Some Facts About Me

For those of you who don't partake in twitter, there's often a trend going on.  The current one is #SomeFactsAboutMe.  I've had to censor myself heavily (and resist tweeting a lot of interesting facts) because of my desire to keep my public twitter profile reasonably goody two-shoes-ish.  But I do have one absolutely extraordinary fact that is always a good one to drag out at parties or when meeting people for the first time.  The details of the fact are too long to tweet in 140 characters.  So, here it goes.  A fact about moi.


I have been on a date with Tom Cruise. Yes, THE Tom Cruise.  The couch-jumping, Scientology-following, Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise.  Yes, little old me, originally from Te Anau, Fiordland, New Zealand.


Eleven years has now passed, but out of respect for the people involved in the story, I've decided to leave out some names and details which could identify them. 


Firstly, I have to start by saying that my life in Sydney was very different to the one I lead now.  There are some aspects of it that I miss, but all in all, I got to the stage where "I'd been there, done that, got the postcard" and it was time to move on.  Cue a return to Godzone and a far simpler, slower lifestyle. Enough said.


I had the amazing fortune of sharing Tom Cruise's best friend in Sydney.  I met the mutual best friend through my job, and eventually left that job to work for the mutual best friend.  Tom and Nicole spent a lot of time in Sydney, maybe even more than people knew, primarily because Sydney was Nicole's home town, and also due to both Mission Impossible II and Moulin Rouge being filmed there.

The back story: For the sake of this blog, we'll call my then boyfriend..."Dick".  Dick was actually quite a twat, but I was mesmerised by the boat(s), car(s), the private jetty at the bottom of the garden, the wealth, blah blah.  He had the most incredible wardrobe...in fact, his whole spare room was full of racks of fantastic clothes.  He dressed really well and had the height and physique to always look great. 


Dick is the one that introduced me to Veuve Cliquot.  Every Sunday we'd jump in one of his boats, sail over to the Sydney Fish Markets, buy Lobster, go home, he'd cook it up and we'd drink a bottle or two of Veuve.  Yes, as I said earlier, my life was incredibly different back then.  Dick never wanted to hang with my friends, instead we either hung with his friends or stayed in.  Yup, a warning sign which I chose to ignore.


Anyway, Dick was supposed to attend the mutual best friend's birthday party with me.  On the day of the party, two awful things happened to Dick.  His little brother walked in on an armed hold-up in a petrol station in outer Sydney (but escaped unscathed) and Dick's Grandfather died (he had been ill for quite some time).  I couldn't get hold of Dick on the phone, so drove over to his place so we could catch a cab together to the party. 


I knocked on the door.  Dick opened it and was standing there looking like, well, an absolute dick, to tell you the truth. He was wearing the most hideous ensemble from his spare room.  I'd never seen any of the items he had on.  It was a complete mismatch and for a moment I thought he'd gone insane because he was always impeccably dressed.  He burst into tears and said "...(little brother story, Grandfather story)...I don't know what to wear to meet Tom Cruise...I don't want to go to the party...no-one will talk to me...I'll have a bad time...lets just stay at my place and watch a movie...please stay here with me...etc, etc". 


Uh, hello Dick.  Stay in with you AGAIN, or go to my best friend's birthday party which was also going to be attended by TC?  I was annoyed that he hadn't rung me or returned my calls, and for once I thought nah, I'm going to do what I want to do, not what Dick wants me to do.


I leapt in my car and drove towards the mutual best friend's house where the party was being held.  All of a sudden, I felt like the loneliest person in the world.  Dick (again) had chosen not do something with my friends, and I was going to turn up alone.  I started crying.  I rang the mutual best friend and told him what had happened.  He told me to forget about Dick, to get my ass to his place pronto, and that his party would suck if I wasn't there.  The mutual best friend was so wonderful during that phone-call that I then knew that I couldn't miss the celebration.  Bro's before ho's, right?


Tom had gone to the party on his Harley, and the paparazzi had followed him there.  I saw the photog's milling around the front of the property, so parked a little way up the street, wiped off the runny mascara, applied some makeup and went in.


I walked into the living room and then completely unexpectedly this happened:


Tom Cruise, my teenage crush, one of the greatest Hollywood stars ever, stood up and walked over to me.  He reached for my hand and said "Hi.  I'm Tom.  You must be Yvonne.  I'm here without a date, and I understand that you are too.  I was wondering if you'd be my date for the evening". OH MY GOD. OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.  The mutual best friend had obviously told him what had happened with Dick, and here was this superstar, who I'd never met, doing his part to cheer me up.


I accepted his offer, and he proceeded to sit me down and then bring me a drink.  Tom was amazing.


He was attentive, kind, interesting, completely down to earth and hilarious.  The two conversation topics that stand out the most in my memory were about (1) cheeseburgers - he couldn't believe that we put egg and beetroot in Kiwi burgers, and (2) worm-farming.  Yes, worm-farming. 


He never mentioned religion.  We didn't talk about anything Hollywood-related.  He wanted to know about me, my life, interests, etc.  Tom was a complete gentleman.  Nicole was in Romania filming "The Others", which is why he was there alone.  She rang during the party and was thrilled that he had a date for the evening. Bless.  She is a sweetheart.


Now, not that this is one of my drinking stories, but those who know me and who've seen me in the vicinity of a piano when drinking, know that I like to tickle the ivories when under the influence.  The mutual best friend had a piano in the living room.  I was full to the brim with Cosmopolitans.  The piano beckoned.  I played.


The party literally became a repeat of that scene from Top Gun.  Tom shared the piano stool with me and everyone else gathered around and sang as I thumped away on the piano.  He was Maverick and I was Goose.  Together, we rocked!

Obviously, there is way more to the story, but I'm running out of time, and again, out of respect for some people, I've decided to withhold some of the details.  Lets just say, it was one of the most amazing birthday parties I've ever attended. 


Anyway, there you have it, my friends.  The Readers Digest version of the night when I went on a date with Tom Cruise.


And Dick?  We parted company, eventually.