Tom Cruise’s press stipulations include no dating questions or Scientology talk

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise has been everywhere this week to promote today’s release of Mission: Impossible 5 – Ghost Protocol. I’ve tried to bite my tongue, but it’s not working. The media’s kid-glove treatment of Tom is pretty bizarre. All the focus is on Tom’s hollow smile and crazy stunts. All Teflon Tom has to do to make people forget about the Going Clear documentary is wave and laugh maniacally. No one cares about Katie Holmes’ burner phones or the way he abused Scientology staff members. Not even the recent story of how Tom banished his 14-year-old niece was picked up by the mainstream media.

So it’s not surprising that everyone forgot about the wife audition (and scary tooth-filing) story. All of the documented slave labor gifts don’t matter either. All that anyone notices is how awesome Tom’s stunts are, and what a “nice” guy he is to the press.

It turns out Tom’s team put some strict limitations on this press tour:

Tom Cruise’s publicity team has forbidden news outlets from asking questions about his personal life and Scientology during his worldwide promotional tour for Mission: Impossible 5, an individual with knowledge of the tour told TheWrap.

Cruise’s camp enforced a strict “no personal questions” caveat for access to the star, the individual said.

The ban included any mention of HBO’s explosive Scientology documentary Going Clear, as well as tabloid reports that Cruise was dating his assistant.

[From The Wrap]

The “dating life” restrictions are understandable because they’re both embarrassing and not true. The Scientology stuff is also embarrassing but very true, and I do see why Tom didn’t want to shout “glib” at anyone again. Yet the media went into such a frenzy over Going Clear; so it’s hard to believe all outlets caved for Tom’s smile. Even Jon Stewart soft-balled his interview with the Cruise. Disappointing.

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN

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39 Responses to “Tom Cruise’s press stipulations include no dating questions or Scientology talk”

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  1. Sumodo1 says:

    Maybe that crackerjack news team from Sacramento can get something out of Tommy boy?

  2. Twinkle says:

    So what could you talk to him about? Besides, obviously, his ‘projects’ … he just seems so dull …

    • Maum says:

      One word.

      Stunts.

    • Eleonor says:

      His skin routine. I want to know if it’s the crazyness or some special Xenu-moisture.

    • Anne tommy says:

      Dating and Scientology are the only two vaguely interesting things about this tedious guy.

      • carol says:

        LOL! Actually I don’t even care who this balloon animal is dating. I want him to talk about Scientology and all that crazy stuff about psychiatry being the product of the Nazis. And that taking poisioness amounts of Niacin is actually good for you. Why are people blocking him from truly expressing his craziness and my entertainment

      • msw says:

        I have to say, I find him fascinating, but not really in a good way. He seems to have some issues, and he tries to hide them with maniacal laughter and a glamorous lifestyle, but I sense a lonely and damaged person under all that ego.

  3. karen2 says:

    …btw its Rogue Nation…very enjoyable as a spy drama…not a patch on Ghost Protocols visuals though…his nose …?

  4. boredblond says:

    I don’t think this is so unusual..before going on a talk show every celeb, or their people, go over questions and topics with program staff..there really are no surprises

  5. MonicaQ says:

    I’m not surprised. They can’t open with , “Well Tom, you’ve been a busy man this year–Mission Impossible, not seeing your daughter, lining up another drone to not have sex with, and being part of a cult that causes irreparable harm to people but brands itself as being a church. How do you unwind after a long day of filming?”

  6. LAK says:

    He has just gone back to the strategy that Pat Kingsley devised for him when she repped him 80s/90s. No personal questions though he would show up at the premieres all over Nicole Kidman. Visuals saying 1000 words and all that, but he wouldn’t answer personal questions.

    The irony is that he fired her because he *wanted* to talk about CO$ and we all know how it ended once he started answering personal questions and talking about CO$.

    • kri says:

      Wow. Anyone read Lainey’s gush piece about him? She was utterly thrilled that he was so polite and patient. Tom knows he’s a Danger Girl, and he is really trying to come across as normal. As long as he is talking about work, he seems almost normal. But it seems like I cannot stop seeing the crazy with him.

      • Jenns says:

        I was cringing reading that. Lainey should know that she’s being played. **Of course** he’s going to act nice with everyone, because he wants everyone to think he’s a nice guy.

        But let’s not forget that this is the same guy who 1. Helped alienate his own children against their mother 2. Benefits from slave labor by people who are forced to live in deplorable conditions 3. Tattled on every little thing his girlfriend did so his Scientology henchmen would punish her, and even had her teeth filed down to his liking. 4. Continues to be best friends with a man who is a violent psychopath who runs a cult.

