Inside Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg's 20-YEAR FEUD that ended at Oscar nominees luncheon
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA: The video of Steven Spielberg praising Tom Cruise for reviving the theatrical industry with the release of his blockbuster movie ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and embracing the actor has gone viral and has now brought to light their longtime feud. The filmmaker and legendary action star have apparently been beefing for almost 20 years, going all the way back to their time as co-workers on the 2005 movie ‘War of The Worlds'. The pair had already worked together on the film ‘Minority Report’ in 2002.
The feud had apparently began when the actor had taken to (what is now infamously known as) couch-jumping on an episode of Oprah Winfrey’s talk show and going on and on about his romance with actress Katie Holmes- Holmes and Cruise married in 2006 and divorced in 2012. ‘War of the Worlds’ was a commercial success, but Spielberg is apparently of the opinion that the couch-jumping incident had cost the movie a further $30 million in box office revenue. What made the bitterness worse was Cruise going on to blast actress Brooke Shields for taking antidepressants, leading to a feud between the Hollywood icons for almost two decades.
READ MORE
Cruise’s infamous couch-jumping incident
When he had appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show in the summer of 2005, it had been made evident that Cruise promotions for ‘War of the Worlds’ had been overshadowed by his enthusiastic romance with then girlfriend Holmes and his Scientology pursuits. Cruise was supposed to promote his movie on the show with the TV legend, but had instead leaped on to the couch with a renewed fervor and let the world know about his love for Holmes instead when Winfrey had asked him about one of their public appearances together.
“I’m in love!” the actor had said according to Daily Mail, as he continued to expertly deflect any question about the movie at all. He appeared to be quite energetic as he bounced up and down on the couch and continued to do so when asked about the movie, leading to Winfrey deeming that he was “gone.” Cruise then went on to shake Winfrey as he said, “Yes, we’re talking about War of the Worlds.” It was safe to say that very little conversation was had about the movie itself.
The breakdown of Spielberg and Cruise’s relationship was only further accelerated by the fact that Cruise had went on to slam actress Brooke Shields for using antidepressants to combat her postpartum depression- something that the Church of Scientology does not condone.
‘Saved Hollywood’s a**’
Steven Spielberg tells Tom Cruise that “you saved Hollywood’s ass and you might have saved theatrical distribution. Seriously, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ might have saved the entire theatrical industry.” pic.twitter.com/nPWR5BqiUV
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) February 14, 2023
Their longstanding feud seems to have come to an end now though, what with the video of Spielberg and Cruise being absolute gentlemen to each other now going viral and making fans happy. In the video, Spielberg is seen thanking Cruise for "saving Hollywood’s a**" and for saving “the entire theatrical industry.”