Anyone who reads Celebitchy with a bit of regularity knows that we’re not exactly the biggest Tom Cruise fans. Though to be fair, it appears that not much of the internet really is anymore. What with the crazy rants and such. But he is known for doing kind things. Star has a story this week about how Tom rescued an injured hawk. I know, makes you imagine him shimmying up an evergreen or something right? Not the most pleasant image. But Tom went about his rescue in good old Hollywood fashion – he sent a jet.

As evidence by his recent Scientology video making the rounds on the Internet, Tom Cruise feels an obligation to help out whenever possible – even if it’s an injured bird. “Tom has a big heart,” said a friend. “Recently, when he was told about an endangered hawk that was struck by a car in Phoenix, he immediately jumped into action and had his private jet pick it up and fly it to a hawk sanctuary in Colorado, where it could get treatment. Thanks to the quick action by Tom, the bird of prey was healed and is going to be released back into the wild.”

[From Star, Feb. 11th 2008, print edition]

So although this story seems ridiculous and over the top, Tom Cruise himself is ridiculous and over the top, so it didn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. I started writing this article with the intent to reference a few other of Tom’s random good deeds and rescues that I’ve heard about over the years. And when I read them, I started to realize how ridiculous they all are, when looked at in total. And then I found this article from Page Six that questions all of Tom’s wacky heroism. Here’s a few examples:

2003: while filming “The Last Samurai” in New Zealand, Cruise supposedly helped a local family change a flat tire on a country road and assisted a young girl in catching her runaway horse. He also donated $3,800 to a local school that needed a “sun shelter.”

1998: Cruise rushed to the defense of a woman being mugged on a London street and stopped thieves from making off with more than $150,000 in jewelry.

1996: he summoned an ambulance to help an aspiring actress who was the victim of a hit-and-run, then paid her $7,000 emergency room bill. That same year, Cruise was said to have pulled two young boys to safety after they were almost crushed in a mob of out-of-control fans at the London premiere of “Mission: Impossible.”

1993: While he and then-wife Nicole Kidman were vacationing on a 210-foot yacht in Capri in 1993, they were reported to have come to the aid of a family whose yacht had caught on fire. Cruise and Kidman allegedly rescued the family from their life raft and took them aboard their luxury yacht until help arrived.

[From Page Six]

It does seem a little… unusual… when viewed as a whole. I don’t know, maybe all celebrities fend off criminals and rescue run away horses, and they just keep quiet about it. But when you look at a list of Tom’s do-goodery, it makes you think that something fishy is afoot. While I really do hope he saved a poor hawk by sending his private jet (because I’m sure there’s no more logical way to transport an injured bird than by Tom Cruise’s jet), Tom’s starting to reach urban legend status.