Tom Cruise gave ‘flyboy’ Prince William & Kate a private ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ screening

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had a busy end-of-March by their standards. They spent March 19-26th on the road, for their Colonialist Caribbean Tour, which was a massive catastrophe, and then they returned back to the UK in time to bring two of their kids out to Prince Philip’s memorial service. Where Kate preened and looked unabashedly joyful to be at an emotional memorial service. Not only did all of that happen, but now it looks like Will and Kate also attended a private screening of Top Gun: Maverick. The screening was gifted to Will and Kate by Tom Cruise himself, and several other royals went. How utterly random.

William and Kate were given a world first ­preview of the Top Gun sequel by Tom Cruise — its Hollywood superstar. Tom greeted the royals for the private screening he arranged after learning Wills was a fan of the original.

The Prince, 39, a trained RAF helicopter pilot, and mum-of-three Kate, 40, were joined at the secret viewing of Top Gun: Maverick by Sophie Wessex, 57, and Princesses Eugenie, 32, and Beatrice, 33. It was held at an IMAX cinema off London’s Leicester Square as Tom wanted the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to see the hotly-anticipated release on one of the UK’s biggest screens.

A source said: “It’s a very unlikely movie premiere, but Tom made the offer after learning William is a fan. They happily accepted. Let’s face it, guests don’t get much more A-list! The rest of the cinema was shut to ensure privacy and William, Kate and a few other members of the royal family — plus a couple of very trusted friends — were the first to see it. Tom welcomed them and said he hoped they’d enjoy watching it as much as he’d enjoyed making it, and left them to it. Apparently, it was met with royal approval — not least because William has been a military pilot himself so it’s pretty close to his heart. It’s also a mega-bucks film with some of the most incredible stunts ever performed on camera so it lives up to the hype.”

[From The Sun]

My guess is that the studio arranged all of this and Tom Cruise was told to show up and glad-hand the royals and then the studio leaked the story for promotion. It was especially easy for Tom because I’m pretty sure he’s just based in the UK permanently now. I also wouldn’t put it past Kensington Palace to arrange this with the studio as a special “treat” for the work-shy royals, something nice for them following their horrible tour. Anyway, Top Gun: Maverick looks dreadful.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Instar.

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46 Responses to “Tom Cruise gave ‘flyboy’ Prince William & Kate a private ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ screening”

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  1. Digital Unicorn says:

    ‘See Harry, I know some Hollywood stars too!’.

  2. equality says:

    Is having your name linked with Tom Cruise embiggening?

    • SenseOfTheAbsurd says:

      Not sure which of them should be more embarrassed.

    • Lorelei says:

      When I saw Kaiser’s comment about that, I thought to myself, “It’s the royal family who would have leaked it, not Tom! They needed this made public more than he did!”

      The BRF desperately need some good-to-neutral stories out there amongst all of the scandals, crimes, and embarrassments. Tom’s reputation is far from what it used to be, but even HE isn’t as problematic as Andrew (I don’t think).

      Also LMAO forever at comparing Bill to the military pilots in Top Gun 😭

  3. BlueSky says:

    Hobnobbing with celebrities??? How gauche!! 🙄

  4. Julia K says:

    I’m getting a new, strangely effeminate vibe from Tom Cruises’ new face.

    • SnoodleDumpling says:

      He’s lookin’ a lot more like Ellen DeGeneres these days, I’ll admit.

  5. Judit says:

    OMG those polka dots! My eyes hurt every time I look at that dreadful dress!

    • Mooney says:

      At least it’s small polka dots lol, glad that someone had the common sense to keep them tiny,or keeny would have gone the big ones to ensure complete attention.

  6. Sue E Generis says:

    Ah, so we’re going with W the ‘military man’ now?

    • Sharon says:

      I LOVE how he’s a ‘trained pilot’ and she’s just a ‘Mum of 3’-just normal folks! Can you imagine the howls of outrage if Tom Cruise had given the Sussexes a private viewing? It would be all about the whole ‘rich celebrities’!

  7. ArtHistorian says:

    I despise Tom Cruise.

  8. ThatsNotOkay says:

    Suri turns 16 this year. Bella and Connor have reconnected with Nicole and apparently are closer than they have been in decades. Tom gets Willnot and Cannot—the least mature of the bunch. They deserve each other.

    • Lorelei says:

      For a while, one of the magazines here — I think it was US — had a running tally of how many days had passed since Tom had seen Suri, and the last time I saw it, it was in the hundreds. IDK if they still do it; not as frequently now, because the number has become ridiculous, but maybe on Suri’s birthday or something.

      That entire ‘relationship’ with Katie Holmes is insane and thank goodness her father is a very good attorney.

  9. Mia4s says:

    I always said that regardless of the fact that I can’t stand him I had to give mad props to whatever plastic surgeon Tom Cruise was using for the past few years. The work was very good and quite subtle…

    …yeah well, anyway. That was then. Yikes.

    Age comes for us all Tom. Time to start accepting it while you can still come into it gracefully.

  10. Zut Alors says:

    So Tom has given up on contracted public “romances”?

    • Mia4s says:

      Seems like. My theory is the Vanity Fair exposé kind of shut that all down.

      It was all an ego trip to him. “TOM” couldn’t just date the nice lady he met who worked in the sound department of his last movie, no she’d have to be Jennifer Lawrence level (probably that age range too 🙄). But since most women at that fame level are smart enough to run away, it would have to be someone who would go along with his plan to mold them into the next big thing (see also: Holmes, Katie). And as I say, Vanity Fair kind of shut that down when they published the story on his girlfriend auditions. So he’s a bit stuck.

