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Tom Cruise says he watches his own movies on opening weekend

The top gun: maverick star said he has been recognised by people in the cinema.

Gregory Robinson

The next time you're at the cinema to watch a Tom Cruise film during it's opening weekend, make sure to be on the lookout because you may see him there too.

Cruise, 60, was a guest on Friday's (24 February) episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! , where he spoke about his blockbuster 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick .

The professional daredevil joked about fans having to wait 34 years for the film to arrive in cinemas and the decision to hold back its release until cinemas opened again following the Covid-19 lockdowns.

"The film is made for the screen... we made it for theatrical, me, my friends, the whole crew," he said about the cinema release.

Kimmel asked whether Cruise went to see the film with a ‘paying audience’ and believe or not, he did! And it’s not uncommon for him to do so.

“I love that,” he gushed. “Look, I grew up I always wanted to travel the world so when I started making movies, I was able to go watch movies in other countries so I always go watch films with other audiences and watch their movies with them.

"So, I do. When I make a film I wanna go see it with an audience.”

The Mission Impossible star then said he wants to make films that please audiences.

"When they really enjoy it, that's what I want. I make my movies for audiences, for you all. So it's a pleasure. I just want to entertain you," he told the applauding audience.

Naturally, the talk show host quizzed the Hollywood A-lister about whether he goes to cinemas in disguise and if he’s been spotted.

“Yes, sometimes they spot me - when I’m sitting next to them and they’ll kinda look over and I’ll do some photos and sign some autographs.”

What an absolute legend.

The Golden Globe Award winner is also known for his incredible stunts and during the interview he shared that his mother, Mary Lee Pfeiffer, who died in 2017, always encouraged him to step out of his comfort zone.

"You know, she never stopped me from doing anything. It was very encouraging," he recalled.

The biggest bombshell came when the Academy Award-nominated star revealed his most dangerous stunt - running with scissors.

"We all done that," he quipped.

Top Gun: Maverick became Cruise's highest-grossing movie worldwide after just 21 days. It surpassed $800 million (£654m) at the global box office, consequently beating his previous record of $791.1m (£647m) for Mission: Impossible - Fallout , and succeeded in becoming the highest-grossing Cruise movie in 23 different worldwide markets.

It has now grossed $1.489 billion worldwide.

Topics:  Tom Cruise , Film and TV

Gregory is a journalist for UNILAD. After graduating with a master's degree in journalism, he has worked for both print and online publications and is particularly interested in TV, (pop) music and lifestyle. He loves Madonna, teen dramas from the '90s and prefers tea over coffee.

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Jimmy Kimmel Grills Tom Cruise on His Insane Death Wish

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When Tom Cruise made a rare late-night TV appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live Friday night, there were no questions about his close ties to the Church of Scientology . But Jimmy Kimmel did spend much of the interview trying to get to the bottom of whether Cruise will eventually kill himself on screen in an attempt to pull off his latest death-defying stunt .

“Did you risk your life today?” Kimmel asked his guest, who came to the studio straight from shooting the upcoming Mission: Impossible film.

“Well, I did get in a car in this weather,” Cruise quipped, referring to the L.A. rain, “so I think we all did.”

Is there anything @TomCruise wouldn’t do!?!? pic.twitter.com/4aZrkiwQtb — Jimmy Kimmel Live (@JimmyKimmelLive) February 25, 2023

Cruise was ostensibly on the show to promote Top Gun: Maverick , which is up for Best Picture at next month’s Oscars. He didn’t hesitate to take credit for essentially saving movie theaters by waiting two years to release the film instead of dumping it on streaming as many in the business were urging him to do. He told Kimmel he would have held out for 10 years if he had to, and as the host pointed out, he was proven “a billion and a half dollars right.”

As for the stunts that Cruise has become known for, he humbly told the host, “I just try to do everything I can, use every tool that I have, to entertain the audience,” explaining that since he was a little kid he has been nearly killing himself just for the thrill of it.

“Does your stunt double think you’re his stunt double?” Kimmel asked, to which Cruise smiled and replied, “I don’t have a stunt double.”

And yet while Cruise is allowed to jump off a cliff on a motorcycle on screen, he lamented the fact that for insurance purposes, he’s not allowed to snowboard, skateboard, or do anything remotely risky in his personal life.

When Kimmel asked the 60-year-old actor if he thinks he’ll still be doing his own stunts at 80, Cruise one-upped him to say he plans on doing them at 100. “I’ve been doing it my whole life,” he reiterated, adding, “To me, it was just normal.”

Ultimately, Kimmel ended his sit-down with Cruise by essentially asking him if there’s anything he wouldn’t do, from parasailing over an active volcano (been there, done that) to getting in a plane piloted by Harrison Ford (“Yeah, I would, I trust Harrison”) to running with scissors.

He didn’t get one no.

