Does Suri Cruise need better PR?
By Stephanie Berlin

We all remember that fateful day in May 2005 when Tom Cruise jumped on Oprah’s famous yellow couch, pumped his fists into the air and screamed, “I love this woman!”

It was the first in a long stream of odd occurrences from Cruise and perhaps still the most vividly remembered. The New York Times wrote that Cruise “jumped around the set, hopped onto a couch, fell rapturously to one knee and repeatedly professed his love for his new girlfriend.” One Washington Post columnist called the stunt an act of “frantic, naked desperation.” Even the public saw this moment as a publicity stunt gone wrong: A poll in People found that 62 percent of readers believed the “TomKat” affair was merely a publicity stunt.

How does someone go from being one of America’s most beloved movie stars to being the butt of the joke on virtually every late night talk show and in movies like this month’s Scary Move 4? Cruise’s more open attitute toward his relationships and his ideas on psychiatry have been widely attributed to the departure of his publicist of 14 years, Pat Kingsley, in March 2004.

Since Kingsley left and was replaced with a new publicist, Cruise’s sister, we’ve witnessed a year of odd appearances and statements from a man who used to stay (relatively) out of the tabloid spotlight. After the couch incident, he publicly berated Brooke Shields for using medication to help her through her postpartum depression. He engaged in an argument with Matt Lauer over psychiatry claiming, “You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do.” Cruise then went on to state in an Entertainment Weekly interview that psychiatry “is a Nazi science.” And in a recent interview with GQ magazine Cruise went so far as to claim that he might eat Katie Holmes’ placenta after the birth of the couple’s child. He was quoted as saying, “I'm gonna eat the placenta. I thought that would be good. Very nutritious. I'm gonna eat the cord and the placenta right there.”

Recently, Cruise has fired his sister and replaced her with yet another publicist, Paul Bloch – a move it has been suggested, conducted in order to curtail publicity about his unique views and his relationship with Katie Holmes.

But is it too little too late? Even in articles announcing the birth of his daughter, Suri, there are mentions of the couch incident, his religious beliefs and his bouts with Shields and Lauer over psychiatry. The negative publicity Cruise has generated through his actions has even begun affecting his movies. War of the Worlds director Steven Spielberg hinted that he was frustrated by media coverage of Cruise’s relationship during promotion of the film. And with Mission: Impossible: 3 due this summer, it will be interesting to see if the world will be able to separate Tom Cruise the man from Tom Cruise the actor.

And all because of bad publicity. Sure, Cruise could be seen as an extreme example, but it just goes to show that good PR can mean the difference between being seen as the crazy guy who jumps on couches or as a loving father and husband … or in your case, being percieved as a company that doesn’t know what it’s doing or as one that’s at the top of its game.

E-mail the author: Stephanie Berlin

Click here to e-mail this article to a friend.

Archived Articles