Dakota Fanning has been making the rounds to hype horror movie The Watchers, out today. Dakota was on The Kelly Clarkson Show this week, and she confirmed that she is in the company of a few good men in Hollywood who receive annual gifts from Tom Cruise. Tom and Dakota worked together 20 years ago (I know, I can’t believe it either) on the War of the Worlds remake, and after initially giving a then-11-year-old Dakota a Motorola Razr cell phone for her birthday (it was what she wanted), he has since stuck with gifting her shoes. Every year. You had me at stiletto.
Dakota Fanning has Tom Cruise to thank for her massive shoe collection.
The “Uptown Girls” actress, who turned 30 in February, revealed that Cruise, 61, has gifted her a new pair of shoes every year for her birthday during Wednesday’s episode of “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”
“I find this amazing that every year on your birthday, Tom Cruise still sends you a present on your birthday and says, ‘Happy Birthday.’ That’s so nice,” Clarkson said, adding that they worked together “so long ago.”
Fanning said that she had just turned 11 years old when she first worked with Cruise on their 2005 film, “War of the Worlds,” and to celebrate he had gifted her her “first cell phone.”
“It was a Motorola Razr,” Fanning recalled. “I didn’t have anyone to call but I just wanted a Razr so bad. And I must have been talking about it a lot because that’s what he got me. It was such a great memory.”
However, since then, Cruise has honored her birthday every year by sending a new pair of shoes.
“He always sends me the same thing every year, after the cellphone,” Fanning said, adding that she always “loved shoes” when she was little.
She continued, “I started to be able to fit into really small adult shoes when I was on the ‘War of the Worlds’ press tour so I was very excited about them.
And so, from that birthday on, he always sends me shoes.”
Clarkson called the gift choice “so nice” but “so random.”
“You must have a massive shoe collection brought to you by Tom Cruise,” Clarkson joked, to which Fanning responded with a belly laugh.
Cruise is known for gifting his friends and co-stars with lavish presents constantly; he famously sends more than 300 people a special coconut cake at Christmas time and paid for “Top Gun: Maverick” co-star Glen Powell to get his pilot’s license.
What is the deal with this coconut cake?! Granted, it’s not my personal favorite flavor; I do not like it in my soda, I do not like it in my cake, I do like it in my Thai curry. But somehow coconut seems like a wildly exotic choice for Tom Cruise. For some reason I would’ve pegged him for a yellow cake with chocolate frosting man, instead. Who knows, maybe he doesn’t even eat the cake himself. It’s still very impressive that he’s amassed such a big list of acquaintances and colleagues, and that he consistently sends salutations via thoughtful, substantial gifts. I realize the grunt work is probably relegated to someone on his staff, but he’s still ensuring that a huge number of people get attention from him on holidays and birthdays. The whole thing is very professional, generous, and gracious. Just please help me reconcile how this is the same man who hasn’t seen or acknowledged his daughter in over 10 years.
Photos credit: Caroline Torem-Craig / Avalon, United Archives/Impress/Avalon, IMAGO/RW/Avalon
There are many men who are good coworkers, neighbors, but at the same time, abusive to their own family behind the closed doors and when women talk about it, no one believes them. Tom is in the leader position of one of the worst and most powerful cults in Hollywood. He sends people gifts, acts professional in the workplace, and everyone forgets to ask where Shelly Miscavige is. “But he is soo nice to me!!”
^This 100%
This. My mom always told me that people may be difficult to outsiders and kind, generous and loving to their family and vice versa.
Plus, sending monetary gifts is very different and much easier than ingesting time, empathy and love. It’s nice he’s like that to others but his daughter deserves better.
Exactly.
My father has terrorised us for decades, he was a verbally abusing rage monster, but in public?
He was charming, funny and generous.
My father was a physical and emotional abuser, but one of things I can remember is that when it all came out 30 years later we were straightout called liars by friends and distant relatives because he was so generous, charming and thoughtful with basically everyone else.
