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• The Couch Jump That Rocked Hollywood

Tom Cruise’s 2005 appearance on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ was an iconic episode of television—and a turning point for how we discuss and understand celebrities

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In the spring of 2005, an unknown 20-something in California uploaded a 19-second video of himself to the internet. “Me at the zoo,” the first YouTube video, featured cofounder Jawed Karim rambling about animals. “The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long trunks,” a man said, gesturing toward an elephant enclosure. It was boring, but it was the beginning of something.

That same spring, Karim’s YouTube quickly found one of its first hits. Its origins were far less obscure than a tech guy on a field trip. At the time, Tom Cruise had a more-than-reasonable claim to the title of biggest celebrity in America. He was the movie star, a leading man with mom-approved handsomeness, a nimble physicality, and a gung-ho intensity that played on the big screen as magnetic instead of disturbed. He counted Top Gun , Jerry Maguire , and two Mission: Impossible movies among the idol-making roles under his small belt. Meanwhile, Oprah Winfrey had already established herself as not only the biggest celebrity on daytime television, but the biggest celebrity in media. She’d made the careers of Drs. Phil and Oz. She’d debuted O, the Oprah Magazine . She’d hollered “You get a car!” to a euphoric crowd. Cruise’s May 2005 interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show seemed destined to be yet another fluffy meeting of monstrously famous minds. Instead, traditional media’s powerhouse duo was about to provide the new video-uploading service with a clip that would demonstrate the format’s growth potential far better than a rinky-dink recording of a random dude musing about zoos.

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Before Cruise came out on stage that day, the crowd at Chicago’s Harpo Studios had already hyped itself into an ecstatic frenzy, whooping and clapping and jumping in overwhelmed pleasure at being in the presence of Winfrey, in her space, living their best lives. By 2005, Oprah had transformed her daytime talk show from a variation on Phil Donahue’s talk theme into something new, something that took the voyeuristic thrills of seeing televised confessions and elevated them with the language of self-help seminars and the polish of Hollywood. “Oprah is sitting in the throne of American pop culture,” said WBEZ anchor Jenn White on the podcast Making Oprah , describing Oprah’s cultural cachet in the early aughts. “She commands a regular worldwide audience of tens of millions. She can turn a book into a bestseller, a product into a trend, and people into stars.” At that point, Christianity Today had identified Oprah as “one of the most influential spiritual leaders in America.” Her audiences resembled gaga congregants.

Cruise was in Chicago to talk about his upcoming movie, Steven Spielberg’s remake of War of the Worlds . Instead of sticking to the promotional script, though, the compact action star gushed about his new girlfriend, actress Katie Holmes. “You’re gone,” Oprah said, searching for words to describe Cruise’s over-the-top infatuation. Within 15 minutes, Cruise had leapt onto Oprah’s couch in a spontaneous outburst of enthusiasm for his personal life. Cruise’s offbeat showboating was memorable in part because of its unusual setting; The Oprah Winfrey Show was where celebrities traipsed to shine up their reputations and get a warm embrace from a sympathetic fellow star. Oprah would polish, not grill. But Oprah, usually so masterful at empathizing with her guests, appeared to be at a loss. “You’re gone,” she repeated. The charismatic preacher had been sidelined by an even more earnest proselytizer.

People hated it. More importantly, they loved to hate it. Most importantly, they loved to talk about hating it. Divorced from its context and remixed into YouTube clips and GIFs, Cruise’s couch outburst looked far more bizarre than it had during the episode, when at least the studio audience had been equally hyped up and Oprah had encouraged him to talk about his personal life. Within the context of the episode, Cruise’s behavior was strange but not outrageous. On the internet, isolated and amplified into a single furniture-leaping moment, it looked like an A-list meltdown . The most popular spoof was called “Tom Cruise Kills Oprah,” where Cruise appeared to kill Oprah with lightning. Family Guy parodied it. Even Sesame Street eventually parodied it. But the couch clip went beyond launching parodies and viral videos. The response to the Cruise episode signaled a changing of the guard in Hollywood media, from a pecking order where publicists and studios could strike deals with access-hungry press toward a more democratic and chaotic media landscape. Even though Cruise had been in a terrific mood during his Oprah appearance, it was appropriate that his tomfoolery was reframed to look far more aggressive than it was. The internet and the media were about to get much sharper.

“Tom’s couch-jumping coincided with the rise of gossip blogs,” Matt James, who runs the celebrity gossip site Pop Culture Died in 2009, told The Ringer . “The entire incident became a testament to the way public opinion could form online in the pre-Twitter era, and how damaging it could be in the long run.”

Longtime Hollywood gossip blog Lainey Gossip also credited Cruise’s leap onto Oprah’s couch with galvanizing the media landscape. “This rise of the gossip blog quickly accelerated,” site creator Elaine Lui wrote in 2015. “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.” The intense online response to Cruise’s convention-breaking presaged a shift in how celebrity freakouts were covered, as it was one of the first major entertainment-world meltdowns to saturate the blogging world. “There was something so personal, so oversharey, so necessarily engaged with the audience in Cruise’s couch-jumping that it set the tone for the kind of one-person media circus we’d expect and enjoy in the years to come, to varying degrees of sadness (Britney Spears), amazement (Charlie Sheen) and despicableness (Chris Brown),” Gawker ’s Rich Juzwiak wrote in 2012. While the word “meme” hadn’t yet entered the mainstream lexicon, Cruise’s furniture leap went viral. “Culturally, it was, in my mind, one of the first celebrity memes,” Brandon Ogborn, the writer behind The TomKat Project , an excellent play examining Tom Cruise’s reputation, told The Ringer . “That clip was reenacted so many times. It was kind of a watershed moment for internet culture.”

