Elder Gays Tell Me about Tom Cruise in the 80s

Apologies don't know what happen here. Stranger Things?

In the 80s he was the biggest star on the planet. He did top gun but then so many critically acclaimed movies like Magnolia, Rain Man, jerry Macguire, etc. Then when he divorced Nicole because he went deep into the cult on L.Ron, he just became action franchise guy. That and the couch jumping made him more of a joke. Sad because he really put out quality work for a while. His place as the number 2 guy in the cult has caused such damage.

The 90’s was his big decade

He first entered my radar screen in a little movie set in military academy.

Sean Penn was in it too. Never heard of Penn till then either.

This was in the fall of '81 or early winter of '82.

Nothing about him stood out to me.

His turn as the beefy nutjob in T.A.P.S. was quite homoerotic.

Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton taught Cruise the definition of A-list career negotiating. Which totally worked in Cruise's favor.

Risky Business is a masterpiece.

Showed peen in All the Right Moves. A good move for Cruise. Aside from the film's awful soundtrack, Cruise is pretty good.

By the time Top Gun hit, his career went into the stratosphere.

From there, Cruise chose which directors work with. And he shot to Joan Crawford-level heights.

I liked that cute movie he made with Shelly Long.

He was a big star, but he was always a walking, talking, sexless Ken doll to me, with the same plastic smile and same plastic personality. He looked good but had zero sex appeal.

I remember the funny gossip thread. A cabin in GA and cream of wheat tale.

Also, the Spielberg and Tom rift.

Sorry for posting in an old thread. But I was a bit surprised to learn that the rumors I read on DL already existed in 1990. Klein, Newman.. At the time of my reading, I thought it was just BS.

[quote] So I crammed, holed up with the oeuvre. Much became clear, including at least one reason why Cruise's own, sexual preference has been a smoldering issue' throughout his career. For the record, the offscreen evidence on the subject remains circumstantial. During his pre-film stint as a Calvin Klein model (and Klein's pre-Kelly period), Cruise was a frequent guest at the Klein Key West estate. His marriage to an older woman dissolved into divorce. A recent Liz Smith item noted that Cruise "has taken up residence very near the Connecticut, estate of Joanne and Paul Newman... But gawkers and fans may as well give up. Both of these big stars are seldom at home here." Like the rumors, Smith leaves an obvious question unanswered: Where's the third star?