Talk show legend David Letterman hosted “Mr. Big Shot” Tom Cruise for missing out on Sunday’s Oscars despite “Top Gun: Maverick” being a contender. (Watch the video below.)
“Now here’s something that can be a little touchy,” Letterman told Jimmy Kimmel, who hosted the awards ceremony on Wednesday. “Where was Tom Cruise?”
Kimmel said he had heard vague “production issues” implicating “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part II” as the reason, but “we have no idea what happened.”
“But Tom Cruise should have been there, celebrating his grand maverick show with a jet pack,” Letterman insisted.
Kimmel suggested that Letterman was correct in guessing that Cruise didn’t feel like he was going to win, so he didn’t show up.
“Between you and me it should have been there, right?” Letterman repeated.
“He’s the prince of Hollywood,” Kimmel replied.
Letterman complimented Kimmel on making the Oscars a success, even without “Mr. Big Shot” to be there. “All right, Jimmy,” he said.
It was later revealed that Kimmel had to pull out of a tribute to Cruise when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed that he would not be attending. But Kimmel kept joking, poking fun at a scene from the movie and Scientology.
“Tom Cruise shirtless in that soccer scene on the beach? L. Ron Hubba Hubba, you know what I’m saying?” Kimmel snapped.
“Maverick” star Cruise was nominated for a best picture Oscar as a producer on the blockbuster, and the film was nominated in five other categories. It won for best sound.
Cruise was later spotted in London celebrating actor Michael Caine’s 90th birthday, which was on Tuesday.
