Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of this:
It’s still funny and crazy and everything. And its impact on the career of then the biggest movie star in the world is still a fascinating discussion. But Tom jumping on Oprah’s couch is more than just Classic Gossip. That moment has real historical significance.
It was May 23, 2005. Blogging was not as ubiquitous as it is today. Most of you probably still hadn’t heard of it yet. The first wave of gossip bloggers had been around only about 6 months or so. Two major Hollywood relationships would be monumentally important during our infancies:
Brange, obviously.
And TomKat.
When this couch thing happened? And conventional entertainment outlets couldn’t give it the snark that the situation demanded? Couldn’t ask the questions we were all asking? (WHEN DID TOM CRUISE LOSE HIS MIND WHY IS HE SO F-CKED OMG HIS TEETH WILL HE AND KATIE EVER STOP KISSING?) This rise of the gossip blog quickly accelerated.
And the memes! The creativity! The fun!
Celebrities were not being contained the way they used to be. And the PEOPLE and Entertainment Tonight coverage just wasn’t cutting it anymore. Not when these illusions were so quickly being destroyed. This incident became one of the most critical chapters in the Origin Story of Internet Gossip. We would dedicate a lot of time to this if I were the Dean of the Faculty of Celebrity Studies at a liberal arts college somewhere in New England.
Happy Anniversary, Tom Cruise. And thank you for my career.
Attached - Tom on the set of Mena today with Jesse Plemons.