Tom Cruise Ends 2022 by Hurtling Towards Earth for ‘Mission: Impossible’

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Oscars Host Jimmy Kimmel Mocks Tom Cruise’s Scientology Ties, Will Smith Slap

By Marlow Stern

Marlow Stern

Speaking to Rolling Stone ahead of his third Oscar-hosting stint, Jimmy Kimmel relayed that him and his late-night writing team had been putting in hours and hours of prep work for cinema’s biggest night.

Well, it finally came. And Kimmel didn’t disappoint.  

The Jimmy Kimmel Live! funnyman kicked off his Oscars monologue with a Top Gun: Maverick bit that saw Tom Cruise ’s Maverick eject him from his fighter plane and onto the Dolby Theatre stage. After crew members removed his parachute, the comic got down to business.

“I am happy to see that Nicole Kidman has finally been released from that abandoned AMC, where she has been held captive for almost two years now,” Kimmel cracked. “It’s good to have you back, Nicole. And thank you for encouraging people that were already at the movie theater to go to the movie theater.”

"If anyone in this theater commits an act of violence at any point during the show, you will be awarded the Oscar for best actor and permitted to give a 19-minute long speech." #Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel addresses "the slap" in his opening monologue. https://t.co/J1mqrghZrf pic.twitter.com/E5dHUKLAPA — ABC News (@ABC) March 13, 2023

There were knocks at Babylon losing $100 million, classy shout-outs to snubbed films Till and The Woman King , and a slight jab at the Academy for not nominating any women — as is their wont — in the Best Director category.

“How does the Academy not nominate the guy who directed Avatar ?” Kimmel said of James Cameron’s Oscar-night absence. “What do they think he is… a woman?”

Then came Kimmel’s ballsiest joke: a Scientology jab at Top Gun: Maverick star Tom Cruise.

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Sadly, Matt Damon did not rush the stage to mock-slap Kimmel. Instead, the host offered the following PSA, addressing Will Smith slapping Chris Rock : “If anyone in this theater commits an act of violence at any point during this show, you will be awarded the Oscar for Best Actor and permitted to give a 19-minute-long speech.” An extended bit shouting-out people in the audience as Kimmel’s was amusing, thanks in no small part to the wonderful Andrew Garfield.

With that, performers from RRR danced Kimmel off the stage and the show was on its way.

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David Letterman Shades 'Mr. Big Shot' Tom Cruise On 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'

General Assignment Reporter, HuffPost

Talk show legend David Letterman rode “Mr. Big Shot” Tom Cruise for skipping Sunday’s Oscars , despite “ Top Gun: Maverick ” being a contender. (Watch the video below.)

“Now here’s something that may be a little sensitive,” Letterman told Jimmy Kimmel, who hosted the awards ceremony, on Wednesday. “Where was Tom Cruise?”

Kimmel said he heard vague “production issues” involving “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 big jet pack maverick show,” Letterman insisted.

Kimmel suggested that Letterman was right in guessing that Cruise didn’t feel like he would win, so he didn’t show up.

“Between you and me, he should have been there, right?” Letterman repeated.

“He is the prince of Hollywood,” Kimmel replied.

Letterman complimented Kimmel on making the Oscars a success, even without “Mr. Big Shot” being there. “Nice going, Jimmy,” he said.

It was later revealed that Kimmel had to scrap a tribute to Cruise when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed he wouldn’t attend. But Kimmel still worked in a joke poking fun at a scene from the movie and Scientology.

“Tom Cruise with his shirt off in that beach football scene? L. Ron Hubba Hubba, you know what I’m saying?” Kimmel cracked.

“Maverick” star Cruise was up 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 seen in London celebrating actor Michael Caine’s 90th birthday, which was on Tuesday.

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Jimmy Kimmel Jokes He’ll “Beat the Sh-t Out of” Anyone Who Slaps Him at Oscars 2023

By Savannah Walsh

Jimmy Kimmel  is  hosting the Oscars for a third time when the 95th Academy Awards air on March 12—and no one is more surprised about that than him. 

“I didn’t necessarily think I’d ever do it again or be asked to do it again,” Kimmel told  The Hollywood Reporter in an interview just days before the event. “And it wasn’t one of those situations where they couldn’t get anybody and they asked me at the last minute,” the comedian continued. “I definitely would have said no if that was the case.” He later joked, “If you catch me at the right moment, you can get me to sign almost anything.”

Going into this year’s ceremony,  last year’s infamous Will Smith – Chris Rock slap is top of mind. Kimmel has already confirmed  he will speak about the slap during his monologue, but that not all of his remarks will be devoted to it. “Well, whatever I say about it, it’s going to have to be great, right?” he told THR. “Because so much has been said and there’s so much focus on it. I obviously don’t want to make the whole monologue about that, but it would be ridiculous not to mention it.”

When asked how Kimmel would react if he were on the receiving end of an onstage smack, he replied, “Well, I size them up, and if I’m bigger than they are, I beat the shit out of them on television. And if it’s  The Rock, I run.” 

