Jimmy Kimmel’s Oscars monologue reportedly focused on Tom Cruise, while staying out of any danger zone, if the Top Gun: Maverick The star actually attended Sunday night’s ceremony.
Yet despite the blockbuster Upper gun sequel being up for half a dozen Oscars, including Best Picture, Cruise opted out of even making a flyover at the Dolby Theater, and instead was absent.
As a result, Kimmel pulled only a few jokes at Cruise, while an alternate draft of his monologue had a “three-minute piece” dedicated to the man who he To has been said, saved the movies after years of pandemic-depressed box office numbers.
Had Cruise been in attendance, “We got about three minutes of the monologue dedicated to Tom Cruise, honoring him and his role in reviving the motion picture industry,” said Oscars executive producer Molly McNearney (who is also Kimmel’s wife and a JKL EP) told our sister site Variety. “We were so disappointed when we found out a few days before the Oscars that he wouldn’t be there. Jimmy loves him and really wanted to celebrate him.
Kimmel’s last monologue did taking a swipe at both Cruise and James Cameron for not being at the Dolby Theater after he pressured moviegoers to return to theaters. There was also an “L. Ron Hubba Hubba” joke that alluded to Cruise’s advocacy for Scientology.
McNearney, however, said that the “L. Ron Hubba Hubba quip would be not were made if Cruise was present.
“Jimmy loves Tom. Tom had just been on [Jimmy Kimmel Live] the previous week,” McNearney said.
The EP also dismissed speculation that Cruise skipped the Oscars upon learning that comedian and Scientology critic Judd Apatow was involved in crafting Kimmel’s monologue.
“Jimmy tends to send his monologue to a group of people he trusts, comedy writers and comedians” for comment only, McNearney admitted. But, “No, Judd wasn’t writing or doing anything for the monologue.”