Along with memes came a cascade of internet commentary on Cruise’s behavior, most of it overwhelmingly negative. While Oprah’s studio audience had been pleased with his effusiveness, the story line soured in the digital world. “Now, whenever something happens in the news, we can go online and quickly find the tide in which public opinion is turning. In the early days of the internet, it wasn’t that distinct,” James said. “That changed with Tom. The people who watched Tom’s appearance and felt it was maybe even the slightest bit heartwarming went online to find that the majority opinion was Tom had lost his mind.”

It was an exciting time for bloggers, and terrible timing for Cruise. He had fired his longtime publicist, Pat Kingsley, in March 2004. Kingsley was a powerhouse with a viselike grip on the dicks of traditional outlets. “She was adamant about keeping Cruise out of the tabloids. At press junkets, she demanded that journalists sign contracts swearing not to sell their quotes to the supermarket rags,” film critic Amy Nicholson wrote for LA Weekly in 2014, arguing that internet culture was to blame for Cruise’s fall from grace. “Then Kingsley expanded her reach and insisted that all TV interviewers destroy their tapes after his segment had aired.” Without Kingsley, Cruise didn’t have his usual PR fixer at hand to tell him what not to do, to tell him how to course-correct once the backlash began, or to tell the press to lay off. Instead, Cruise had replaced the flinty Kingsley with his sister, Lee Anne DeVette, a fellow Scientologist. The public reaction to his romance with Holmes was no good even before The Incident. According to a People poll, the majority of respondents saw the relationship as a publicity stunt . “We can’t get enough of the TomKat show because eventually the paint will start to chip and we will hopefully see all the ugliness as openly as we’ve been shoved the lovey-dovey bullshit,” Perez Hilton wrote. Cruise’s past habit of keeping his private life to himself and manicuring his public image had given him an idyllic but distinctly artificial sheen, one that may have counterintuitively exacerbated the response when he finally stepped out of line. “He had never done anything publicly wrong before,” Nicholson told The Ringer . “He’d always been so perfect.” Cruise’s over-the-top display of hyper-public affection, possibly made more intense by his desire to prove that his love was real, backfired. Instead of making people think he was a romantic, Cruise just made people think he was weird.

He quickly got weirder, and darker. Shortly after his couch leap, Cruise started a feud with Brooke Shields by dismissing her experience with postpartum depression. He went on Today to go even further, insisting that psychiatry and psychiatric medicine were dangerous. While Cruise was a longtime Scientologist, he had never openly advocated for the abusive group’s more controversial beliefs so publicly before. “It was a time when he really just let himself go, and let his freak flag fly. And it was also a time when he was really proselytizing for Scientology. I think it was a huge explosion of press that was bad press, because the Tom Cruise machine just stopped,” Ogborn said. “He said, This is who I am, I’m going to jump on that couch, I’m going to tell Matt Lauer he’s glib. ”

In less than a year, Cruise contorted his reputation from a hard-working, eccentric leading man into Hollywood’s premiere guileless kook. “Cruise: I will eat the placenta,” a 2006 Daily Mail headline , is a good example of the sort of news he generated. When California banned the sale of ultrasounds for personal use that year, it was known as the “Tom Cruise law” because Cruise had publicly purchased an ultrasound machine to view his daughter in the womb. South Park went for the jugular, as expected, but ridicule came from all over. Noah Baumbach wrote a New Yorker piece where the joke was that his dog was stupid and enthusiastic … just like Tom Cruise. Even Lauren Bacall dissed him to reporters. People still showed up for Cruise movies. War of the Worlds had a huge opening , but studios feared that Cruise’s bankability was tainted after Mission: Impossible III made nearly $150 million less worldwide than its predecessor. Cruise’s reputation was undeniably threatened. His Q rating, used to measure celebrity appeal, dropped 40 percent. “From that point on, we all accepted Tom Cruise was crazy,” James said. “It was a done deal.”

Cruise’s uninhibited media blunder bender cost him a lucrative, long-term production deal with Paramount. His behavior was blamed for the deal’s destruction. “His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount,” Viacom chairman Sumner M. Redstone told The Wall Street Journal . The Oprah Winfrey Show , meanwhile, continued on as an unstoppable cultural force. From all accounts, as much as the couch-jumping episode yoked Oprah and Cruise together for eternity as a punch line, it also ruffled feathers at Harpo. “She was not invited to his wedding, and he was not invited for a very long time to come interview with her,” Ogborn pointed out, noting that Harpo employees would frequently come talk to him after the Chicago run of The TomKat Project to discuss that period of time. “They said she was fucking pissed when it happened.”

Regardless of Oprah’s personal opinion of Cruise’s behavior, the interview didn’t hurt her professionally. A mock set from the show is now on display in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture as part of an exhibit on Winfrey. There was no lasting damage to her legacy. (Curators declined to comment on the role of the interview in her cultural history.) If anything, the couch-jumping episode only provided a bolstering example of Oprah presiding over must-watch TV. The show’s guiding ethos focused on going big and doing the best, resulting in ever-more-elaborate gift giveaways and surprises for the audience. While Cruise’s antics might have thrown off the dynamic between guest and host that Oprah preferred, his interview ultimately fit the bill for the gripping, unexpected, and wholly memorable. “Tom’s televised freakout was just another notch in her belt,” James said. Talk-show hosts now manufacture segments specifically to do well on YouTube and other online platforms, but it was Oprah who generated the first viral talk-show clip.