He routinely used to gift stuff to people and buy rounds at the local bar.
The last Christmas gift I received from him directly was when I was 8.
You are describing my grandpa on my paternal side.
Also, doesn’t KiKi Dunst have a similar story about Tom Cruise sending her a very specific cake every Christmas and they call it “The Cruise Cake”? It sounds like something he does for a lot of former co-stars…
ETA: Oh sorry it is mentioned in the article but I missed it initially. Yes it’s that coconut cake…
Exactly this. See Bill Cosby too. That documentary on him from a few years ago talked about how he cultivated this great public image to allow him to continue preying on women. This isn’t that different. It’s pretty easy to have an assistant send out gifts to people to whitewash the fact that you support and are a beneficiary of an awful, abusive cult.
Yup, most likely an uncredited & unpaid worker bee on the lowest rung of the SeaOrg ladder was tasked w/ sending out the holiday/birthday gifts for Mr Cruise.
@sevenblue
Perfectly said!!!!!
What are the odds that it’s an underpaid member of the sea org that is out buying these gifts as birthdays pop up in the google calendar.
My scroll-down fail for today -_-, reflexively posting an identical comment before getting to yours. Such is my annoyance w/ this man leveraging the abuses & trappings of his ‘religion’. Our mutual thought needs to go viral.
Amen. Is he sending Suri gifts on her birthday?
So my cousin lives in LA and recently tried Doan’s coconut cake for the first time. She says it really is that good. Worth the hype. So of course now I need to try it, as I really love coconut things. Our family’s from Hawaii, so that’s probably where the coconut love came from early on for us!
Welp. At least it’s from a tiny family-run business. I think they can ship that cake to Hawaii via Goldbelly.
Every time I see these stories I am tempted to order it through gold belly.
Every time I hear one of his costars prattle on about what a nice guy Tom Cruise is, I think about Suri. And wonder how that makes her feel.
Gushing about how nice he is and goes out of his way to make other people feel special is definitely hurtful to Suri even if she tries her best to ignore it and say she doesn’t care. It still hurts. I’ve been in her shoes. There was no cult or DV involved, my father is just a lazy asshole who is not interested in his kids’ life. We were in no contact for 5 years when I was in uni because I didn’t call him. But we live in a small town so I heard from others how he talks about other people’s kids and their achievements. In court he couldn’t name my school.
EXACTLY. I recall an article about Micheal Landon’s son where he stated watching his dad be a good family man and husband didn’t sit well with him or that it was difficult for him considering his dad was not like that with them. And that was a fictional story (LHOTP), so imagine how Suri must feel listening to people gush about his generosity and kindness in real life.
@AJ exactly! I get he’s charming and nice to his costars, but he is still a piece of something. I am just glad Holmes had an amazing support system and escaped.
I cannot even watch his old movies, he is just too creepy. And the way he dropped his child? Unforgivable.
He dropped her mercilessly, but only after he made a public spectacle of visiting her. When he didn’t manage to separate her from her mother he dropped her. The cult instructed him to that I guess, after not managing to get full custody and force Suri’s complete separation from her mom.
Welp. My father, who abandoned us years ago has a whole coterie of younger friends who just adore him, and it’s alternatingly enraging and eye rolling to hear them go on about how great he is.
@charlotte I’m sorry your dad sucks. My dad also sucks. Definitely do not understand the concept of “daddy’s girl” after growing up with him for a father.
It sounds like your father has found a new narcissistic supply with those younger friends. IDK but have you ever checked out the sub on Reddit “estrangedadultkids” or “raisedbynarcissists.” Beautiful community of people who understand your pain and are working hard to heal through their own.
Considering how public the knowledge is that he has no relationship with his own daughter, I would not go around bragging like this. It only emphasizes what a douchecanoe he is.
Tom is a cultist and a horrible father. No amount of good press can hide who he is and what his COS organization does. Do not admire this POS. Call him and his religion out on their abuses.