Kimmel is no stranger to controversy on Hollywood’s biggest night. He also hosted in 2017, the year  Faye Dunaway and  Warren Beatty wrongly presented best picture to  La La Land, instead of the true winner,  Moonlight. That scandal “got knocked down the list” in the wake of the slap, Kimmel quipped to the outlet. “It’s disappointing in a lot of ways,” he added. “If you’re gonna be part of a fuckup, it might as well be the biggest fuckup ever. Being part of the second-biggest fuckup doesn’t carry as much cachet.”

The Academy recently announced that it has  enlisted a “crisis team” to combat any slap-like threats during the telecast. Kimmel told  The Hollywood Reporter  that he’s “not been involved” with the committee, jokingly adding, “Yeah, I feel like I should at least know what was discussed so I know what I should fear when I walk onstage. But, really, I suspect it mostly has to do with UFOs.”

While  slapping will be referenced during Kimmel’s hosting stint, whether he’ll joke about Scientology as nominee  Tom Cruise  sits in the audience is still up for debate. “No, I mean, listen, the reason that Tom Cruise is being embraced by the movie industry is that, I don’t know if he saved [movies], but he definitely gave them the Heimlich maneuver,” Kimmel said, referencing  reports that  Steven Spielberg  told Cruise during the  Oscar nominees luncheon that  Top Gun: Maverick  “saved Hollywood’s ass” and “might have saved theatrical distribution.”

One thing that is for certain: “This show’s going to be a lot longer than three hours, I’ll tell you that right now,” Kimmel said. “Alert the affiliates, we’re going long!”

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Oscars Show Secrets: Rihanna and Tom Cruise Jokes You Didn’t Hear, the Lady Gaga Saga and Whether Jimmy Kimmel Will Return (EXCLUSIVE)

'Jimmy Kimmel Live' executive producer Molly McNearney and Walt Disney TV alternative head Rob Mills share the behind-the-scenes scoop on how this year's Oscars telecast went down

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As he was lifted into the Dolby Theater rafters five minutes before the Oscars were set to begin, Jimmy Kimmel ’s monologue still wasn’t locked. It couldn’t be: Several of his gags would involve pop superstar Rihanna — but it all depended on whether she’d be in her seat.

Popular on Variety

So goes the fast-paced nature of preparing for a live awards event. In the case of the Oscars, a lot went down in the final days that forced some last-minute switcheroos. Kimmel, for example, had planned to spend a good chunk of his Oscars monologue riffing on how Tom Cruise had helped save the movies thanks to “Top Gun Maverick.” But when Cruise decided to bow out of this year’s event, most of those gags ended up on the cutting room floor.

“Jimmy loves Tom. Tom had just been on the show the week before,” McNearney said. “And they talked about seeing each other and Jimmy was excited to tell him that we got real Navy pilots to do the flyover at the top of the Oscars. Jimmy was really disappointed he didn’t come.”

Insiders had hinted that Cruise pulled out because he had caught wind that Judd Apatow — who had made a series of brutal jokes at Cruise’s expense at the DGA Awards — was helping with Kimmel’s monologue. But that wasn’t actually the case, and McNearney hopes that’s not the reason Cruise didn’t come.

Would that “L. Ron Hubba Hubba” joke have been used if Cruise were in the room? “No. We had about a three minute chunk of the monologue dedicated to Tom Cruise, honoring him and his role in reviving the movie industry. We were so disappointed when we learned a few days before the Oscars that he wouldn’t be there. Jimmy loves him and really wanted to celebrate him.”

Kimmel has earned strong positive marks for this year’s monologue, and it helped set the stage for what was a celebratory, emotionally charged evening. And, as McNearney noted, it helped that there were more popular films in the mix this year including “Top Gun Maverick,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

“You do have to cut jokes on movies that you don’t think the home audience has seen,” she said. “We had a lot more jokes about ‘Tár,’ we had some about ‘To Leslie,’ we had jokes about all the movies, but it’s a real balance of making jokes about what that room has seen and what the home audience has seen. Thankfully, we had a ‘Top Gun’/ ‘Avatar’ year with the blockbuster movies. It’s really hard because jokes that would do really well with industry people, people at home don’t know what you’re talking about. You’ve got to try to please both audiences at the same time, which is a balancing act for sure.”

One thing Kimmel decided to do when he took the gig was not focus on big pre-taped packages or flashy stunts. “We’ve put a ton of time and energy into these big produced bits, whether they be live, like we did with the movie theater break-in or the Hollywood tour bus that surprised people and brought them in. We’ve also done bigger pre-taped things like we’ve done with Matt Damon. We discovered that those are a ton of work and without a lot of payoff. So, we decided to stick with some simplicity, jokes and focus on the people in the room.

“I think it went well, but it was risky for us,” she added. “Because we tend to lean on these bigger produced bits. But we just broke it down to the jokes. And we wrote, I think, 17 rounds of jokes. I mean, we have stacks and stacks of jokes that will never be seen.”

