S21.E09: Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Zac Efron, Beth Ditto

[Athena]

Quote

Graham is joined by Tom Cruise and Annabelle Wallis, starring in new movie The Mummy, and Zac Efron. Plus music from singer-songwriter Beth Ditto, who performs her single Fire.

[Quof]

Tom is such an annoying little short man, both on GN and everywhere else.  GN is charming with him, as he is with anyone, but you can tell he is thinking "What a twat".

[sugarbaker design]

Really?  The few times TC has been on, Graham has practically given him a tongue bath.  I thought TC was one of the few people that actually impressed Graham.

[dubbel zout]

Graham is very deferential, but I don't think TC is a personal favorite.

[Corgi-ears]

Turns out that Annabelle and Zac did enough Tomworship for Graham's attitude to not matter. Gargh. The couch really needed a British comedian to puncture the nauseating obsequiousness. Thank God for Beth Ditto.

[Matt K]

Looks like Gal Gadot had the right idea.  What a terrible episode.  Beth Ditto was probably the only bright spot.  Should have had her on the entire time.

Edited June 3, 2017 by Matt K

[Bruinsfan]

Ugh, not even halfway though it and all the ass kissing and pandering to Cruise's action hero image is making me nauseous. When I'm hoping Zac Efron starts talking about his unfunny Baywatch movie as relief, you know it's bad.

 

Did Gadot have a scheduling conflict, or did Cruise insist she be bumped so there wouldn't be clips of a more interesting movie competing with his?

Edited June 11, 2017 by Bruinsfan

[msani19]

I just turned back to this after watching Orphan Black and I saw some kind of attempt at dancing. Ummm, not to be rude but WTF was that?!  That was embarrassing and quite disturbing. I just can't understand how people can't hear the beat! I also don't like Tom Cruise, but I never have. I was a kid during Top Gun and I never thought he was good looking or interesting ever. But that's neither here nor there. 

Zac Efron seems pleasant but dim and his eyes seem way too close together, but I would still enjoy rubbing my hands over his abs. I'm shallow. That man stays in a gym. Don't know who the non-descript blonde lady was, she was in the movie? She seems pleasant enough but aren't we done with the interchangeable blonde ladies yet? Well I'm done with them but good for her!

[sum]

2 hours ago, Bruinsfan said:

Ugh, not even halfway though it and all the ass kissing and pandering to Cruise's action hero image is making me nauseous. When I'm hoping Zac Efron starts talking about his unfunny Baywatch movie as relief, you know it's bad.

Did Gadot have a scheduling conflict, or did Cruise insist she be bumped so there wouldn't be clips of a more interesting movie competing with his?

Probably because of this? ‘Wonder Woman’ London Premiere Canceled in Wake of Manchester Attack I don't think she was in London at all.

I totally agree with the first part, btw. I'm indifferent to Tom Cruise. Even so, it was just too much I had to turn off the show midway and deleted it for the first time.

[attica]

Well, Beth Ditto's shoes were awesome, anyway. And the red chair peeps were good. So not a total loss!

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 6/3/2017 at 11:31 AM, Corgi-ears said:

Turns out that Annabelle and Zac did enough Tomworship for Graham's attitude to not matter. Gargh. The couch really needed a British comedian to puncture the nauseating obsequiousness. Thank God for Beth Ditto.

Yeah, the Tomworship was unearable.  However, as much as I can't stand Tom Cruise (although I wonder if I'd hate him a teeny bit less if it weren't for the Scientology), I have to say that I was impressed when he walked around the table to greet Beth Ditto and shake her hand.  He could have just stayed near his throne and waved.

One thing I noticed was at the beginning, Graham said the people in the audience don't know who the guests are going to be, and how lucky that audience was because it was Tom Cruise.  That makes me wonder about the red chair people recently who had connections to people on the show.  Like somebody's (Ed Sheeran?) childhood friend, and the guy whose first acting job was on Saving Private Ryan and Tom Hanks remembered him (still a favorite moment of mine).  Did they really just happen to be in the audience?

[TexasGal]

10 hours ago, sum said:

Probably because of this? ‘Wonder Woman’ London Premiere Canceled in Wake of Manchester Attack I don't think she was in London at all.