The incident certainly did not kill Cruise’s career, either. In 2008, his comic turn in Tropic Thunder helped undercut his reputation for unrelenting self-seriousness. (The same year, Cruise reunited with Oprah for a much calmer interview.) Cruise maintained his career throughout his reputational turmoil by sticking with Mission: Impossible and thematically similar films. “He’s always done such great work with this franchise, but he’s almost clinging to it nervously, like he’s afraid to let go and take a real risk,” Nicholson said. “He’ll take risks inside the film with stunts, but he’s not taking risks inside his own career, like doing the dramatic work that marked a lot of what he did in the ’80s, or by chasing an Oscar, which is something he gave up on.” Although he never quite regained his status as a Hollywood golden boy, he has mellowed into an aging statesman of action flicks—and anyway, his divorce from Katie Holmes and continued association with Scientology have left a longer-lasting stink on his name than his exuberant talk-show appearance. In 2015, GQ heralded “Cool Tom Cruise.” This summer, he is starring in the sixth Mission: Impossible movie. The critical response to both the film and Cruise’s performance has been overwhelmingly positive. “What’s always been so ironic to me about the Tom Cruise quote-unquote backlash is that it seemed to me that audiences still really loved him, even if newspapers were telling them that they didn’t,” Nicholson said. “I feel like he’s proving something that never needed to be proven.”

The real legacy of the couch-jumping incident has almost nothing to do with Cruise or Oprah specifically and everything to do with how people reacted online to the moment. Tom and Oprah’s strange conversation, and the reaction it provoked, is now preserved as thousands of digital artifacts, emblematic of how information traveled in the early aughts. Rewatching the episode and the viral videos it spawned feels quaint now. The bloggy media cycle that produced Cruise memes has been replaced by a cesspool of broken newsfeeds smushing conspiracy theories and branded content against real news and irrational presidential tweets with such velocity that it seems deeply unlikely that Cruise’s hop onto a loveseat would provoke much at all in 2018. However, it’s even less likely that Cruise would’ve been able to make it so far into his career without finding his kooky personality exposed as he did in 2005.

Up-and-comers have learned to respond to a different and less controllable form of media attention. There is a whole brand of celebrity in which the famous are expected to engage with fans on social media. Celebrity PR disasters don’t often happen in such glossy settings anymore; instead, they are frequently facilitated by social media and accelerated by fans and detractors who dig up old tweets . The last time a daytime talk-show guest created a media supernova after their appearance, it was Danielle Bregoli, a.k.a. Bhad Bhabie, a.k.a. “Cash Me Ousside” Girl, who parlayed a viral moment shit-talking on Dr. Phil into a viable rap career . I doubt Bregoli knows about Tom Cruise’s Oprah appearance, but her own twist on the daytime meme underscores how much has changed since Cruise took his happy hop. Performative, contrived freakiness in front of a live studio audience can be an asset now. The big leap is figuring out how to navigate internet criticism without spinning out—a frequently impossible mission.

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Let's revisit the Tom Cruise/Oprah's couch incident

It was one of the most-watched moments in the Internet’s relatively brief history. When Tom Cruise jumped on Oprah’s couch and declared his love for Katie Holmes, it was the daytime TV moment for a DVR, GIF-ready age.

But, as Amy Nicholson reports for L.A. Weekly , the moment we all thought we saw never happened. He never jumped up and down on the couch; he simply stood. The nitty-gritty of the infamous May 2005 Oprah appearance is but one revelation in her fascinating piece, How YouTube and Internet Journalism Destroyed Tom Cruise, Our Last Real Movie Star .

In the article, Nicholson explores how Tom Cruise went from the biggest movie star in the world to an Internet joke (who still manages to open films), with fascinating insight that attempts to explain the context behind the Oprah appearance (for example, that Cruise was playing to an audience that was quite different than bloggers), as well as larger points about that time period — it’s hard to believe all that media craziness was nine years ago.

As Nicholson points out, the Oprah Couch Incident happened at a time with a lot of rapid changes in entertainment culture — the launch of PerezHilton.com, the growth of TMZ, the inundation of camera phones making everyone paparazzi, etc. The piece is interesting from a How We Got Here angle, as well as its ability to shed some light on what publicity meant in the ’90s versus now — Nicholson also gets great scoop about how that infamous Matt Lauer/Tom Cruise interview came to be (never underestimate a good publicist).

For old times’ sake, watch the Cruise clip below, and then go read Nicholson’s full article :

Related Articles

Tom Cruise Jumped On Oprah's Couch And Lost His Mind 11 Years Ago

Entertainment Writer, The Huffington Post

Eleven years ago today, actor Tom Cruise jumped on Oprah Winfrey's couch like a trampoline when he appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Cruise declared his love for then girlfriend (and future ex-wife) Katie Holmes and hopped up on the furniture before Oprah said, "He's gone. He's gone. The boy is gone."

The daytime host was more right than she knew. Though Cruise's name is still a big box-office draw, these days, he is better known for being an outspoken advocate for Scientology and for his public antics. The couch jump marked the first shift in Tom Cruise's image away from the heartthrob he'd been. (Pop quiz: Which movie was Tom Cruise promoting when he appeared on "Oprah" in 2005? Answer: It was "War of the Worlds," but no one remembers because he jumped on Oprah's couch.)

The same year as Couchgate, Cruise got in hot water for criticizing actress Brooke Shields for using antidepressant Paxil to treat her postpartum depression. He later got in an argument with Matt Lauer on " The Today Show" for his criticism of psychiatry.

As for his romance with Holmes, Cruise has been divorced from the "Dawson's Creek" star since 2012. He is also reportedly feuding with actress and former Scientology member Leah Remini over her tell-all memoir , which made many claims about Cruise and his family, including one that he had a meltdown over cookie dough.

