Yesterday Oprah had Tom Cruise on in front of her screaming studio audience in an attempt to remind us all why we fell in love with the crazy cult spokesperson in the first place. The show featured clips from Tom’s 25 years in film starting with Risky Business as well as taped celebrity tributes from his friends and coworkers. Oprah really laid it on thick with the audience, and emphasized how great Tom’s movies are as well as how normal and likable he is. I was skeptical at first, but she seems to have helped with Cruise’s image immensely. Oprah aired a full episode on Friday in which she visited Cruise’s Telluride home and asked him some semi-difficult questions about his “religion” and the couch jumping episode that aired in May, 2005. On Monday it was all about celebrating Cruise and welcoming him back into the good graces of public opinion. Maybe if Cruise continues distancing himself from his troubled cult he’ll be able to improve his image.

Scientology not mentioned at all; Katie and Suri were not in the audience and did not appear
I came away from the show feeling a little better about Cruise, but not one mention was made of Tom’s religion, Scientology, in the entire show, and you can assume he’s moving away from being so outspoken about it. Katie and Suri did not appear on stage or in the audience, despite a story from an audience member in In Touch yesterday that they came on stage at the end.

Tom launches very good PR website
The thing that really influenced my opinion of Cruise, and I’m not going to act like it didn’t, was his new super slick website, TomCruise.com. It has a well-produced montage of clips from his films, none of which feature his ex wife Nicole Kidman in their work together, set to music. The guy can really act. Jerry Maguire is one of my favorite movies of all time. No mention of Scientology or any apologies or explanations are offered on the site. They really handled it well by focusing on his career and accomplishments.
Dustin Hoffman distances himself from Tom
Hoffman was on for his segment and said that he farted in a closed phone booth while they were filming Rainman in 1988, and that they made it part of the scene. He said that it was his favorite scene in any movie he’s ever done.

Then Hoffman was slurping soup and joking that he had to eat lunch. He said “It’s a tribute that they thought you handsome enough to be my brother in the film. We were quote ‘brothers in the film’ but we were also brothers in life. It’s been extraordinarily painful experience for me not seeing you more often in these 20 years… We haven’t really connected. I hope you understand I’ve had to learn to cope.”

He kind of redeemed it by pretending to eat soup with a cut out version of Tom and saying they were going to go skydiving together, but despite the humor in the clip you can be sure that he’s making it clear that he’s not tight with Tom.

http://www.celeb*tchy.com/11431/tom_cruise_mildly_dissed_by_dustin_hoffm...