Here are a few more behind-the-scenes tidbits about this year’s Oscars telecast, via McNearney and Rob Mills, Walt Disney TV exec VP of unscripted and alternative entertainment:

Jimmy Kimmel checked and double checked how to pronounce Rihanna’s name. Viewers used to hearing “Rihanna” with a soft “a” were confused when Kimmel said her name with an “anna” that rhymes with “banana.” But it turns out many of us have been pronouncing it wrong (and there are plenty of videos online explaining this).

Michael B. Jordan, Pedro Pascal, Michelle Yeoh, Steven Spielberg and Andrew Garfield were informed moments before air that they’d be singled out as part of Kimmel’s “security team.” “I went up to Michelle, Michael, Pedro, Andrew, Steven Spielberg, and we told them minutes before the show started, ‘you’re going to be on camera, Jimmy’s going to refer to you as part of his security team. If you could just show some kind of physical support or give him a fist bump,’” McNearney said. “They were all game and they were very supportive.” Garfield was asked if he’d do a Spider-Man web sling, but “he made his own choice. Which I think was even better,” she added.

There was someone inside that Cocaine Bear suit that you might recognize — but Kimmel’s saving that reveal for his show. “Elizabeth Banks wrote that whole thing,” McNearney said of the bit. “She’s great. She has perfect comedic timing.”

Lady Gaga was finally, officially confirmed to perform on Friday. “Thursday afternoon, we started hearing rumblings,” Mills said. “And then she rehearsed on Friday with the other musical performer nominees… There wasn’t much of a Gaga saga as it seemed. She’s in the middle of shooting a very high-profile movie right now [the next ‘Joker’]. So, it is kind of hard to just drop everything and come perform at the Oscars, especially when you’re an icon like Lady Gaga. You sometimes assume that people are going to show up and perform. And I think we kind of did. Then we made peace with the fact that it’s probably not going to work out scheduling wise. The irony, though, is she didn’t have a lot of time to think about it and committed a day or two before the show, otherwise I don’t know that she would have done something as stripped down as that. It was really memorable.”

Kimmel and his writers decided not to go harder with slap jokes because they felt it was Chris Rock’s story to tell. “We didn’t want to make this year all about last year,” McNearney said. “I cannot tell you how many Will Smith jokes we had that then we got rid of. We think that only the best for that room made it. There were certainly some that went harder, but we didn’t think that was our place to do that. That should be Chris Rock, not us.

“But we really liked the idea of making fun of the reaction to it last year,” she added. “I think we’re all still in a bit of shock of how that went down and how after watching that violence everyone had to then sit through an acceptance speech.”

Malala Yousafzai, Colin Farrell and Jessica Chastain didn’t know they’d be singled out on the broadcast. “Malala was an excellent sport,” McNearney said. “We ran into her at the Vanity Fair party. She couldn’t have been nicer, more gracious. She was worried, ‘I hope my answer was okay.’ Well, we thought her answer was amazing.”

Pedro Pascal’s appearance as a presenter wasn’t timed to go up against the season finale of HBO’s “The Last of Us.” But the timing of that hit series’ finale did concern ABC : “We had two things that worried me last night,” Mills said. “One was Daylight Savings, which usually people are then outside longer at night. Ratings will go down on the first night of Daylight Savings. And then ‘The Last of Us’ was interesting. It felt like HBO was saying ‘We’re not scared of the Oscars.’ Our ratings are up. I think we’ve proven that the Oscars are still the defining event in entertainment TV during the season. And who knows, maybe next year, they might drop it early or wait a week.”

Kimmel is now the frontrunner to host the Oscars again next year. “There is whispering about that,” McNearney said. “We’d like to take a vacation first and then come back. Jimmy has gotten such positive feedback from the network and from the Academy and from Billy Crystal, who texted him. He’s capable of doing it as long as he wants to. I just don’t know if we have enough electrolytes and coffee.

“It is a grueling, hard job,” said McNearney. “Jimmy fixates like you wouldn’t believe on every single joke, on every moment. Rounds and rounds and rounds of jokes, rewriting that monologue multiple times, he has several stress dreams. He wakes up in the middle of the night and thinks the prompter went out.”

Oh, and by the way, this year the teleprompter did indeed go out. Kimmel had to ad-lib when introducing the editing award. “I knew it, because he totally went off script,” McNearney said. “He came out talking about the importance of editing anytime you read a text from your dad. I was like, what’s happening? Within three seconds, one of our writers, said the prompter’s out. I could just see it in his face. And he came back, he’s like, ‘I just did all that without prompter!’”

Mills knows viewers who tuned in for live chaos like last year’s slap might have been disappointed. “I’m sorry there really was not anything crazy,” he said. “All the envelopes were correct, no one slapped anyone, there was no egregiously bad dance number. We’ve come such a long way from Rob Lowe and Snow White to ‘Naatu Naatu.’ There really was nothing but good stuff.”

McNearney said she went into this year’s Oscars nervous about the fact that the return of eight awards and performances from all five song nominees might slow the show down.

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‘the daily show’s jon stewart returned to host regular monday show: “i just don’t know how much longer i could do this”, david letterman calls tom cruise oscar no-show excuse “nonsense” on ‘jimmy kimmel live’.