What's up with Jerry Maguire now? He recently wrapped up filming "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back," and there are rumors of a "Top Gun" sequel . In Sunday night's premiere of AMC series "Preacher, " an unknown force possessed a number of religious figures, including Cruise, which caused the actor's head to explode on the show (real-life Cruise reportedly wasn't happy about the joke ).

Cruise may still be a movie star, but he's mostly a Scientology punchline at this point. Jumping on that fateful couch was just the tip of the iceberg.

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Tom Cruise Jumped on Oprah’s Couch, Freaked Out Over Being in Love With Katie Holmes 10 Years Ago – Relive the Moment!

“Calm yourselves!” That is what Oprah Winfrey had to tell the audience when Tom Cruise appeared on her talk show 10 years ago — little did she know, it would be Cruise himself who needed to calm down.

Related: PHOTOS: TomKat -- the way they were

As the world is well aware, the Mission: Impossible star couldn’t contain himself while declaring his love for then-girlfriend Katie Holmes during a 2005 interview with Winfrey. Cruise, who was known as an uber-private celebrity, pumped his fist in the air, kneeled on the floor, and most notably, jumped on Winfrey’s couch with giddiness while confessing his infatuation with Holmes in a moment that has since gone — and stayed — viral.

“I’m in love. I’m in love and it’s one of these things where you want to be cool, like, ‘Yeah I like her’…that’s not how I feel,” a hyper Cruise told the talk show host. “I admired her and I thought I wanted to meet her so I called her because I wanted to meet her. You see someone’s work and you hear about them and you hear what a special person she is…and I wanted to meet this person and I met her and she’s extraordinary.”

Related: PHOTOS: Kaite's life after Tom

While Cruise was unable to contain his emotions, a shocked Winfrey explained to the crowd: “I’ve never seen this. What happened to you?!” After he jumped on her couch — repeatedly! — Oprah concluded: “He’s gone. He’s gone. The boy is gone!”

Following the 2005 interview, the clip was turned into thousands of memes, including standout “Tom Cruise Kills Oprah.”

Winfrey, however, wasn’t exactly in on the fun. “Certainly, I did not think it would turn into the brouhaha that it did,” she later told TV Guide Magazine . “I thought it was an expression of delightful exuberance and love that any woman… would be thrilled to have her man jump on a sofa in love with her,” she said, while adding that she thought that re-airing the footage would be “really, really unfair.”

Related: PHOTOS: How Katie transformed for Tom

As for Cruise and Holmes, well, we all know what happened. The couple announced they were expecting their first child together, Suri, just six months after going public with their romance. Suri Cruise was born in April 2006, and that December her parents tied the knot. Before starting their life together, Holmes, who was born Catholic, converted to Scientology for Cruise. The religion is rumored to be the downfall of their marriage.

After five years together — and a complete glam transformation for Holmes — the Dawson’s Creek alum filed for divorce in June 2012. In a statement to Us Weekly , the actress’ attorney told Us at the time: “This is a personal and private matter for Katie and her family. Katie’s primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter’s best interest.” While Cruise’s rep offered: “Kate has filed for divorce and Tom is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children. Please allow them their privacy.”

During an August 2014 appearance on the Today show , Holmes, who is now happily dating Jamie Foxx , said she never reflects on their split.

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Related: PHOTOS: Suri's fabulous life

“I never really look back. I just approach life [taking] it one day at a time,” she told Matt Lauer . “I’m really excited about where I am right now. I’ve had some really wonderful creative experiences. I’m just really grateful.”

Cruise, who has yet to publicly date anyone since their split, and Holmes continue to share joint custody of their now 9-year-old daughter, Suri.

Prior to Holmes, Cruise was married to Nicole Kidman from 1990 to 2001 and then dated Penelope Cruz for three years until 2004.

In this article

Katie Holmes

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How Tom Cruise Jumping on Oprah's Couch Changed Everything

Ten years ago, a media event took place that changed the public's perception of one of its most beloved stars. And while he has continued to see success, his image has never recovered — and it's possible it never will. I'm referring of course to the jump heard 'round the world: Tom Cruise 's interview with Oprah Winfrey .

Freshly in love with Katie Holmes , a relationship long speculated to be the result of a "wife search" sanctioned and lead by the Church of Scientology, Cruise visited his friend Oprah — and a very on-board audience who loved every moment of the interview — and discussed his newfound happiness. And he did so by grabbing Oprah's hands, standing on the couch, and retrieving Holmes from backstage to show off his prize.

Some things go viral and when we look back years later, we see they weren't such a big deal. This is not one of those things. This is just as awkward as it was in 2005.

People responded. And the response was an embarrassment. While the studio audience was incredibly stoked, the viewers at home — and online — were weirded out. This display of emotion was so intense, so striking, that it rang false. Or, if not false, definitely kind of creepy. It was too much. So, the memes began.

Cruise would continue to have box office success thanks to the Mission Impossible franchise — though for a few years his star dimmed a bit. (Anyone remember Lions for Lambs or Knight and Day ?) But the public's image of him has never been the same. Never again would he be dreamboat Tom Cruise, universally beloved celebrity. He has been since and will remain the overly intense guy who either must be hiding something or has lost the ability to act like a regular person.

