell it like it is’ is fabulous. Something to look forward to.

  23. gg says:

    @ anony: LOL! And Ted Nugent and Bill Maher.

  24. kate says:

    i can’t wait to be old lady crazy. maybe i’ll start practicing now.

  25. me says:

    Regardless of whether she’s right or not, isn’t it just as ‘vulgar’ to slag off a fellow actor to the media? I think she’s a grumpy old bitch who should shut the hell up frankly.

  26. cara says:

    Me too Kate, me too, goddamnit!

  27. JaundiceMachine says:

    Love your points, Jinx.

  28. caribassett says:

    I love Lauren Bacall, she is darling.

  29. breederina says:

    Bogie was married to Mayo Methot his third wife when he and Bacall met. He and Methot were known as the Battling Bogarts so no surprise he and Bacall married ten days after his divorce from Methot was final.
    I love the crazy old squid biddy raves she throws. Dang, if you can’t pronounce on the world at 84 when can you ?

  30. Vern says:

    Love Miss Bacall!
    She has always had balls, she’s not just a cranky old lady.
    I wish more people had the balls to say what they mean gosh darn it, and not just spit out gee whiz crap they think Joe sixpack wants to hear.

  31. Tess says:

    Comparing Bacall with Candi Spelling is like comparing Bogie with Aaron Spelling. No disrepect intended…but please.

  32. daisy424 says:

    Syko 😉
    I’m like that too, get off my lawn, the ball’s mine now, too late about the farting though 😯

  33. Kat says:

    She’s got that right. Such a good mind at age 84.

  34. drm says:

    Hey Antlers have you ever seen a Lauren Bacall movie??? She was unbelievably good. She’s right, TC is an f’ing maniac she just says what many people think and don’t have the balls to say. At 84, with all your marbles, (with a speech like that she isn’t some bat shit crazy old lady…she’s sharp as a tack) you can say what you dang well please.

    Lauren’s life with Humphrey Bogart may be documented in all sorts of songs and what have you but she’s always been pretty circumspect, she has not sought to make a ton of money off of her life with him and she doesn’t deny the affair. Her bio is really good, she had an interesting life including and aside from Bogie.

    AND someone criticized her appearance… if I look as good as she does at 84 I’ll be pretty darn pleased I tell you…GO Ms Bacall

  35. lorna b. says:

    She’s right. Whatever her faults, she’s on the money when it comes to that tool, let’s be honest. I’d hang out with Bacall any day. 8)

  36. syl c. says:

    Ms. Bacall is a legend and a very honest woman. Tom Cruise is a maniac. He has a weird relationship with Katie Holmes, who is in it only for the money, and protect the fact that she was pregnant before she married TC. I don’t feel sorry for her but I do feel sorry for her daughter Suri whom they are using as a PR object.

  37. Monique says:

    I don’t see her comments as “crazy-old-lady” at all. If nothing else, she sounds saner than the best of us.

    Title of this article is either a way to get attention to it or some kind of negative spin from the Cruise camp.

  38. desktop says:

    “When you talk about a great actor, you’re not talking about Tom Cruise.”

    Oh, how true ….