Twenty-three years have ticked by since Tom Cruise last attended the annual Oscars nominees luncheon, in support of his performance as the manipulative sex guru Frank TJ Mackey in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. He lost – his third defeat in a decade, following Jerry Maguire and Born on the Fourth of July – and shortly afterwards set aside his Academy Award ambitions to prove his value as a daredevil action star.
But this year’s best picture nod for Top Gun: Maverick, in which Cruise not only starred, but also produced, meant he was back in the ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hilton where he held focus with an exuberant physical display. Cruise bear-hugged Guillermo del Toro so enthusiastically that the great director nearly disappeared underneath him. He pulled Austin Butler in for a backslap that anointed the Elvis star as a member of the leading men’s club, cracked a quip to Everything Everywhere All at Once’s Michelle Yeoh that made her hide a giggle behind her clutch handbag, and closed his eyes to dramatically kiss her co-star Jamie Lee Curtis on the knuckles, then cradle her hands to his chest.