I totally agree with the first part, btw. I'm indifferent to Tom Cruise. Even so, it was just too much I had to turn off the show midway and deleted it for the first time.

I'm 15 minutes in and thinking about it.  God, maybe the worship wouldn't be so bad if he weren't so dull.  I may have said out loud "douche bag" at the Zac motorcycle story.  Didn't help that I'd watched a documentary about Cary Grant before and wow, that man was a star.

Had to come back to say - oh god no!  The dancing!!

Edited June 11, 2017 by TexasGal
Words matter

[msrachelj]

texasgal: i agree with all of your post.

the ass kissing was unbearable.  the zac efron story about the ducati showed what a friggin jerk, egomaniac  he is. there are so many things i dislike about tom cruise. scientology probably topping the list. and that actress that was with him. is there something wrong with her that she makes up those anecdotes ? 

thanks for reminding me about the cary grant doc. i have it recorded and need to go watch it now to do a brain bleach of the egotistical ass. 

[attica]

I snorted audibly when Efron was going on about Tom's acting craft, about the 'arc' of his characters from beginning to end of a movie. If there is a leading actor with less 'arc' than TC, I can't think of him. I mean, back when I still paid to see Cruise movies (oh, it's been twenty years since), my friends and I would laugh that every part he played could be summed up: Cocky young [lawyer/pilot/agent/student/bartender/soldier/pool player] who finds love and/or redemption along the way. This was the reason I stopped paying to see Cruise in movies!  Now, I suppose the 'young' bit isn't applicable, but isn't it basically 'intense [whatever job] who stays intense, and maybe saves the day, or maybe just stays intense'?

[dubbel zout]

Efron got more screams from the crowd when he entered than Cruise did. Heh.

2 minutes ago, attica said:

isn't it basically 'intense [whatever job] who stays intense, and maybe saves the day, or maybe just stays intense'?

He rarely steps outside the action hero roles. It's too bad, because when he does, he's pretty good, I think.

I have to say, Efron made that horizontal pole hold look really, really easy.

Beth Ditto was great. I'm as surprised as Graham that it was her first time on the show.

7 hours ago, attica said:

And the red chair peeps were good.

I wish we'd found out how Moo was related to Graham.

[peeayebee]

7 hours ago, msrachelj said:

texasgal: i agree with all of your post.thanks for reminding me about the cary grant doc. i have it recorded and need to go watch it now to do a brain bleach of the egotistical ass. 

What Cary Grant doc? What did I miss?

 

7 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

I have to say, Efron made that horizontal pole hold look really, really easy.

I wish we'd found out how Moo was related to Graham.

Yes to both of these comments. I liked Efron doing the pole thing, and that was about it. Otherwise, he seemed young, dumb, and interesting. He also told stories really badly.

I was curious about Moo. I actually love her name.

All in all, it wasn't a great show. Cruise didn't do anything to bug me; he was just there. Same with the actress. Most of all, I enjoyed Graham.

[Ailianna]

I may be bucking the crowd, but Beth Ditto did nothing for me.  The song seemed kind of generic, other than that she has males strutting around being sex objects instead of females.  I've never heard of her or the band she apparently used to be in, so I had no idea what she was going to be.  But when she got on the couch, I thought she was obnoxious and rude, and very attention-hogging.  Her comments weren't funny to me, just rude.  

I haven't seen Tom Cruise in anything other than this show in decades, and I was young enough when he was in Top Gun et al that I never saw those in the theatres, so I think he's probably never gotten a single dollar of my money.  I get there was a lot of press regarding his marriage/divorce with Nicole Kidman, but it wasn't something I paid attention to, and I"m only vaguely aware of his Scientology membership.  So here too, I come into it with little or no personal bias for or against him. (Although the title of "world's biggest movie star" seems to shift around somewhat depending on who is in the studio...Graham!)  I didn't think he was horrible, and the actress seemed to really like him, not just in a syncophanitic way, so maybe he's not horrible?  

I agree someone outside the circle would have been a good addition, but it needed someone with quick wits to match the sharp tongue, I think, and there was no one on the couch able to do it.  I wonder how Greg Davies would have done.  I can't imagine what Miriam Margoyles would have done with the time.

