It was a rough four years for Tom Cruise, tarnished by one media scandal or another while he conspicuously started a new family and failed to revive an old studio. But if his laying low this year didn't return things to relative normal, then maybe his well-received impromptu visit Monday to Harvard Law School will finally be the gesture that restores his public touch.
And to think it was all engineered by Scary Hollywood Lawyer Bertram Fields, who carries cease-and-desist boilerplate in his wallet where most people keep family photos. Fields, a 1952 Harvard Law alumnus, was invited to speak to Prof. Bruce Hay's entertainment-law seminar about his long, fire-breathing career in show business. His guest lecture went well enough until about 30 minutes in, when a campus reporter notes that Field's best-known client dropped in announcing "he was there to see Bert speak; after all, he'd never had a chance to hear him lecture before":
Making his way to the very back row of the classroom, Cruise took a seat quietly amongst the other students, and assumed an attentive posture. After quick, smiley glances in his direction, students resumed their normal classroom activities--they raised their hands and asked questions; they GChatted; they took notes; they browsed Net-a-Porter and Bergdorf Goodman. From time to time they would steal a sidelong look at the glowing actor. He would sometimes lean over and share a quiet joke with the student sitting next to him, who, except for these moments, kept her eyes politely trained on her computer.
Throughout his discussion, Fields would refer questions back to Tom, and Cruise would also interject his own experiences. He spoke about tabloid magazines and issues concerning the propriety of celebrity images, working with directors such as the late Stanley Kubrick, and the business of how the rating on movies gets set in the U.S. as opposed to in Europe.
When Fields responded to a student's question by constructing a hypothetical in which Tom demanded that his cat be shipped to Boston as part of a contract, Tom interjected with, "I don't actually have a cat."
Cruise then stuck around for an hour after class to answer more questions, sign autographs, detail Suri's evolved reaction to paparazzi ("Personal space!"), dance, pose for pictures and bank more goodwill than he's had much of a chance to secure since pouncing on Oprah's furniture back in 2005. As PR coups go I've seen worse.
And sure: Hanging out in the hallowed, privileged halls of Harvard Law School isn't quite like housebuilding in hurricane-ravaged Louisiana or anything. Nevertheless, it's not hard to imagine the warm reactions trickling down through the media layers until some Wal-Mart greeter in Des Moines, for reasons they arent even sure of themselves, spots a wall of flat-screen TV's playing Tropic Thunder and says, "You know what? That Cruise guy isn't really so bad." And just in time for Wichita (or whatever they're calling it these days), which he's currently shooting in Boston. Played like a true pro -- for a change. Tom's back!
ยท Tom Cruise plays Harvard Law student for an hour [Harvard Law Record]