Tom Cruise In Person

 Because he's in the entertainment news right now regarding his new action movie, I thought I'd share this Tom Cruise story from the late 80s.

I had a longtime, very dear friend named Gail Joseph. We did some TV work together in New York City. Then she moved to Southern California where she became head of NBC TV publicity in Burbank. If you mentioned her name to any of the FRIENDS cast members, he or she would definitely know it, Gail loved classic movies and classic TV shows.

Whenever I had VH1 or other TV business to do in Los Angeles, Gail would make time to see me and hang out. One night, around a 4th of July weekend, we went to have dinner and laugh. Gail picked a family-oriented Asian/American restaurant in the Hollywood area. She mentioned that the food was good. We walked into the large restaurant and thought it had closed for the night. That's how unpopulated it was. The bartender enthusiastically motioned for us to come in and said, "It's All-Star night." In Southern California, All-Star night is a hugely popular Dodgers baseball event/game. And it was 4th of July weekend. That explained the few customers.

While we were laughing and eating, Gail looked past me and then lowered her voice.

"Don't make it obvious. Don't be like Lucy Ricardo when she saw William Holden seated next to her at the Brown Derby. Turn around casually and look at the table to the right against the wall."

I did. Seated at that table, dining with a companion, was Tom Cruise.

Gail went on, "Now look three tables to the left."

Gail and I were within earshot. Two teen girls, visiting California, were wiggling in frustration trying to explain to their sweet, sweater-clad dad who the man sitting behind him was. The girls were excited, frustrated and trying not to make it obvious that they'd recognized a major movie star. But Dad was responding with "Who?" "Who is he?" "TOP what?"

He got up from his table and walked over to Tom Cruise's table where he very politely interrupted, explained that he was a Midwest tourist and added that his two daughters told him they were sitting near a movie star. The two girls were melting in humiliation.

Tom Cruise, with a warm and broad smile, stood up, shook the man's hand and asked to meet his daughters.

Well you can just imagine how stunned and in a sheer state of glee they were. Not only did Tom Cruise introduce himself to the girls, when he noticed that there was a camera on their table, he posed for a photo with them taken by Dad. Cruise posed for pics with the girls together and then with each one individually. Then he had one of them take a photo while he posed with their dad.

It was a totally delightful, funny and charming celebrity encounter to witness. And it happened when no more than a dozen people were in the restaurant and no entertainment reporters with cameras were present.

I said to Gail, "I hope that when those girls go back to school in the fall, their first homework assignment is to write a paper about what they did over the summer vacation."

Here's a trailer for the TOP GUN star's new movie.