Tom Cruise has had a weird last couple of years, to say the very least—full of rumors about his affiliations with the Church of Scientology and headlines about his bizarre marriage to and subsequent divorce from Katie Holmes. But this week, on the publicity circuit for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Tom Cruise was irresistible again. Here, three GQ editors discuss.
Ashley Fetters, entertainment editor: Guys, something is different in the world this week. Last week, the air felt different; last week, gravity was different. Last week, Tom Cruise was still kind of a weirdo.
It was just five months ago, after all, when GQ itself wistfully looked back on a time when Tom Cruise was cool—and there was certainly a time, back when the main elements of the Tom Cruise myth were sunglasses and “you complete me,” before Cruise “ascended into the stratosphere ... that day he went on Oprah and announced his newfound obsession with Katie Holmes.”
But this week? This week Tom Cruise is great at lip-syncing and just the right amount of self-aware. This week Tom Cruise is your funny friend with the funny pranks. This week Tom Cruise is getting drooled over by Jon Stewart.
Our colleague Lauren Larson raised the possibility, and now the evidence is mounting: Is this week’s Tom Cruise… cool again?
John Jannuzzi, senior digital editor: Alright, so I may be willing to bite on this theory—and weather anybody who says, “Was he ever not cool?” The only reason being: Fate, or the Tom Cruise-controlled full moon of this week, led me to watch Interview with the Vampire on Netflix this week. And good God, Tom Cruise makes a great heartless, careless, ageless seeker of human blood (Creole in particular, in his case). It almost had me thinking maybe he, in his IRL agelessness, is actually a vampire. But a good one! One who likes to act, and lip sync, and prank. Though I have no true authority on the occult, it did make me remember the greatness that was, and perhaps is again, Tom Cruise.
But it’s so hard sometimes—because you remember the couch, and you remember that crazy documentary about Scientology, and you wonder… did they let him out? Is he free of the bondage of Scientology?
Chris Gayomali, news and culture editor: I mean, it’s possible! Then again, there were all those reports suggesting that Cruise’s team of handlers explicitly forbade the media from asking Scientology questions. (It’s why the Stewart interview was, like, all softballs.) Whatever image rehabilitation plan they had in being executed flawlessly. It’s crazy. Or maybe Scientology is real and Cruise reached the highest level and exorcised all the mini spirits in his person that were filling him with bad juju.
Fetters: Whatever his PR team’s been up to, it’s working. I can attest that I am alarmed at the extent to which I suddenly love Tom Cruise. Especially when just a few years ago, at the ripest point of the Katie Holmes divorce storyline, damning allegations seemed to be emerging left and right about all the [strange, even semi-sinister stuff] (http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2012/10/katie-holmes-divorce-scientology) Cruise was up to within the confines of Scientology. Now, nobody’s even asking.
It's like the latest incarnation of Tom Cruise is this hilarious, awesome Cool Dad™, who’s, like, maybe into some stuff, and for better or for worse, you know better than to ask him about it straightaway. (Except that, you know, this isn't really even your average weirdo dads-with-secrets stuff—it's a strong link to an organization accused of some pretty serious human rights abuses.)
Jannuzzi: You guys think Suri is behind all of this?
Gayomali: Yes. [Googles “Suri Cruise”] Dang, she looks like a mini Katie Holmes now. But to your point, Ashley: Considering how massively successful Going Clear became without pulling punches, it is weird that the Cruise machine is humming along so efficiently. Then again, the church is pretty loaded, right? I'm far from the first to suggest it, but: Maybe they’re the ones in [puts on Top Gun-style aviators] Cruise Control.