We all remember Tom Cruise’s 2005 couch-jumping incident — where he exultantly declared his love for then-girlfriend Katie Holmes mid–interview — but just one month later, the actor would have another passionate outburst that lives on in infamy.
While visiting Today to promote War of the Worlds (with Holmes looking on off-camera), Cruise, then 42, got heated when host Matt Lauer questioned him about his criticism of Brooke Shields, who had previously revealed she relied on the help of antidepressants to treat postpartum depression.
At one point, the star insisted Lauer did not “know the history of psychiatry.”
“I do,” Cruise proclaimed, before passing judgment on Lauer while still live on the air: “Matt, Matt, Matt, you’re glib.”
Keep scrolling for a look back at the tense exchange:
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Who Was Involved
Only America’s biggest movie star and a then-beloved TV personality!
Why We Remember It
What started June 24, 2005, as the usual a.m. chitchat got cuckoo fast. For more than five uncomfortable minutes, the actor attempted to school Lauer using Scientology principles on why “psychiatry is a pseudoscience” (spoiler alert: it’s not, and PPD is a very real condition that affects one in seven pregnant women).
The host pushed back (“Well, if antidepressants work for Brooke Shields, why isn’t that okay?” he asked), but Cruise dismissed his arguments, at one point saying, “You don’t even know what Ritalin is.”
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Key Details
At the time, Cruise had recently replaced his longtime publicist with his sister. Inevitably, a string of misfires followed. (Nepotism doesn’t always work out — shocker!)
The Aftermath
Everyone was talking about the lack of Cruise control. The Today show received about 10,000 emails, as opposed to the usual hundreds. Shields responded to Cruise’s claims (that she should have treated PPD with vitamins and exercise) with a New York Times op-ed piece titled “War of Words.”
Ultimately, the Top Gun icon apologized to his former costar (they shared the screen in 1981’s Endless Love) — albeit “not publicly, which would have been the right thing to do,” she remarked in her recent memoir, Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old.
He even invited her to Italy for his 2006 nuptials to Holmes. (They divorced in 2012.) Despite the blowback regarding Cruise’s claims and attitude, the incident certainly didn’t hurt the performance of War of the Worlds: The sci-fi flick took in more than $600 million.
A New Perspective
All is forgiven! “I came across arrogant. I absolutely could have handled that better,” Cruise acknowledged on a 2008 return to Today. “I think I learned a really good lesson.”
Meanwhile, Lauer wished for a do-over on a 2014 episode of Watch What Happens Live (where he also put on a “Tom Cruise” wig for a reenactment opposite Andy Cohen!). Regarding that tirade, the newsman said, “I think he got such a bum rap… To be honest, he was a real mensch after that. He came and he apologized.”
Where Are They Now?
Despite a bruised rep, Cruise remains a box-office powerhouse, currently in Mission: Impossible — the Final Reckoning.
Lauer, who was fired in 2017 after alleged inappropriate sexual conduct, is living a quiet life in the Hamptons.
As for Shields, in her book she wrote that the whole flap “ultimately worked in my favor and in favor of women everywhere.”
