Tom Cruise is sharing an amazing story about how they first met while paying tribute to his late friend and attorney, Bert Fields.
The “Top Gun” actor revealed how he first met Bert — at a dinner party with Dustin Hoffman — in a video message he made for Bert’s memorial service.
Tom claims that he was sitting next to Bert when they started chatting. Tom, who remembered Bert as one of the most intriguing people he’d ever met, didn’t take long to notice something different about him.
Tom claims that they discussed the history and traded stories because the conversation was so engrossing.
When Bert identified himself as Dustin’s attorney, Tom immediately hired him.
Tom’s explanation of Bert’s qualities in the video message, which is quite emotional, sheds light on what made him such a great friend. It is obvious that Bert had a significant influence on Tom’s life beyond his role as his lawyer.
The news first surfaced on TMZ. After a storied career that included working with people like Michael Jackson, James Cameron, Warren Beatty, Mike Nichols, Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen, Jerry Bruckheimer, The Beatles, and Madonna, to name a few, Bert passed away in August.
Bert filed a number of significant lawsuits on Tom’s behalf against media organizations, including one for $100 million in 2001 after a magazine falsely claimed it had an X-rated video to support a claim that Cruise was gay. Tom Cruise does not appear on the videotape, [He] is not, and never has been, homosexual, and has never had a homosexual affair, the magazine acknowledged as part of the settlement of the case.
At Bert’s memorial service on October 2 at Broad Stage in Santa Monica, Tom’s video was shown while Dustin and Katzenberg delivered live speeches.