Rosie O’Donnell Talked About Her Friendship With Tom Cruise, Scientology, And The End Of Ellen’s Show
Before she came out as a lesbian in 2002, Rosie O’Donnell had a running bit on her daytime talk show about her “crush” on Tom Cruise. She’d call him her boyfriend, the most perfect man in the world, and go on about how she wanted him to live in her house and do yard work. Hey, it was the nineties. ‘Twas the season to find Tom Cruise hot. In a recent interview on Sirius XM’s The Jess Cagle Show, Rosie says she still loves Tom and he’s never forgotten her birthday in the 25 years they’ve known each other. But she adds she’s not close enough to call him up to chat about Scientology, which she thinks is a scary cult. Love the cult leader, hate the cult. Got it!
via TooFab:
“He is the only person who never misses my birthday,” Rosie claimed. “In knowing him for 25 years now, he has never missed my birthday or an event in my life.”
She adds (semi-jokingly):
“But every year, I think, ‘What a classy guy he is that he never has forgotten my birthday.’ A lot of people say to me, ‘It’s just a secretary,’ but I don’t believe that. I think he knows that in early March ‘Oh, it’s Rosie’s birthday coming up.’ And he sends me something every single year for 25 years.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Tom’s birthday-remembering abilities. His War of the Worlds co-star Dakota Fanning said he’s sent her beautiful gifts every year since she was 11. Is this a special “going clear” bonus power? Or does Tom have several lower-level Scientologists chained to desktop computers in his basement IMDb-ing all the celebrity birthdays?
Rosie goes on to admit that she and Tommy aren’t actually that close, they’re more celebrity acquaintances:
“Now I don’t know him enough to go, ‘Hey, Tommy, it’s Ro — the Scientology thing — can we chat?'” she continued, referring to Tom’s long-standing membership in the controversial organization. “That’s not my relationship with Tom Cruise. I don’t have his home phone number.”
But she says:
“I love Tom Cruise and I will always love Tom Cruise,” she continued. “I do not understand the Scientology religion. I think it’s a cult and it’s scary.”
Rosie adds that Leah Remini “is a hero for doing what she’s done” in speaking out against Scientology. Here’s the video of Rosie talking about Tommy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bfN2nze8HU&ab_channel=SiriusXM
One-time daytime “Queen of Nice” Rosie also discussed the end of Ellen DeGeneres‘ talk show. Last year she briefly touched on Ellen’s downfall, admitting that she has compassion for Ellen, who might be socially awkward. Now she says that Ellen’s downfall as the “be kind” lady is actually pretty complicated:
“I don’t think it was the ‘be kind’ thing that got her,” O’Donnell said. “I think that’s oversimplification. But it was a lot of things, and it was complicated, and I’m glad that she’s, you know, going to be finished and she can get some time to herself.”
She adds that there’s a lot of pressure to front a popular show. Host Jess Cagle asked Rosie if her “Queen of Nice” nickname came back to bite her in the ass:
“Not in the way that Ellen’s talking about, I think,” O’Donnell said. “But you know, I said the day it came out, ‘Look at this, the Queen of Nice. And [in] a couple of years, it’s going to be the Queen of Lice, the Queen of Fried Rice, you know, the Queen of We Don’t Like Her Anymore.'”
Wow, those are really terrible puns. What about “Queen of Ice?”
Let’s end on this retro clip of a Rosie O’Donnell Show interview with Tom if you’d like to be transported back to a simpler time (when a closeted lesbian had a crush on a male A-List movie star who was moonlighting as a cult prince):
Pic: Wenn.com