How does he pick and choose who Is suppressive and who is not? Scientologists live and work amongst people who dont believe in their cult and apparently treat them just great. Why cant he extend the same to his non scientologist child and exes?
@Neeve, It is anyone who would create any harm to the cult. Most of the time, the people who left the cult are declared SP, so members are not allowed to have a relationship with them. Apart from that, for example, if any of his coworkers talk sh*t about his cult, they would be considered SP too.
Apparently, there is a procedure about it. From the wiki:
‘This “suppressive person declaration” is known as an “SP declare”. Declares are issued as an “ethics order” on goldenrod-colored paper with blue ink and are approved through the executive over the ethics department as well as the office of the International Justice Chief”‘.
And my initial thought is does he send his daughter anything? Probably not.
I wondered that too. At first I thought “oh, he MUST”. But he doesn’t SEE her, and that is because of the COS so prob can’t send gifts either.
The idea of Suri seeing a kid (now adult) he worked with 20 years ago gushing about him and how he remembers her at her birthday every year? Despicable.
This reminds me of the kinds of gifts that quarterbacks get their offensive line – flashy, easy for an assistant to pick out, and (in my opinion) meant to be discussed in interviews to make the gift-giver seem less of a weirdo. I have no doubt that Dakota appreciates the gifts, to be clear.
On a nicer note this morning, I think that both of the Fannings seem remarkably well-adjusted.
@jay considering last season’s QBs I think that is the exception rather than the rule (there are a couple of a**holes but otherwise what seem to be genuinely good/decent people in QB).
QBs are very thankful for the O line who put their bodies on the line to protect them and allow them to make plays. From what I’ve read (and excluding the a**holes) , a lot of thought goes into what the gift is going to be each year. Especially in years where the O line has been exceptional.
“His staff” = SeaOrg slaves who signed a billion year contract
THIS!!!
Tom is a cult leader who abused his wives and has to bribe people with gifts to say he’s a nice guy.
I know it probably will never happen but I really want him to get exposed and taken down. He, and the other leaders of that cult, need to be in prison.
Coconut cakes are delicious. That’s all I have on this topic. I don’t understand Cruise. No one has a bad thing to say about him. His movies are always fun. And then there is that beautiful daughter Suri. I will never understand.
I’ve been trying to understand as well. As I’ve read that for the last 40 years he has been nothing but gracious to everyone around him I started to wonder why we always talk about cult followers as victims but we don’t extend the same grace to Tom cruise. He seems to be behaving insanely exclusively related to CoS matters( kids/divorces included). And I” willing to bet money that he’s a true blue believer to the core. Usually the leaders of cults know they’re running a scam. Who knows how this religion gelled with his psychological problems and now it’s part of who he is. I’m curious how he’d have ended up if he didn’t join this cult. Maybe I’m too understanding.
Yeah I said something similar about Cruise YEARS ago on this site and got slammed so be careful lol.
I think most people feel that maybe he was initially a victim but he accrued so much influence and power over time that he inevitably became the main perpetrator of a system that may have initially abused/manipulated him. So he really does have to own his complicity in his current circumstances. Not saying it’s easy but people have left the cult before. Tom has chosen to stay for reasons that are pretty obvious to all of us–he loves the power.
@kitten, not giving TC a hall pass at all, however he may be staying in the cult because his own sanity and sense of reality depends on it. And because he is now so cut off from anyone who woild challenge him with a different perspective.
Obviously there was a turning point when Katie and Suri left. A moment where perhaps he questioned continuing with CoS? But that moment has obviously passed.
Watching the Nxium documentary you can see how people’s psychology has been so manipulated by the high control tactics. We have a family member who is lovely and wonderful and also has been part of a high control spiritual group for almost three decades now. I have to keep reminding myself that there is something fundamentally broken in their grasp on reality. They seem “normal” 90% of the time and then every once in a while there’s a total zinger and I remind yourself oh yeah, cult…there it is!