By Greg Evans

NY & Broadway Editor

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Where was Tom Cruise ?

That was David Letterman ‘s burning question for Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel when he made an appearance on last night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!

And the former Late Night host wasn’t buying the official excuse.

“We don’t know where Tom Cruise was,” Kimmel said in response to Letterman’s query. “We heard production issues.”

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Kimmel sided with Letterman on the Risky Business actor’s excuse. “It’s very non-specific,” he said. “But we have no idea what happened,” adding, “It seems like he should’ve been there, but he was not there. Maybe he feels like he wasn’t going to win so he didn’t want to come.”

When Kimmel called the Cruise “the prince of Hollywood,” Letterman shot back, “More to the power of your success. If Mr. Big Shot was not there the show was still never more successful. Nice going, Jimmy.”

Letterman also had some questions about the Oscar appearance of Cocaine Bear, specifically regarding who was inside the hilariously bad costume. Kimmel has claimed that Will Smith’s former music partner DJ Jazzy Jeff was inside the fur suit.

“I know for a fact that that’s a lie,” Letterman said. “I know it wasn’t Jazzy Jeff.”

“It was,” said an unconvincing Kimmel. “It was DJ Jazzy Jeff. Did you see him?”

“It could have been me,” Letterman responded. “Why wasn’t it me?”

Watch the interview above.

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Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel might've cut that Scientology joke if Tom Cruise attended

"We were so disappointed when we learned a few days before the Oscars that he wouldn’t be there," a Jimmy Kimmel associate said.

Tom Cruise dodged Sunday's Oscars ceremony — and a jab about Scientology — by skipping Hollywood's biggest night, but host Jimmy Kimmel's monologue might've taken a different turn if the Top Gun: Maverick nominee had attended.

Kimmel opened the ABC telecast with a joke about Cruise's absence, despite being nominated as a producer for his work on director Joseph Kosinski's Top Gun: Maverick .

"Tom Cruise with his shirt off in that beach football scene? L. Ron Hubba Hubba, you know what I'm saying?" Kimmel joked. When asked by Variety if the talk show host and comedian would've included the quip if Cruise was in the audience, Jimmy Kimmel Live producer Molly McNearney opened up about the ever-evolving plan for the show.

"We had about a three-minute chunk of the monologue dedicated to Tom Cruise, honoring him and his role in reviving the movie industry. We were so disappointed when we learned a few days before the Oscars that he wouldn't be there," McNearney told the publication. "Jimmy loves him and really wanted to celebrate him."

EW has reached out to representatives for Kimmel for comment.

Though Cruise didn't attend, his Top Gun: Maverick costar Jennifer Connelly got a special shout-out during Kimmel's monologue, as did Lady Gaga , who was nominated for Best Original Song for her soundtrack single "Hold My Hand" — which she later performed during the show.

Kimmel also made quips about reigning Best Actor winner Will Smith , who was also absent after being banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years after he slapped Chris Rock live on stage at last year's ceremony.

"We want you to have fun, we want you to feel safe, and most importantly, we want me to feel safe," Kimmel said. "So we have strict policies in place. If anyone in this theater commits an act of violence at any point during the show, you will be awarded the Oscar for Best Actor and permitted to give a 19-minute-long speech."

Watch Kimmel's 2023 Oscars monologue above.

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David Letterman Calls Out Tom Cruise for Skipping Oscars

“Here’s something that may be a little sensitive,” Letterman said during his big sit-down with Jimmy Kimmel. “Where was Tom Cruise?”

Matt Wilstein

Senior Editor

For the very first time on Wednesday night, Jimmy Kimmel got his childhood hero David Letterman to sit down with him in his Los Angeles theater. And just a few days after the Academy Awards, the former late-night host was apparently in the mood to gab about Hollywood.

“This was a sensational moment for the country and the network and yourself,” Letterman told the host of his third time hosting the Oscars . “You know what this makes you, don ’ t you? You are the Prince of Hollywood.” He then added, “Congratulations, because you resurrected this carcass, and the network and the Academy ought to be very grateful, nice going.”

By contrast, when Letterman hosted the award show in 1995, he joked, “It was such a bomb, the Academy thought maybe it had been terrorists.” He went on to gush over the bit he “truly enjoyed” in which Kimmel had to tell Cocaine Bear to leave Malala Yousafzai alone .

Kimmel actually tried his best to change the subject and talk about his guest’s more recent foray into serious interviews , but Letterman wasn’t having it. “The show was so bad that the Academy got together and they said, ‘We can never let this happen again!’” he joked, “so they shut down the film industry for one year.”

But then, Letterman finally shifted from self-deprecation to punch up to an even bigger celebrity target.

“Here’s something that may be a little sensitive,” Letterman said. “Where was Tom Cruise?”

After a short pause, Kimmel replied, “We don’t know where Tom Cruise was. We heard ‘production issues.’” When Letterman called that “nonsense,” Kimmel said, “Exactly, it ’ s very non-specific, but we have no idea what happened.”