Critics have blamed bloggers and internet culture for their abuse of the clips, like the above, ultimately leading to the backlash that still exists against Cruise, but it was more than just a couch jump. This was also a time when the internet was giving the public more information than ever before, meaning most of us were learning about Scientology for the first time. We saw this video on YTMND , we could read about Operation Snow White and other scary stuff, and we would soon all be able to read this still terrifying Katie Holmes W magazine interview . If you missed that interview back in 2005, it's still a great, creepy read. Holmes answers every question with a robot-like focus on how perfect Cruise is (whether that was the question or not) and is often answered for by a Scientology handler. Cruise's Oprah exuberance was clearly contagious — here's one example:

...A security guard lumbers into the dressing room and presents Holmes with a giant silver box tied in a thick purple ribbon. A small crowd gathers to watch her gleefully tear open the package and pluck out a Chanel diamond necklace—a gift, naturally, from Cruise. “He’s my man! He’s my man!” she screams, then jumps up on her chair to do an impression of her fiancé’s now-famous sofa shtick from Oprah.

People begin to cheer. “This is your moment!” cries the manicurist.

“I can do splits too,” Holmes says, jumping down and splaying herself across the floor. On that note, I suggest, we should probably get the photo shoot started.

“On that note,” she replies, “I love him.”

And when the two split years later, no one was surprised by tales of Holmes's harrowing escape — and no one saw that as mere media hyperbole. Our eyes had been opened to the fact that movie star Tom Cruise was also perhaps weird public figure Tom Cruise. And he likely always will be.

What came first: the couch or our discomfort? Oprah may have been the impetus, but Cruise was hardly a victim of mean memes and viral videos. He was a victim of a public that had become too difficult to fake it in front of.

Relive the Moment When Tom Cruise Jumped On Oprah's Couch

On May 23, 2005, Tom Cruise showed his incredible cat-like agility by jumping on Oprah Winfrey's couch. Ten years later, we celebrate this moment that went down in pop culture history.

• Oprah Winfrey
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Oprah: Tom Cruise's Couch Jumping Was Wilder Than It Seemed

Nov. 11, 2005— -- The public, and certainly the comedians, were amazed when Tom Cruise bounced on Oprah Winfrey's couch proclaiming his love for Katie Holmes, but the talk show queen told "Good Morning America" she had no idea what was going on at the time.

"It was wilder than it was appearing to me," Winfrey said. "I was just trying to maintain the truth for myself because I couldn't figure out what was going on. And what I was prepared for was the dance that happens when you're doing celebrities -- when you know they're not going to tell you, but you're going to ask anyway, and then you try asking another way."

Instead of the "dance," Winfrey was confronted with an Irish jig on top of her furniture.

"I was not buying -- not buying or not buying," Winfrey said of Cruise's declarations of love. "That's why I kept saying to 'you're gone, you're really gone.'"

Cruise's infamous appearance on "Oprah" is just one of many celebrity moments on the anniversary DVD celebrating Winfrey's 20 years on air.

Winfrey has accumulated great wealth over the years -- Forbes estimates her fortune to be $1 billion -- but said she does not worry about the money changing her.

"You know why? Because you realize this as you get older -- you're still the same person, but you're older," Winfrey said. "And that is the same thing with money. I am the same person. I have just grown to be more of myself with better shoes."

Winfrey said she has learned many things about herself through the years, and that includes big lessons about her weight.

"Now I look at the weight and I understand that the weight is not about anything other than stress and disconnection and that at the time I was in such denial about it," Winfrey said. "It really was the degree to which I was engaged in the work and disconnected from the rest of my life. And that happens to me all the time. Now I understand it and can get my life back, can pull back to center and find some clarity and understand that when I start eating and repressing feelings that it's really because I'm out of control and everything else is out of control."

There are still some things yet to learn and do for Winfrey. If the world were to end in six months, Winfrey said she would go to China because she's never been to the East, and then she would come home and sit under her trees.

"If the world was ending, I would want to be in the place that I love and nothing better than sitting under my trees with all of my dogs and that's what I would do," Winfrey said.

11 Years Ago Today, Tom Cruise Had His Way With Oprah Winfrey's Couch

It's a monumental day, indeed..

...And we never looked at a couch the same way again.

We can all picture this moment like it was yesterday. The beige carpeted set. Oprah Winfrey 's pink knit separates. That oddly flower-like couch. And of course,  Tom Cruise , dressed all in black as though he were a ninja sent on assignment straight from the Church of Scientology, losing his freaking mind.

It all happened exactly 11 years ago today.

The actor was making an appearance on  Oprah to promote a project that nobody will remember as its cultural impact will never measure up to that of the actual interview (for the record it was  War of the Worlds ), when he decided to go completely off-script—to his publicist's utter horror, we imagine.

But as we always say, a publicist's worst nightmare is the Internet's fever dream, and now we are left with one of the most simultaneously horrifying and fabulous clips of all time. It all started the second Cruise walked out onto Winfrey's stage. Perhaps he was spurred on by the panicked shrieks of the audience members who could not believe their luck to be laying eyes on  the Tom Cruise, or perhaps he had started his day off with five to seven shots of espresso. Either way, Tom Cruise was on one. 

He raised his arms in jubilation. He got down on one knee to praise the Gods of Xenu for his fortune. He was moved speechless by his joy! Then, to the delight of mankind everywhere, he jumped up on Oprah's couch in a display of crazy that no one could have predicted. And all the while Oprah provided a soundtrack of enthusiastic  whoooooos! , knowing that with each passing arm pump and leg kick her royalty earnings were multiplying. 

She also managed to squeeze in the observation that something had happened to him (how savvy of you, O!), to which he so simply replied, "I'm in love."

Our collective consciousness may have forgotten this moment with the passage of time, what with new celebrity couplings and pregnancies and breakups cropping up each day. But we're here to remind the world that we must never lose the feelings we felt when we first bore witness to the Incident. We must hold this simultaneous joy and horror in our hearts forever, because it is with us that this tale will live on. 

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Of course, on this the 11th anniversary of the Couch Jump, we  do look back on the whole thing with a bit more knowledge than we had in 2005—in particular the knowledge that Tom and Katie's courtship may have been a smidge less than naturally-occurring. But we shalt not dwell on this fact, for it makes the clip way less hilarious and way more depressing. 

