Yahoo News Jerrod Carmichael Mocks Tom Cruise Over Scientology: Let’s Swap Your Returned Golden Globes for Shelly Miscavige
From the moment he stepped on stage to host the 80th Golden Globe awards, Jerrod Carmichael never shied away from making his audience uncomfortable. His opening monologue skewered the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for its diversity struggles that led to the award show being cancelled in 2021, and he got honest about his initial hesitancy to take the hosting job.
“I won’t say they were a racist organization, but they didn’t have a single Black member until George Floyd died,” he said. “Do with that what you will.”
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But his sharpest dig of the night was aimed at somebody who wasn’t even in the room: Tom Cruise.
While “Top Gun: Maverick” was nominated for two Golden Globe awards including Best Motion Picture — Drama, Cruise was unsurprisingly absent from the ceremony. The actor famously returned three of his Golden Globes (which he won for his performances in “Born on the Fourth of July,” “Jerry Maguire,” and “Magnolia”) when the racial controversy engulfed the HFPA in 2021. But in a gag during the Golden Globes broadcast on Tuesday night, Carmichael suggested that perhaps Cruise, a devout member of the Church of Scientology, is not a paragon of morality who should be judging any organization for its conduct.
Appearing on stage with three Golden Globe awards in his arms, Carmichael joked that he had found the three trophies that Cruise sent back.
“Hey guys. Backstage I found these three Golden Globe awards that Tom Cruise returned,” he said. “Look, I’m just the host briefly or whatever, but I have a pitch. I think maybe we take these three things and exchange them for the safe return of Shelly Miscavige.”
Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader and Cruise confidant David Miscavige, has not been seen in public since 2007. Her whereabouts have been the subject of speculation for years, with the LAPD conducting a missing person investigation in 2013. Prominent former Scientologists including Leah Remini have alleged that the investigation was corrupted by the Church of Scientology and that Shelly Miscavige could still be in danger.
In the years since she went missing, Cruise and David Miscavige have grown increasingly close, with Miscavige famously serving as Cruise’s best man at his wedding to Katie Holmes
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