        But it’s ok because he waited like 5 minutes for her cameraman to get his sh*t together.

      • MoxyLady007 says:

        He’s an actor. of course he can act nice when millions are on the line. Ugh. Pissed at Lainey now.

    • Kiddo says:

      I seem to recall that too, LAK.

    • Alex says:

      I was coming here to say the same thing. Tom went off the rails when he fired his original publicist that managed to keep his crazy under a tight lid. That’s when everything went to hell in the early ’00. He’s going back to that formula. I want to say Jezebel or buzzfeed may have had an article outlining this very fact yesterday

  7. Angie says:

    Can we talk about that crazy couch humping episode while on the Opera set?? Ooohhhhhh please, lets!!! It was just magical………………………………….

  8. Dash says:

    No personal questions is pretty standard for movie junkets. You have to be a really big name (Ellen, Ryan Seacrest) to be allowed to ask some approved relationship questions. That’s why everyone tries to do crazy stunts in their interviews, otherwise they are so boring.

  9. SnarkGirl says:

    It’s all about the money. The press is instructed to handle him gently because he’s still a cash cow.

  10. Diane says:

    Buy a ticket … put money in the CO$ coffers.

  11. Insomniac says:

    Yeah, whatever. As long as he’s a part of the Co$, he’s not a good guy. I don’t care how big his smiles are.

  12. mytbean says:

    To ask Tom the really interesting questions would be like cornering a mobster’s favorite son. Scientology has henchmen and spies embedded in all the sensitive places both in Hollywood and the IRS and security. I think, even if it’s not truly so saturated with Sci nuts, It’s like Tyler Durden’s space monkies – you never know. One could be making your soup in the kitchen or driving your cab or delivering your mail.

    I think most media sources don’t feel it’s worth the risk to poke the bear with Cruise. Law suits are the least of their concerns.

    • Petrichor says:

      I just had to reply to applaud the Fight Club reference. Love that book, and haven’t read it for a while. Maybe it’s time to dig it out…

  13. feebee says:

    I’m sort of relieved to hear this because after watching Jon Stewart’s interview with him I had ill thoughts of Stewart. Seriously it was all age, stunts and hair comments when they did actually talk in between a lot of fake laughing behind a half closed hand.

  14. LuluPolly says:

    It’s not Ghost Protocol. It’s something else. Ghost Protocol was the last one.
    I think Tom Cruise is probably a weirdo IRL but I still love watching him in movies. He’s a true movie star.

    • Alex says:

      rogue nation

    • Of course, the money from movie tickets goes right into Davy Miscavige greedy little paws. In other words, you and all the others who believe that Cruise’s movies should be separate from his many abuses in that lurid cult are helping to keep Scientology working.

  15. FreeBird says:

    For all of the reasons Jenns outlines, and more (such as his likely disconnection from his daughter), you could not pay me cash money to watch this man in a movie. Feel the same way about giving $$ to Woody Allen or Roman Polanski, although obviously their lack of character is of a different kind. I get some people like Terrific Tom the Big Bean as a movie star, but I guess I don’t need entertainment that much to hold my nose and watch anything with him in it.

    That, and the fact the TOOF in the middle of his smile is off-putting and Cannot Be Unseen.

  16. Emma33 says:

    Anyone here read “Movie STar by Lizzy Pepper”? I just finished listening to it on audio and it’s a good read. It’s a novel that is not-so-loosely based on Tomkat’s marriage; the writer (who is a bit of a Hollywood insider) just changed a few details, presumably so she wouldn’t get sued.

    It actually gave me a good feel for what Katie must have gone through.

    • Petrichor says:

      Funny that you mention it. I just heard the author interviewed on CBC radio the other day and thought it definitely sounded like Scientology, just from the way she was describing the characters.

      Hilary Liftin isn’t just an “insider,” she’s a ghostwriter and has done the memoirs of Miley Cyrus and all of Tori Spelling’s books, by the looks of it (among others). Needless to say, I was intrigued by the end of the interview. I’m sure she’s heard a lot of Hollywood dirt!

  17. Me too says:

    Maybe he wants focus on his craft and not his personal life. Can’t really hate anyone for that. We can’t deny he is a good and charismatic actor.

  18. Nibbi says:

    but… without questions about his crazy love life or his crazy religion, what the hell else is there to talk about ???
    except yah, what he did to his face / what the name of his doc is, because he does look amazing.
    also, what’s up with his shoes.
    so those are hopefully passable questions….