Poor Suri, imagine seeing this write up and wondering why your father does not even acknowledge you.
I only knew about the coconut cake because it was part of the plot of a Season 3 episode of Hacks haha
As others have pointed out here, I don’t care what generous gifts Tom Cruise gives to other people in Hollywood to perpetuate/or curate some narrative about him that is positive, when we know full well, that he is deeply involved in one of the most toxic cults out there – Scientology and has nothing to do with his OWN daughter. Gross.
Mother’s love their children who commit crimes. Spouses remain married to partners who mistreat other people (but not them). Friendships are sustained despite contradictory political and social points of view. In other words, relationships are singular and no amount of public disapproval will change that. I find Tom Cruise problematic but if I start diagramming a six degrees of association with him, there’d be literally no one left in Hollywood to support.
I always assumed that the total separation was negotiated legally by Katie Holmes. Not in the Brad-accusing-Angelina way, more in a absolutely-NO-Scientology-in-my-daughter’s-life way. Doesn’t it have rules about shunning the nonbelievers in your life or something?
I’m going waaaaay back in the unsubstantiated gossip weeds of a decade ago here, but as I recall one of the prevailing theories on gossip sites was that Katie quietly collected proof of Tom having some form of an affair with a certain male co-star and used it to buy her very quick and clean divorce and complete separation with none of the usual Scientology hit jobs on her way out.
I don’t know about the affair part but Katie was quietly working with her father who is a divorce lawyer to plot her divorce. I found this old people article that describes events.
“As one of Hollywood’s most powerful stars, Tom Cruise is accustomed to being in control.
But when his wife of five years, actress Katie Holmes, filed for divorce in New York on June 29, the actor, who has been filming the sci-fi thriller Oblivion in Iceland, was caught completely off guard.
“He had no idea this was coming,” a source tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “He’s totally devastated and heartbroken.”
In reportedly moving for sole custody of their 6-year-old daughter Suri, Holmes has signaled she will not be backing down.
The actress did have some important help in her corner: A source tells PEOPLE that her Toledo, Ohio-based lawyer father, Martin, came to New York to aid in quickly orchestrating her decisive exit.”
https://people.com/celebrity/tom-cruise-divorce-katie-holmess-father-helped-orchestrate/
There was no need for blackmail from Katie, her father is a powerful divorce attorney. Since their child was young, there would be no way Katie would lose custody and Tom isn’t allowed to have a relationship with a “suppressive person”, that is both Katie and their child. Leah Remini said before that Tom has to leave a place if she is also there since she left the cult. I think that is one of reasons Katie left while their child was very young. Otherwise, she would be brainwashed not to have a relationship with her own mother. That is what happened to Nicole Kidman with their adopted children when she divorced Tom and left the cult.
Wow that’s fascinating. You said it was gossip but that would really explain the clean break. Did you read it on CDAN?
I would never believe anything from CDAN.
I don’t know what CDAN is. I honestly don’t remember where I was getting my celebrity gossip 10+ years ago
And yet he doesn’t give squat to his daughter Suri on her birthday. Evil is as evil does.
So he can send her shoes for her b’day every year and he’s a great guy but he won’t speak to his own child because of the cult he belongs to. Hmmmmm…. make it make sense.
I don’t know man…
I don’t have a sweet tooth (salty foods are my jam) but one night I took a gummy and came thisclose to ordering that coconut cake from Goldbelly.
There’s white chocolate chunks in it and it sounds absolutely heavenly.
Does he really give his daughter nothing? I mean, isn’t he #2 in that church, meaning he’s considered omnipotent or something and can chuck the rules he wants and basically do no wrong? It’s just so weird. I guess he was done providing her when he and Katie split and she got her settlement? What about all of his non-Scientology friends? They’re all supposed to ignore talking or asking about a whole ass daughter forever?