Tom Cruise 'Idolizes' Muhammad Ali

by **J The Kidd** Thu Dec 18, 2008 5:21 pm

In a blitzkrieg of publicity to prevent his Nazi film Valkyrie from
placing third to Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson’s Marley and Me and
Brad Pitt’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, or worse, not even
make it into the top five, Tom Cruise is working overtime to come
across as human and down to Earth.

He was on MTV commenting on The Hills, things have turned from glib to
chummy with Matt Lauer, you can pretty much turn to any channel and see
his grin and “just one of the guys” demeanor. Poor guy must realize all
the damage that has to be repaired from his couch jumping fiasco and
crusade against psychology that alienated a big chunk of his audience -
Nevermind the overenthusiastic Scientology promotional videos.

Well, in his latest ploy to seem human, he talks about being
star-struck when he met his childhood idol Muhammad Ali in 1998 at Time
Magazine’s 75th Anniversary Gala. The Jerry Maguire star said,

“I got to meet my hero when I was growing up, Muhammad Ali. And I
got to toast him at an event… Ali was the guy when I was growing up.”