According to reports leading up to the ceremony, the Top Gun: Maverick star was unable to attend because he was filming the latest Mission: Impossible movie overseas while other rumors indicated that he was trying to avoid a run-in with ex-wife Nicole Kidman. It later emerged that he had been in London celebrating Michael Caine’s 90th birthday .

“Tom Cruise should have been there, celebrating his big jet-pack maverick show,” Letterman told Kimmel, who suggested that perhaps he skipped the event because he knew he wasn’t going to win. “Between you and me, he should have been there, right?”

“Yeah, of course,” Kimmel replied, “he is the Prince of Hollywood.”

For more, listen and subscribe to The Last Laugh podcast .

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast  here .

READ THIS LIST

Nicole Kidman Allegedly Wants Tom Cruise To Convince Their Kids To See Her

Apparently, Tom's influence could help repair Nicole's relationship with their kids, but he's unlikely to get involved.

• Nicole Kidman struggles with relationship with adopted kids, wants help from Tom Cruise to bridge the gap.
• Kids Connor and Isabella are loyal to Tom Cruise due to Scientology connection, causing distance from Nicole.
• Despite the distance, Nicole refuses to speak negatively about Scientology, respecting her kids' beliefs.

Tom Cruise proved he’s close with his oldest children when a group photo surfaced on social media earlier this month , but apparently Nicole Kidman doesn’t have the same close relationship – and she wants her ex-husband’s help.

Speaking to Heat Magazine , a source claimed that Connor and Isabella Cruise have little communication with their famous mother, but she’s hopeful it could change.

'Mission Impossible': The Cast Ranked From Richest To Poorest

Tom could help repair nicole’s relationship with their kids.

“There’s still love and respect between Nicole and the kids, but she rarely sees them,” the source shared. “The big issue is they’re both still attached to Scientology, while Nicole left the church. Their loyalty is to their dad, who raised them after Nicole filed for divorce.”

“She would have loved to share custody, but she wasn’t able to make it happen. Now, she really has no choice but to accept the way things are, even though it’s painful for her,” they continued.

While the insider said the kids may change their tune if Tom encouraged them to see Nicole, they said she’s not holding her breath. “She worries that they’ve drifted to a point where she’ll be lucky if she’ll ever get to see them. It would help if Tom were to encourage it, but that’s not likely,” they explained.

What Are Tom Cruise And Nicole Kidman's Adopted Kids Doing Today?

Nicole has previously admitted Connor and Bella chose to live with Cruise after their divorce, causing distance between them. In 2007, Kidman said they even call her by their her first name.

“My kids don't call me mommy, they don't even call me mom. They call me Nicole, which I hate and tell them off for it,” she said.

Nicole Refuses To Talk Negatively About Her Kids’ Religion

Despite the reported distance between Nicole and her kids, she’s refused to talk negatively about their controversial religion, Scientology. Isabella is even a high ranking church official, revealing a few years she was named an auditor in a promotional video for the church.

"I've chosen not to speak publicly about Scientology. I have two children who are Scientologists—Connor and Isabella—and I utterly respect their beliefs,” she said in 2013.

A few years later, in 2018, the Big Little Lies actress opened up about why she’s so private about her oldest children (she also shares two younger daughters with her current husband Keith Urban).

"I'm very private about all that. I have to protect all those relationships. I know 150 per cent that I would give up my life for my children because it's what my purpose is," Nicole said to Australia’s WHO magazine.

Tom and Nicole first met on the set of their film Days of Thunder in 1989, and their relationship quickly blossomed. They married in December 1990, and later adopted two children, Isabella in 1992 and Connor in 1995. However, after eleven years of marriage, they divorced in 2001, citing irreconcilable differences.

Kidman went on to marry country singer Keith Urban in 2006, while Cruise married actress Katie Holmes in 2006 as well, though they divorced in 2012.

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Watch Jon Stewart surprise Jimmy Kimmel's kids on drive to school, sing Olivia Rodrigo song: 'They’ve corrupted me!'

• Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

"So have you guys ever heard of a diarrhea factory?" Stewart asked Kimmel 's kids as the car pulled up to Arby's.

Last year, Jimmy Kimmel ’s kids received the surprise of their lives when Olivia Rodrigo popped by to join them on their way to school . Now, a new famous friend has joined their carpool and, well, consider the kids a little less excited.

In a clip from Monday's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live , the late night host, his wife Molly McNearney, and their two children Jane and Billy appeared to be on their routine route to school when Jimmy suddenly pulled over to pick up a hitchhiking man standing in some heavy foliage. The cameras then revealed it was Daily Show host Jon Stewart , who happily scooted his way into the middle seat of the car for the rest of their adventure.

“Do you guys know who this is?” Jimmy asked his kids. When they didn’t reply, Stewart then added, “They’re overwhelmed. You know they say don’t meet your heroes.”

