Some critics, newspaper columnists and non-fans think actor Tom Cruise is all wet — but at the London debut of his new click “War of the Worlds” that became reality when a phony reporter squirted him in the face.
The four culprits involved were working on a new comedy show for Britain’s Channel 4, but now they have a bit more more than work on their plate: they were arrested and released on bond, but will have to return to the police early next week. They may be charged with assault. The AP reports:
The actor was outside a movie theater in central London’s Leicester Square on Sunday doing press interviews when a man squirted him with a water pistol disguised as a microphone, London’s Metropolitan Police said.
Cruise initially appeared to laugh at the incident but then asked the prankster: “Why would you do that?�
As the man gave a barely audible excuse, Cruise said: “Do you like thinking less of people, is that it?â€? The prankster tried to walk away but Cruise reached across the metal barrier, held his arm and said: “Don’t run away. That’s incredibly rude. I’m here giving you an interview and you do that … it’s incredibly rude.â€?
The actor grew increasingly irritated and told the man: “You’re a jerk.� Footage of the incident appeared on Sky News TV on Monday.
Meanwhile, Channel 4 has issued an apology, the Guardian reports:
“The stunt was intended to be light-hearted rather than malicious and we would apologise to Mr Cruise for any offence that was caused,” Channel 4 said in a statement.
“The incident that took place on Sunday evening involving Tom Cruise was for a new Channel 4 entertainment show, part of which involves playing light-hearted comedy pranks on celebrities and members of the public.”
Although the incident, which left an angry Cruise repeatedly calling his unidentified assailant a “jerk”, has been shown around the world, Channel 4 said it might never screen it.
“The tape is with the police,” a network spokesman said. “No decision has been made whether it will air.”
One commentator likened the incident to “happy slapping for grown-ups”, referring to the controversial practice of youths assaulting people and filming the violence on their mobile phone cameras.
The Channel 4 programme, believed to have the working title Grand Classics, targeted Sharon Osbourne last month.
A cameraman squirted the reality TV star with water in the West End in London after pretending to film her.
In contrast to Cruise, Osbourne, 52, filled a champagne bucket with water and threw it over the cameraman.
Fair enough. But Sharon Osbourne is a different kind of entertainer. Cruise is a more traditional type of celebrity.
The parallel for Americans is the recent wave of pie-in-the-face assaults on politicians and politically-related figures, mostly conservatives, on college campuses. If you’re a Three Stooges fan like TMV, it’s great fun to watch this kind of thing WHEN THE STOOGES DO IT on film…in a comedy…in a make-believe setting.
But if a public figure — no matter what his views or status — is showing up in a good-faith appearance to speak, meet fans or do interviews and gets a pie or water hurled in his/her face, in the real world it then becomes a form of assault. And that’s just the legal aspect of this. You could dismiss this as inconsequential, but it does reflect a trend in plummeting values.
Transfer throwing pies and squirting people into a reality show and what is really being sought by the show producers in terms of entertainment? It’s to get the target figure angry or flustered then record and broadcast the reaction. Rather than think of a clever stunt (a la Candid Camera, SPY TV or Punked) the subject is merely physically attacked without any lasting damage, then his/her reaction becomes the entertainment.
Whether you’re a Cruise fan or not, Cruise’s comments to his squirter are 100 percent on the mark. It wasn’t funny, Cruise WAS nice enough to give an interview, and he WAS assaulted by a jerk.
Add this, Cruise’s hyped up engagement, his I-desperately-need-Ritalin performance on Oprah, his unsolicited advice to Brook Shields and Cruise has certainly has seen himself and his movie thrust finger-like into the public eye.
Now there’s the teenie-weenie question as to whether his performance and the movie are good, what kind of reviews the film gets and what kind of word-of-mouth emerges.
But it would be nice to go a week without seeing a Tom Cruise story, wouldn’t it?
UPDATE: Tom Cruise may press charges.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.