      I am kind of surprised they haven’t gone the “nice lady from the sound department” route at this point. The fans he still has would eat that up. Has to be an ego thing.

      • Maida says:

        I also think this is greatly complicated by his loyalty to Scientology. I can never view Cruise, or other celebrities who follow Scientology, in the same way after watching Leah Remini’s show.

    • pocket litter says:

      I agree with @MAIDA!

  11. Scorpion says:

    Now I thought family must be put above everything!

    This is a man who has walked away from his daughter because of his lil cult telling him to…

    I hope it bombs!

  12. OriginalKeri says:

    So a Scientologist overlord who likes to abuse his power and uses modern day slave labor from the victims in his cult is making friends with Dim and Dimmer, who have showed us in the past couple weeks that they would like to return to the glory days of racism, slavery, and colonialism. Talk about birds of a feather. And these two are still too stupid to see how this would look? Oooh look, it’s shiny and Hollywood! Take that Harry and Meghan!

    • equality says:

      Well, Scientology cult and RF cult may have something in common.

      • Feeshalori says:

        Birds of a feather flock together, so this isn’t at all surprising. The thirst is obvious with the Cambridges and of course the Sussexes would have been dragged for this. But this was a private screening, better yet, so wow, that must make the Cambridges feel real goo.

      • Feeshalori says:

        Edit: good, but I’m sure they felt so gooey inside over special treatment lol.

    • Christine says:

      OriginalKeri, EXACTLY! Fucking hell, it’s all a barrel of idiots.

  13. equality says:

    I wonder what’s up with inviting B&E to more things than they previously seemed to. Is that to try to show PH that all the cousins are on PW’s “side”? Have they been told to all put on a family front by BP? Are B&E being blackmailed or voluntarily getting deeper into the family cult? How come Zara and Peter didn’t score an invite?

    • Lorelei says:

      @Equality, IDK, but PLEASE, someone leak a photo of W&K with Tom. They are both on the tall side and he’s mini*, so he’d need some hardcore lifts in his shoes for that particular photo op and I would freaking love to see it.

      How are there never any employees surreptitiously taking pics of the royals in the wild and leaking them? It’s so easy now with iPhones.

      *Not making fun of short men! Making fun of Tom Cruise specifically because he’s an asshole.

  14. Nic919 says:

    The hypocrisy with the UK media toward these two is so astounding.

    Hollywood used to be an insult but I guess not for the white royals?

  15. Lila says:

    I’d love to know how Kate theme dressed that event!

  16. Becks1 says:

    this is such a weird story. I agree that the studio told Tom to show up but I also think the royals requested this. This seems like a random thing for the studio to offer just bc William used to fly helicopters. And a place like BP doesn’t have a private theater/screening room?

    What would make more sense would be to have the royals show up at a premiere or special screening for it as part of a fundraiser for a military charity or something.

    • Eurydice says:

      Yes, I was going to say this – isn’t he patron of the London air ambulance service or something? he could have had a fundraiser. But that would take work and would mean giving instead of taking.

  17. Mskove says:

    This is the kind of king Bill wants to be. The name dropper. Getting special treatment and bragging about it. Doing little to no work. Oh yeah, and constantly reminding people he’s a military pilot. Yawn.

    • Lorelei says:

      I JUST remembered that he told the bobsled team that his favorite movie is “Cool Runnings” 😂

  18. Amy Bee says:

    I thought Hollywood was beneath royalty.

  19. Cait says:

    I’m the daughter of a fighter pilot (who earned a Silver Star in combat), and I grew up a few minutes away from NAS Pensacola. I cannot tell you how much my father LOATHED Top Gun, to the point that I – in his absence, as he passed away 15 years ago – was able to pick apart the sequel trailer like a cranky old pilot.

  20. TheOriginalMia says:

    Who wrote this release? Might as well ‘shop William in the cockpit with Cruise at this point. Two Mavericks saving lives and kicking ass at Mach 1 speed.

  21. Eggbert says:

    My first thought was “pathetic.”

  22. kirk says:

    “…I’m pretty sure he’s just based in the UK permanently now.”
    Interesting, given the history of Scientology in U.K. Does this mean he won’t be attending intensive auditing sessions with David Miscavage or other higher-up?

  23. Jaded says:

    Apparently Cruise moved into a UK Scientology mansion a few years ago, Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, where L. Ron Hubbard lived for many years. Co$ has a fairly small membership in the UK — roughly only 2,000 more or less identifying as Scientologists, and after many years they’re still struggling to gain a toehold there. A number of Scientology-owned properties in the UK are falling into disrepair and appear to be abandoned, for which they are facing “blight” claims, and city councils want to take the properties back into the public domain. The sooner that ship goes down the better. I still shake my head that they were given church status to avoid paying taxes.

    • Lorelei says:

      @Jaded, really? I had no idea $cientology had any presence at all in the UK. Huh, that’s interesting. No idea why, but I always assumed it was a uniquely American cult.

  24. scicrit says:

    Saint Hill is actually a Scientology headquarters, bought by the founder (L Ron Hubbard) who was subsequently refused re-entry to the UK as (ironically) an undesirable alien.

    It has apartments, but TC is very unlikely to be living there, not least because he would have been spotted before now, going in and out.