Tom Cruise Used to Preen in a G-String, and Other Such Lurid Rumors from His Former Manager

As a young, aspiring moving pictures actor, Tom Cruise cultivated a chiseled, Grecian physique. It was quite something. In fact, it’s still quite something, a fact you can verify just by watching Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and tallying up the number of scenes in which Ethan Hunt needlessly sheds his shirt and struts around under some flattering lights. According to his former manager/mentor/roommate Eileen Berlin, Tommy Cruise Control has always been like this, ever since he wandered out of the Franciscan seminary as a teenager and caught one of those Greyhound busses straight to Hollywood with nothing but the clothes on his back and a dream of seeing his handsome mug flash a smile on the big screen.

The rumor mill has churned out an account of vain young Cruise from Berlin, with whom the actor lived just before landing his breakout role in Taps in 1981. “He want to be treated like a star and he acted like a star,” Berlin said, presumably as she smoked a Newport nestled in jade cigarette holder. “He would walk around my house in a little G-string strap and nothing else. I had a mirrored wall and he would stand in front of it, flexing his biceps and admiring himself.”

Berlin also insisted that Cruise, whom she mentored from 1980-1983, was a prime candidate for Scientology because he eschewed therapy but had a lot of unresolved issues with his father. She was also surprised that his three marriages lasted as long as they did, claiming that Cruise was “moody” and had a pretty short fuse. Still, it must have been a gas to watch Tom Cruise walk around almost naked. The obvious question here is: why did he remain just almost naked? Could Tom Cruise be a never-nude?