George Clooney thinks a lot of the negativity surrounding Tom Cruise would go away if Tom only learned to make fun of himself a bit.
The self-deprecating Clooney described his own experience with defusing bad publicity:
"Before they could kill me on Batman & Robin, I said: 'It's a bad film, and I'm the worst thing in it.' You try to defend an indefensible position, you'll look like a schmuck.."
And they still killed it and you still looked like a schmuck. But you're right George - you have to get out ahead of stuff like that by poking fun at yourself. Tommy doesn't understand this though. He thinks he can sue bad publicity out of existence.
George thinks Tom isn't a bad guy after all:
"I talked to him the other day, and he's a good egg. There's nothing self-serving about what he's saying. He has to turn it into a way to make fun of himself."
I'm going to skip that remark about there being nothing "self-serving" about Tommy, cause we all know everything Tommy does, says and thinks is entirely self-serving, and focus on the last part. It's a good piece of advice from George. Unfortunately, for one to take that course, one has to have an inherent sense of humor. And Tom doesn't have one. He's a grim and grinding individual. He has no capacity to step back from himself and have a giggle. It's just not his nature. So, no matter how it would benefit Tom to make light of himself, he never will. And neither will any other Scientologist. That religion seems to attract the humorless and the self-involved.
If Tommy had any sense of the ridiculous, he would immediately realize how absurd Scientology is. And all other religion for that matter. Asking Tom to become self-deprecating now would be like asking Angelina Jolie to stop thinking the world revolves around her. Ain't gonna happen.
