Tom Cruise withdrew from the Oscars after hearing that Judd Apatow, who had made some unkind jokes about Cruise at the DGA Awards, was involved in writing Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue. However, this turned out to be untrue, and McNearney expressed the hope that this was not the actual reason for Cruise’s absence
Kimmel had also planned to joke about Tom Cruise’s involvement in “Top Gun Maverick” but had to scrap most of the jokes when Cruise pulled out of the event.
Kimmel hosts a talk show and hopes to have Cruise as a future guest, just as he did a couple of weeks ago while promoting ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’ The ‘L. Ron Hubba Hubba’ joke was not part of the rehearsal, and Cruise had already left by then, so it was not the specific joke that made him uncomfortable.
Kimmel was disappointed that Cruise did not attend because they had talked about real Navy pilots doing a flyover at the top of the Oscars when he was a guest on the show the week before.
The Oscars have a larger problem in that many celebrities only attend if they are nominated or promoting a project. Cruise was nominated, and he is supposed to be a global ambassador for the industry. His attendance at the Oscars would have been great marketing for Hollywood.