Instead, we shall simply appreciate the moment for what it was: Freaking hilarious. And we will honor it in the only way we know how: With GIFs. 

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Tom Cruise’s 10 most controversial moments

The mission: impossible star has attracted his fair share of headlines over the years, article bookmarked.

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In an era when the Hollywood A-lister seems to have all but disappeared, Tom Cruise is starting to cut a lonely figure at the top.

The actor has remained one of the film industry’s biggest stars for decades, through his roles in hit blockbusters including the Mission: Impossible franchise.

However, Cruise is also known to steal the limelight for more than just his acting performances, with the Jerry Maguire star becoming notorious for his outlandish off-screen behaviour.

Most recently, Cruise was recorded screaming at crew members on the forthcoming Mission Impossible 7 for failing to heed Covid-19 safety measures.

The explosive rant made headlines when it was leaked to the public, but it is just the latest in a line of strange and outrageous incidents involving the actor.

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From arguments and injuries to declarations of love, there’s no shortage of variety in Tom Cruise headlines.

See below for a list of 10 of Cruise’s most attention-grabbing moments.

Jumping on Oprah’s sofa

Inarguably Cruise’s most notorious incident, his 2005 interview on Oprah Winfrey ’s talk show remains one of the most bizarre public displays of affection ever committed to video.

Though he was only appearing on the series to promote his role in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds , people quickly forgot about the film entirely.

Declaring his love for Katie Holmes , the Batman Begins actor whom he was then dating (and who would later become his wife, before divorcing in 2012), Cruise was seen manically jumping up and down on Oprah’s furniture. He would later parody the moment when appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

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A stunt gone wrong

Cruise is well-known for performing his own stunts in films, with the Mission: Impossible franchise providing a wealth of opportunities to indulge his inner daredevil. 

However, after scaling the world’s tallest building, and being launched into the air tied to the outside of an airplane, a stunt in Mission: Impossible Fallout took a heavy toll on the actor.

As Cruise jumped from one rooftop to another, he broke his ankle, in a grisly clip which he shared on The Graham Norton show.

Scientology video

Cruise’s membership of the Church of Scientology is well-known to the public, though many were surprised when a promotional video leaked to the public in 2008, featuring the Magnolia star.

His strange, intense and mercurial delivery as he discusses the benefits of scientology left fans appropriately bewildered.

The Matt Lauer interview

Another of Cruise’s most infamous appearances saw him quarrel with Matt Lauer during a 2005 interview on the Today Show . 

After Brooke Shields admitted using anti-depressants to medicate post-partum depression, Cruise spoke out against prescription drugs, and about the practice of psychiatry, which he called a “pseudo-science”.

“Here’s the problem: you don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do,” he told Lauer, later admitting that his conduct in the interview came across as arrogant.

The water prank

Though Cruise has given a few confrontational interviews in his time, he can probably be excused for being a little peeved with Channel 4 during a red carpet encounter in 2005.

After the interviewer, who, unbeknownst to Cruise, was part of a prank show, sprayed the actor in the face with a small jet of water, Cruise said: “That’s incredibly rude. I’m here giving you an interview.”

Cruise then repeatedly called the interviewer a “jerk”, in a clip that circulated online. After the police reportedly became involved, Channel 4 issued an apology to Cruise for the stunt.

Cruise undertook what might be his weirdest film role in 2008’s Tropic Thunder , as the balding, paunchy studio executive Les Grossman.

Almost unrecognisable in the part, Cruise then reprised the character for a bizarre dance during the 2010 MTV Awards, in which he danced on-stage next to Jennifer Lopez.

Accepting the Scientology award

In 2004, Cruise was awarded the Freedom Medal of Valour for Achievement in the Field of Excellence by the Church of Scientology.

His strange acceptance speech, in which he addressed a painting of the church’s founder, sci-fi novelist L Ron Hubbard, was leaked online years later, leading to some mirth and bemusement among Cruise’s fans from outside the organisation. 

The 60 Minutes Australia interview

It might not be as disastrous as his interview with Matt Lauer, but Cruise’s appearance on 60 Minutes Australia makes for tense and uncomfortable viewing nonetheless.

After reporter Peter Overton pushes Cruise with questions about his first wife, the actor Nicole Kidman, Cruise eventually loses patience, saying: “Listen, here’s the thing, Peter, you’re stepping over a line now… and you know you are. I’m just telling you right now. Put your manners back in.”

The hysterical anecdote

Less awkward or confrontational than simply confusing, Cruise’s appearance on David Letterman’s late night talk show in the mid-Noughties saw the actor laugh for several minutes straight.

Trying to relate an anecdote about his latest movie, Cruise cracks up near the beginning of the interview, and doesn’t stop laughing for the duration. 

Lucky for him, everyone around him also saw the funny side – including Letterman himself, who soon joins him in peels of laughter – but the unexplained fit of near-hysteria endures as one of Cruise’s most peculiar appearances.

Cruise’s most recent headlines also rank among the actor’s most outlandish, as he was captured on audio furiously berating the crew of Mission Impossible 7 for failing to follow Covid-19 safety rules.

“If I see you do it again, you're f***ing gone,” he says in the clip, obtained by The Sun , adding: “We are the gold standard. They’re back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us. Because they believe in us and what we’re doing.

“We are creating thousands of jobs, you motherf***ers. I don’t ever want to see it again. Ever!”

Fans were divided over the outburst . Some took issue with Cruise’s aggressive tone and use of explicit language, while others agreed with his points, claiming he was taking a stand for health and safety during the global pandemic. 

