Tom Cruise Slammed For Shameless 'Top Gun' Plug At Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee Celebration
May 16 2022, Published 2:47 p.m. ET
Folks in the United Kingdom are less than thrilled with Tom Cruise's contribution to The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebration: A Gallop Through History, an event to kick off the weeks of celebrations surrounding the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's accession to the British throne in 1952.
As ITV co-hosts Phillip Schofield and Julie Etchingham waited for the Queen to arrive at Windsor Castle, they shared an interview with Cruise, and what he said didn't resonate well.
The actor, after some brief comments about the monarch, started essentially plugging his upcoming film Top Gun: Maverick, prompting angry reactions on social media from the Queen's subjects.
The show as a whole did not fare much better. In a scathing review for The Guardian, Stuart Heritage wrote: “In a duplicitous move, ITV had basically just filmed the annual Royal Windsor Horse Show and passed it off as a once-in-a-lifetime jubilee celebration. The repackaging was so shameless that, for the most part, it was unclear whether the Queen actually knew any of this was for her jubilee or not."
During Cruise's long, illustrious film career, he has never shared the screen with Dame Helen Mirren. On Sunday night, he came perhaps as close as he ever will, as the actress followed him on the ITV Jubilee live special, appearing in costume as Queen Elizabeth I to deliver a speech about the Spanish Armada.
Schofield, who also co-hosts ITV's breakfast television program This Morning, told his program colleague Holly Willoughby that Cruise broke protocol at the Sunday jubilee event when he chose to walk to the mobile studio to film the interview portion.
“He caused absolute chaos in Windsor,” Schofield said. “So the police then obviously had to do serious crowd control at the drop of a hat, but he met everybody.”
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On the broadcast itself, Cruise read off the teleprompter to introduce the Kings Troop Royal Artillery. On Thursday, he will be at Leicester Square for the royal premiere of Top Gun: Maverick, where he will welcome the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
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