• Join Puck

    Directly Supporting Authors

    A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.

    Personalized Subscriptions

    Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.

    Stay in the Know

    Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.

  • What is puck? Newsletters Authors Podcasts Events Gift Puck Careers

The Tom Cruise Oscar Failure

The ‘Top Gun’ star’s absence is part of a larger problem for the Oscars—namely, nobody except Fan Bingbing wants to attend these days unless they’re actively flacking a project. But isn’t Cruise supposed to be the industry’s global ambassador?

Paramount executives, the Academy leadership, and Oscars producers believed until last week that Tom Cruise would attend.
Paramount executives, the Academy leadership, and Oscars producers believed until last week that Tom Cruise would attend. Photo: Clive Mason/Getty Images
Matthew Belloni
March 14, 2023

It’s probably not a great thing for the Academy that the hottest topic at the Governors Ball last night was who wasn’t there. Maybe it’s because the Oscars show, despite a great Jimmy Kimmel monologue, was a relatively low-key and paint-by-numbers affair. But Tom Cruise and, to a lesser extent, Jim Cameron, kept coming up in my chats. And the overwhelming reaction to their conspicuous no-shows was basically a giant, Really?