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Tom Cruise's Appearance Shocks Fans After Scantily Clad Pictures Go Viral

Tom Cruise was subjected to body shaming comments and plastic surgery rumors after beach pictures go viral.

• Fans cruelly body-shamed Tom Cruise for aging, sparking debates on plastic surgery and liposuction online.
• The versatile star continues to shine despite criticism, enjoying beach getaways amid Mission: Impossible 8 filming.
• Tom Cruise, Hollywood royalty with an enduring legacy, faces public scrutiny including accusations of weight gain and plastic surgery.

Tom Cruise is one of the most famous stars in the entire world. In his decades-plus career making some of the most iconic films ever, such as Mission: Impossible and Vanilla Sky, it's no wonder he continues to be a huge box office draw and sell out movie theaters even in an age where audiences primarily obtain their entertainment from online apps and streaming platforms. For many fans, Tom Cruise is the epitome of modern-day Hollywood royalty and defines what it means to be an action star.

Although his reputation has suffered a few punches or two, such as his infamous jumping on the couch moment on the Oprah Winfrey Show and his messy divorce from actress Nicole Kidman , Cruise has still managed to rise above the criticism with his acting legacy intact. However, even for stars like the revered Cruise, it is a fact that, like others celebrities, he's still subjected to criticism. Case in point, when Cruise recently went on holiday, the actor was cruelly subjected to body-shaming comments about his 'aging' and 'less than toned-physique'.

Tom Cruise Has A Weirdly Cruel Way Of Keeping Pigeons From Interrupting Filming

Tom cruise ridiculed on social media after beach pictures of him go viral.

Tom Cruise, 61, was recently spotted by paparazzi frolicking at the beach in Spain this past week. The father of three, was taking a much-needed break in between filming his latest movie, Mission: Impossible 8 in the UK and Norway respectively.Whilst Cruise seemed to be enjoying his time on the beach, undoubtedly he would be unhappy about the unsolicited images that were captured of him for the world to see.The pictures, which have since gone viral on the internet, show Tom Cruise shirtless , wearing swim trunks. What followed were rather cruel jabs about Cruises's 'less than toned physique', which some fans reportedly felt shocked to see.

According to an article in The Daily Mail , Cruise was accused by fans of being 'out of shape' , while others mocked his 'sagging skin' and implied that it was the result of ' botched plastic surgery '. The publication followed up with before and after photos of Cruise's body in his younger years compared to now as two surgeons weighed on the topic of whether Tom Cruise had ' liposuction' .

The first plastic surgeon stated, "I don't see any hallmarks of irregular contour on his [Cruise's] body that would suggest bad liposuction, but there is enhanced muscle definition , which is reflective of his earlier photos when he was younger. If they did it, they did it well. Another surgeon adde d, "In any 61-year-old guy you would expect to have some skin sagging, because as we get older we lose that elasticity in our skin.

Tom Cruise Was Once Accused Of Being Over Weight

While Tom Cruise continues to ignore recent negative comments on his physique, this is unfortunately not the first time the talented star has been body-shamed online .

In 2022, Tom Cruise attended a Giants' basketball game and was captured on the stadium's jumbo tron . T he actor, who was then 59 years old, appeared to have picked up some weight, which concerned some fans that he may be unwell, while others criticized his weight gain.

Tom Cruise's Relationship With His Kids Revealed After He Steps Out In Public With Them For The First Time In Years

The actor was also accused of having plastic surgery and or doing it for a movie role, none of which was ever refuted or confirmed by the star.

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Hannah Waddingham Gives Update on 'Mission: Impossible 8' and Working With Tom Cruise (Exclusive)

Hannah waddingham gives update on ‘mission: impossible 8’ with tom cruise (exclusive), 'i am: celine dion' official trailer, 'rhonj's jenn fessler explains off-camera promise to margaret josephs before teresa giudice drama, vanessa hudgens on her 'masked singer' win and the support of hollywood pals in pregnancy, jelly roll's wife bunnie xo catches daughter bailee ann sneaking out, yvette nicole brown shares updates on wedding planning and 'community' movie (exclusive), liam hemsworth takes over henry cavill's role in the witcher: first look, ludacris proudly brags about daughter karma graduating college with honors, patrick mahomes breaks his silence on harrison butker's controversial speech, how tom brady is 'doing his best' to co-parent with 'offended' gisele bündchen after roast (source), kelly rowland seemingly scolds security guards at 2024 cannes red carpet, mary lou retton on life after near-death mystery illness: why she needed fundraising (exclusive), ‘little people, big world’: matt roloff on show's uncertain future (exclusive), taylor swift rips open her dress during eras tour wardrobe malfunction, brian wilson makes surprise appearance at ‘the beach boys’ documentary premiere, 50 cent gives update on in-the-works diddy documentary, 'brats' documentary first look: '80s stars reunite to unpack brat pack era, reba mcentire almost spoiled lainey wilson's grand ole opry surprise on 'the voice', katie maloney and ariana madix on their 'scary and exciting' next chapter with something about her, john stamos shares story behind olsen twins reunion at bob saget tribute (exclusive), kim kardashian slams sister khloé as 'unbearable', 'garfield' star hannah waddingham spoke with et at the premiere of her new animated comedy..

The Mission: Impossible series has become one of the biggest and most acclaimed blockbuster franchises in Hollywood, and Ted Lasso alum Hannah Waddingham is set to make her Mission: Impossible debut in the forthcoming eighth installment .

Waddingham walked the orange carpet at the world premiere of her new animated kids film, The Garfield Movie , at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, and she spoke with ET's Kevin Frazier about the upcoming  Mission Impossible film.