[MissLucas]

I also have no Cruise baggage. He's always a complete pro on and not hogging the couch. I loved him asking Catherine Tate doing a bit of her program for example His private persona is a different story but what we get on the couch is okay with me. But I agree the couch lacked something.

[Qoass]

Quote

Efron got more screams from the crowd when he entered than Cruise did. Heh.

That's what kept me interested.  No matter how hard the rest of the gang kept pushing the wonder that is TC, the audience must have noticed that Efron is younger, taller, nicer and more talented.  

Also, I need to don my tinfoil cap for a moment because I could swear that in the cold open, Cruise hesitated just a nanosecond after introducing himself as if he were waiting for the fans to go wild.  They didn't.

[sugarbaker design]

Really bad show, after first segment I FF'ed until Beth Ditto's performance.  Glad I did because red chair was worth it.

[TexasGal]

11 hours ago, peeayebee said:

What Cary Grant doc? What did I miss?

It was on Showtime - Becoming Cary Grant.  It was quite good, watch if you can! 

http://www.npr.org/2017/06/08/532149755/becoming-cary-grant-reveals-the-self-invention-of-a-hollywood-icon

[attica]

According to my grid, it's on tonight at 8:30 (ET).

[peeayebee]

Thanks, TexasGal. I would love to see that, but I don't get Showtime. :(

 

1 hour ago, Ailianna said:

I may be bucking the crowd, but Beth Ditto did nothing for me.  The song seemed kind of generic, other than that she has males strutting around being sex objects instead of females.  I've never heard of her or the band she apparently used to be in, so I had no idea what she was going to be.  But when she got on the couch, I thought she was obnoxious and rude, and very attention-hogging.  Her comments weren't funny to me, just rude.

I so agree with you. She seemed to be trying hard to pull attention. Her "funny" comments didn't work.

[dubbel zout]

2 hours ago, MissLucas said:

He's always a complete pro on and not hogging the couch.

This is true. It's the interviewers who tend to make things uncomfortable, IMO. Graham is less obsequious than many, though. Cruise has finally toned down that fake guffaw he used to do way too often.

[theatremouse]

What would've been funny is if the red chair guy who said he looked like Tom Cruise (but didn't and thus got flipped) had actually been the one in the car in the photo they showed at the beginning. I don't think he was or anything, but the angle of that photo, its level of blur made me think that yeah glancing at it, I'd believe it were Tom if they said it was, but in such a way that I bet the real person, if you saw him in real life and head on, probably doesn't actually look very much like Tom at all. So if the red chair guy had been him, that would've been good.

[dubbel zout]

I'm almost surprised he wasn't the guy in the car, as the show has done that sort of thing in the past. 

[theatremouse]

Right? I thought that's where it was going, but if it were, I would've thought they'd have prepped Graham for that so he wouldn't flip before the reveal. I've always assumed when there was an intentional-connection red chair story Graham's in on it to ensure we actually hear it. So he must not have been, but it surely seemed like the set up.

[Bruinsfan]

On 6/12/2017 at 8:20 AM, Qoass said:

That's what kept me interested.  No matter how hard the rest of the gang kept pushing the wonder that is TC, the audience must have noticed that Efron is younger, taller, nicer and more talented. 

I'm no fan of Cruise's, but Zac Efron's never going to be more talented unless the Devil gives him a really good bargain in exchange for his soul.

[Qoass]

Cruise may be a better actor but I don't remember him being able to sing and dance... I can see Efron in Mission Impossible but TC in High School Musical, even 30 years ago? No way.

Edited June 14, 2017 by Qoass

[sugarbaker design]

1 hour ago, Qoass said:

Cruise may be a better actor but I don't remember him being able to sing and dance...

Rock of Ages?

[Qoass]

Yeah, like I said, he's not a singer.

[Mumbles]

I just got through this episode, it was sitting on my DVR and I really didn't have any burning desire to see it other than Brett Ditto. What a bunch of duds (other than Beth). The "Color of Money"/"Rain Man" discussion reminded me that at one point at his career, Tom *was* a promising, talented actor. I wouldn't be surprised if his ascent in Church of Scientology (and a desire to make $$$$ for the church) led him to the schlock he craps out now. Mission Impossible 6? Come on.