EXCLUSIVE: Tom Cruise was smack in the middle of a 360-degree crush at the annual Charles Finch and Chanel pre-BAFTA party on Saturday night and Sunday morning at the swanky 5 Hertford Street private member’s club Mayfair.
One moment he’s having an earnest conversation with The Wild Robot’s Lupita Nyong’o. “Come to the set, come visit us,” he’s telling her about the time he’s having working on director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s movie shooting at Pinewood Studios.
The Mission Impossible superstar moves to his right to welcome an incoming Demi Moore. They’re soon locked in a hug for the ages as they natter about her awards season success in filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (a big hit for MUBI and Working Title) as onlookers quickly calculate that Cruise and Moore worked together on Rob Reiner’s A Few Good Men 33 years ago.
Donald Trump. No, wait a minute, sorry, Sebastián Stan who portrays Trump when he was plain old Donald Trump in The Apprentice, wants to say, “Hi” to Tom. Jeez, that would’ve been a downer if the real Trump had waltzed in. No fun there.
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Jeremy Strong, Stan’s co-star in Ali Abbasi’s movie, tells me that he’s actively having conversations about doing a play, preferably, he says, ”a new play,” in London, more than likely in 2026 or 2027.
Smiling at all the comings and goings surrounding her Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning leading man is Vanessa Kirby. She’s at the party with her sister, Juliet Kirby, who helps run Vanessa’s Aluna Entertainment production company.
The energy radiating from Cruise is off the scale. It’s almost as if he’s there to offer some kind of benediction, which is apt because earlier he sat at one of the main tables with Conclave director Edward Berger, who in turn was seated next to legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
One could be forgiven for thinking that Cruise in this moment is a god. He’s a movie god, for sure. I do love watching movie stars turn to jelly when they meet an idol, or in Tom’s case, an actual motion picture god.
I join the throng and say, “Hello.” He laughs and tells me: “I’m editing a film [MI: The Final Reckoning], I’m shooting another [Iñárritu’s] and prepping the next one.”
Which one? Broadsword for Christopher McQuarrie or The Gauntlet, also for McQuarrie. Shaking his head, Cruise, says, ”I can’t say.”
I try again. That megawatt smile goes to full beam. “I just can’t tell you,” he responds. To deflect, he points to Riz Ahmed and says “I’m working with him and Alejandro at Pinewood.”
He does another turn, and he’s soon engaged with CAA’s Masha Dakhil, Jared Leto and some more with Demi.
His Top Gun: Maverick wingman Glen Powell stops by as does Gavin & Stacey’s James Corden. The BBC should repeat the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special annually.
I make a note to myself to ask Cruise next time I see him if he’s watched Gavin & Stacey. He spends so much time here in London, that I bet he has.
With comedy on my mind, I take in the number of people who tell Working Title’s Eric Fellner that the powers that be at Universal are “idiots” for not putting the irresistible romantic comedy Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy in theaters in the U.S. The film, starring a glorious Renée Zellweger with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leo Woodall as her brilliant leading men, has been playing gangbusters in U.K. theaters. It’s a movie that needs to be experienced in the dark with an audience. It’s a date night classic. In the U.S. it’s on Universal’s Peacock streaming channel.
As I make my way to see Charles Finch, our host, who’s sat next to The Brutalist’s Adrien Brody, someone whispers in my ear that Denis Villeneuve will start filming Dune 3: Messiah this June and not in 2026. This is news to both ears.
Back at my table, actress Antonia Desplat (Shantaram) tells me that Johnny Depp has re-edited his film Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness, about three days Italian artist Modigliani spent in Paris during World War I. Desplat portrays war correspondent Beatrice Hastings opposite Ricardo Scamarcio’s Modigliani.
Stephen Murphy, an Irish entrepreneur who happens to own Budd, the Piccadilly shirt maker where I purchase my dress shirts, is seated next to Desplat, and we lead the table in a few choruses of Fly Me to the Moon to honor the 110th anniversary of Frank Sinatra’s birth. Plus, we all adored the spellbinding version Cynthia Erivo performed at the Grammy Awards in tribute to Quincy Jones.
Then Desplat moved us, just we few at the table, with a heartfelt La Vie En Rose. Murphy, his artist wife Suzy, and I tried to join in (in French) but we surrendered to Desplat, who aced it.
Netflix’s awards topper Lisa Taback, and Focus Features chiefs Peter Kujawski and Jason Cassidy, tell me how they were caught up in the fire that swept through the Chiltern Firehouse hotel in Marylebone on Friday. “We’ve all been through the fires in Los Angeles and London’s the last place we expected to see flames,” Cassidy laments.
All three were safe but had to evacuate. They’re now at new lodgings. But their clothing reeked of smoke fumes and they had to quickly buy fresh attire for the BAFTA festivities. Once again, the heroes are the firemen and women who tackled the blaze.
The party was literally wall-to-wall stars. There’s Lily James. There’s Felicity Jones. Over there is Rege Jean Page. And, on another key table is I’m Still Here’s Fernanda Torres and Walter Salles. There were loads of others.
Claire Finch, the managing director of Finch & Partners, gave up trying to break up the throng around Tom as guest after guest moved in for a peek.
Upstairs Nina Gold, who’s casting Greta Gerwig’s Netflix Narnia movie, was huddled with Independent Talent Group’s Claire Maroussas. Their lips are sealed.
Earlier, much earlier on Saturday evening, I walked through the great rooms over at the National Gallery where the BAFTA nominees’ party was in full swing.
I stop and chat with director Chris Sanders, compose Kris Bowers and the gang from magical The Wild Robot. The sequel is definitely in the works.
Later, I bump into David Jonsson (Rye Lane, Industry, Alien: Romulus), a contender for the EE Rising Star Award.
Laughing, I ask him about the ‘Vote For Me’ flyers posted in windows around Golden Square in London’s Soho. “I’ve seen them,” he cries. “Wasn’t me. I’ve been working in Japan and heard about them when I got back,” he says.
As I take in the masterpieces by Tiepolo, Canaletto, and Reni, my eye is drawn to the great artist Marianne Jean-Baptiste who is BAFTA-nominated for her acclaimed performance in Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths.
She was robbed, I tell her. Her Pansy in Hard Truths was more than worthy of an Academy Award nomination. She smiles graciously and says, “I tell my children that this was meant to be. There’s a reason for everything.”
The Academy Awards will happen again, I say, just as they did when she scored a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Secrets & Lies 28 years ago. She’ll be back.
As I depart, I salute Mikey Madison who’s the beating heart of Sean Baker’s Anora.
The Best Actress list is the most competitive I’ve seen in years.
One thing, every person I met through Saturday night and well into Sunday morning, agreed on was: the Oscars on March 2 can’t come soon enough. “Then it will be over,” they sigh.
Yeah, but then on March 3, the next awards season begins all over again.
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