"We're just about to start shooting again on Mission, yes," Waddingham confirmed. The film was originally slated for release on June 28, 2024, but had to be pushed back almost an entire year to May 23, 2025 due to the SAG and WGA labor strikes in 2023.

While Waddingham said of the story, "I can't tell you too much, I'll get told off," she had no shortage of praise for her co-star,  Tom Cruise , calling him "gorgeous and inspirational."

She also opened up about "spending five days on the [USS] George H.W. Bush fighter carrier."

"We were in an Osprey [helicopter], we landed on a moving vessel with four and a half thousand Naval men and women on it and spent five days [aboard]," Waddingham recalled. "I can't tell you how inspired I came away by Tom and [director] Chris McQuarrie."

While her role remains undisclosed, the actress said her character is quite different from her breakthrough role on Ted Lesso , in which she played wealthy football club owner Rebecca Welton.

"She's a powerful woman," Waddingham said of her Mission: Impossible character. "And she's quite functional."

Long before fans get a chance to see Waddingham share the screen with Cruise, she'll be sharing scenes -- albeit in cartoon animal form -- with Chris Pratt in the latest adaptation of the beloved comic strip, Garfield .

In The Garfield Movie,  Waddingham provides the voice of an antagonistic and fiendish Persian cat named Jinx -- an experience the actress said she had a lot of fun with.

"They sent me the initial pencil sketches -- which is such a privilege to see, you don't get to see that -- and it was so complete so quickly that I was just like, 'Her voice has to be as volatile as these sketches are. The frenetic kind of nature of them,'" Waddingham recalled. "So it was a real, immediate [connection]."

"I just knew who she should be, you know? Revolting and such a b**ch," she added with a laugh.

The actress also explained that her 9-year-old daughter, Kitty, saw a preview screening and "she loved it."

"We had a private screening. Sony put on screening for her and all her whole year at school, which was incredible," Waddingham said. "The Mommy points I scored? I mean, I feel like I don't need to take her on any holidays! It was really, really cool."

"But that's what it's all about. Right? It's about [your kids]," she added. "I want to be immortalized as a big fluffy white cat for her."

The Garfield Movie hits theaters May 24.

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Updates on ‘Mission: Impossible 8’ and Collaboration with Tom Cruise are provided by Hannah Waddingham

H annah Waddingham recently shared updates on “Mission: Impossible 8” and her collaboration with Tom Cruise, offering fans insights into the highly anticipated film and her experience working with the iconic actor.

Waddingham’s revelations shed light on the excitement surrounding the upcoming installment of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, which has been eagerly anticipated by fans worldwide. As one of the newest additions to the cast, Waddingham’s insights provide valuable context for what audiences can expect from the film.

In her updates, Waddingham spoke about her collaboration with Tom Cruise, who is not only the star of the franchise but also known for his hands-on approach to filmmaking. She shared anecdotes and reflections on working alongside Cruise, highlighting his dedication to his craft and his ability to inspire those around him.

Additionally, Waddingham provided insights into the production process of “Mission: Impossible 8,” offering glimpses behind the scenes and teasing what fans can look forward to in the film. Her updates serve to build anticipation for the movie while also giving fans a deeper appreciation for the hard work and creativity that goes into bringing such a high-profile project to life.

Overall, Waddingham’s updates on “Mission: Impossible 8” and her collaboration with Tom Cruise offer fans an exciting glimpse into the world of the franchise. As anticipation continues to build for the film’s release, Waddingham’s insights serve to fuel excitement and speculation about what promises to be another thrilling installment in the beloved series.

Hannah Waddingham’s recent updates on “Mission: Impossible 8” and her collaboration with Tom Cruise have sparked considerable excitement and anticipation among fans of the franchise. As one of the newest members of the cast, Waddingham’s insights into the production offer valuable insights into what audiences can expect from the upcoming installment.

Waddingham’s remarks about working alongside Tom Cruise provide a fascinating glimpse into the actor’s dedication and work ethic. Cruise is renowned for his commitment to performing his own stunts and pushing the boundaries of action filmmaking, and Waddingham’s comments underscore his hands-on approach to the craft. Her observations offer a testament to Cruise’s leadership on set and his ability to inspire and motivate those around him.

Furthermore, Waddingham’s updates provide fans with a behind-the-scenes look at the production process of “Mission: Impossible 8,” offering tantalizing hints about the film’s plot, action sequences, and overall tone. As one of the most successful action franchises in cinema history, each new installment of “Mission: Impossible” raises the bar for adrenaline-fueled thrills and jaw-dropping spectacle. Waddingham’s insights suggest that “Mission: Impossible 8” will be no exception, promising audiences another exhilarating cinematic experience.

Fans are anxiously awaiting further information and surprises from Waddingham and other cast and crew members as excitement for “Mission: Impossible 8” builds. Tom Cruise’s characteristic charisma, a strong ensemble cast, and heart-pounding action make this film ready to be another blockbuster hit that will excite moviegoers worldwide.

Waddingham’s comments about working alongside Tom Cruise offer a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of one of Hollywood’s most iconic action stars. Cruise is known for his unwavering dedication to his craft and his willingness to perform daring stunts, often without the use of stunt doubles. Waddingham’s insights into Cruise’s work ethic and approach to filmmaking are likely to further solidify his status as a Hollywood legend.

Furthermore, Waddingham’s updates on the production process of “Mission: Impossible 8” are sure to pique the interest of fans eager for any information about the highly anticipated film. As one of the most successful action franchises in cinema history, each new “Mission: Impossible” film raises the bar for spectacle and excitement. Waddingham’s comments could provide hints about the film’s plot, action sequences, and overall tone, giving fans even more reason to look forward to the next installment.