Jimmy Kimmel Live/Youtube

In an attempt to connect with Billy and Jane, Stewart asked if they felt the same level of excitement about driving to school with him as they had with Rodrigo. When Jane agreed, Stewart leaned forward and stage-whispered to Jimmy and Molly, “Your daughter is the nicest person I’ve ever met. She’s being so kind to me. It’s unbelievable.”

He also finally took a moment to properly introduce himself to the kids.

“So, my name is Jon Stewart of The Daily Show , but he only works on Mondays because he’s very old and, I don’t wanna say ‘brittle,’ but if he were to work as much as my mom and my dad work, he would turn into a bag of dust,” Stewart explained. “As you get older, a lot of the moisture from your body just evaporates. So when you’re young, you’re a grape, and then you get to be my age and you’re a raisin. And then you can only work Mondays.”

Explaining the aging process must've given Stewart a healthy appetite, because Jimmy pulled the car over in front of an Arby’s for a bite to eat. The comedian then asked the kids, “So have you guys ever heard of a diarrhea factory?” 

A laughing Jimmy then came to the fast food chain’s defense, telling Billy and Jane that Arby’s actually catered his 30th birthday. In response, Molly quipped, “That was before I came along.”

The whole car then rocked out to Rodrigo’s “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl,” with Stewart and Jane screaming its lyrics. When Billy voiced his concern about whether or not there was a “bad word’ in the song, Stewart suggested that he “shout a bad word and we’ll just pretend that it’s in the song” and unexpectedly set off a hilariously bad chain reaction.

“F---!” Billy shouted as all three adults covered their faces to hide their laughter. When Jane joined in with her own curse word, Molly replied, “No! What is happening!”

Jimmy took the situation as a learning experience, and told Molly, “We have to be more careful about who we let our kids hang around with.” However, Stewart interjected, “They’ve corrupted me! I didn’t do anything! I was just sitting here!”

Watch Stewart join the family on their way to school in the clip above.

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Nikki glaser recounts being called “some pretty awful things” during netflix’s tom brady roast.

Since Sunday, people have been praising the comedian for her jokes about the football legend.

By Christy Piña

Christy Piña

Associate Editor

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Nikki Glaser has been praised for her set during Netflix’s Tom Brady roast, but it wasn’t all smiles for her.

The comedian stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday to promote her upcoming special, Someday You’ll Die . Before chatting about the HBO project, the late night host added to the compliments for Glaser, noting that she was “fantastic.”

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The two went back and forth discussing if the host and comedian is also affected by some of the comments said during a roast, and he said he is a little bit sometimes. But he pointed out that Glaser gets the “dumbest” jokes about her, primarily focusing on her sex life, which seems “very outdated.”

“Yes, it does. It’s nice though because you go, ‘Oh, they’re not coming after anything else, and it’s just I’m one of the only women on here.’ In fact, I was one of two women on the day. Backstage, our room — literally everyone’s rooms have their names on them — ours just said ‘female’ on it. I literally think it was just the bathroom. Like they were just like, ‘Fine. Women.’ So, yeah, it was an intimidating thing to walk into.”

Glaser admitted she may have fed into the sex life comments a bit by “throwing myself” at Brady during the roast. Kimmel joked it’s hard not to do that with the football star, adding that he did it too when the former Patriots quarterback went on his show.

“It’s insane to look at,” she said of Brady. “He’s unreal. One of my jokes, I was gonna say he’s like AI but without the intelligence. I do think he’s smart though, so I pulled it at the last minute.”

She told the late-night host there were a few things she felt were off-limits for her coverage, like Kim Kardashian, who was also on hand to roast the athlete, and how he often kissed his children on the lips.

The Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady is now streaming on Netflix .

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Jimmy Kimmel Wants To Testify In Donald Trump’s Trial: “I Need To Be In Court”

J immy Kimmel is ready to put his legal hat on. After his interview with Stormy Daniels was brought up during Donald Trump‘s hush-money trial, the comedian jokingly offered to testify in court.

“I am very excited, I am very proud, I’m exhilarated even,” Kimmel said at the top of Thursday night’s (May 2) broadcast of Jimmy Kimmel Live.

He continued, “Because from here on, we aren’t just following the Donald Trump drama in New York, we are part of it now. We are part of the official record of The People vs. Donald Trump.”

The prosecutor in Trump’s case showed texts between Stormy Daniels’ former lawyer Keith Davidson, who was “surprised and concerned” about her 2018 appearance on the late-night show, and Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Coen that were exchanged while her interview with Kimmel was airing.

“I don’t want to brag, but it’s the first time a late-night talk show has been entered into evidence at the criminal trial for a president of the United States,” Kimmel joked. “Johnny Carson didn’t get that with Nixon. We got it here!”

Kimmel’s interview with Daniels came shortly after Trump delivered the State of the Union. He asked whether she actually signed the letter claiming she never had an affair with the former president, to which she “implied” that it wasn’t her signature.

However, Kimmel felt that lawyers probably should’ve shown his other 2018 interview with Daniels in which she played a game of “Which Orange Mushroom Looks Most Like Trump’s Junk.”

“This is why I need to be  in  court,” he said. “I’m sick of being out of the court; I want to be in it. Why was I not asked to testify? It’s outrageous!”

Kimmel’s day in court might be far-fetched — but the idea he pitched for Ryan Murphy ‘s next true-crime series could be a bit more likely to happen.

“Suffice it to say that when Ryan Murphy makes the nine-part miniseries about this for [fuboTV], I will be in it,” he said. “I will assume someone like George Clooney or Chris Hemsworth will be playing me. Guillermo, you will be in it. You will be played by Pedro Pascal .”

Jimmy Kimmel Live  airs on weeknights at 11:35/10:35c on ABC. Check out last night’s monologue above.

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Jimmy Kimmel on Stormy Daniels’s testimony: ‘Yes we do need to know the details’

Late-night hosts discuss former adult film star Stormy Daniels’s testimony in Trump’s criminal hush-money trial in New York

Late-night hosts talked awkward moments and shocking revelation from Stormy Daniels’s day on the witness stand at Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money trial.

• Jimmy Kimmel

Stormy Daniels, the former adult film star and the person Donald Trump allegedly paid off for silence before the 2016 election, took the witness stand in the former president’s criminal hush-money trial on Tuesday, and “I can only imagine the nervous farting was off the charts,” joked Jimmy Kimmel .

Daniels testified for three hours and 45 minutes, and things “got off to an awkward start after the bailiff swore her in on a rolled-up Forbes magazine”, Kimmel quipped. “When she raised her right hand, Trump instinctively shouted ‘I’m a bad boy, mommy!’”

Before her testimony, Judge Juan Merchan assured the court that Daniels wouldn’t include graphic details. “Now, that’s where I need to object,” said Kimmel. “Yes, we do need to know the details. Some of us are trying to host a show here.”

Still, there were details. Daniels said her time with Trump was “brief” and that he did not wear a condom, “which is not surprising”, said Kimmel. “He stared directly into an eclipse. Not exactly a safety-first kind of guy.”

Daniels also claimed that they had sex in the missionary position, and that Trump told her she reminded him of his daughter. “Feels like we should lock him up just for that, right?” Kimmel laughed.

Trump, who watched the testimony through a court monitor rather than look at Daniels directly, took to Truth Social after his day in court, declaring the whole affair should be a “MISTRIAL!”

“And then Trump’s lawyers argued that Stormy’s testimony was prejudicial, because how’s the jury supposed to be fair now that they’ve visualized him in the missionary position?” Kimmel reported. “How are any of us supposed to move forward from that, really?”

• Stephen Colbert

“Stormy Daniels took the stand to do what she does best, and that’s spank Donald Trump,” said Stephen Colbert on The Late Show.

Like Kimmel, Colbert also objected to the judge’s decision that Daniels omit “any description of genitalia” from her testimony.

“Boo! We want to hear about his itsy bitsy, teeny weenie, those aren’t polka dots linguine,” Colbert quipped.

Daniels’s testimony offered a “thorough retelling of their one night of passionate sexing”, Colbert explained. “When Trump and Stormy became the celebrity couple Stumpy. I’m sorry, I forgot – not supposed to describe his genitalia.”

Daniels testified that she met Trump in 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament, when he was 60 and she was 27. According to Daniels, Trump invited her to dinner, but they met at his hotel suite. Trump talked endlessly about himself, she said, and then showed her a magazine that featured him; she told him someone should slap him with the magazine for being rude, and then spanked him with it “right on the butt”.

“There it is, his presidential legacy. Forget the Lincoln Memorial, one day schoolchildren will travel to Washington DC to see the Trump monument,” joked Colbert over a mock statue of the rolled magazine.

Later in the evening, when she was exiting the bathroom, Daniels said she saw Trump sitting on the bed in boxers and a T-shirt, which she likened to a “jump scare”.

“It’s all in the new horror movie Saw: Donald Trump’s Penis,” Colbert joked.

• Seth Meyers

With Daniels on the witness stand and Trump’s penchant for dozing off in court, “Trump technically slept with her again,” joked Seth Meyers of Tuesday’s court proceedings.

Daniels testified that in phone calls after their meeting in 2006, Trump called her “honeybunch”.

“Honeybunch? And you guys think Biden is old?” said Meyers. As for the rolled Forbes magazine that reportedly had Trump’s face on it – “I think it’s weird that the hotel even had a copy of Bankruptcy Aficionado,” Meyers joked.

“At some point, we’re just piling on. The man was our president,” Meyers deadpanned. “You know what I mean? Who among us hasn’t slept with an adult film star. And then tried to cover it up and become president. Yet we look down our noses at him? I don’t think so. Shame on us, shame on me!”

Meyers then barreled ahead, noting that Daniels testified that she and Trump had sex in the missionary position. “‘Don’t even think about it!’ shouted Judge Merchan to the sketch artist,” Meyers joked.

• Late-night TV roundup

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