14 DAY TRIAL // Mark Wahlberg made headlines earlier this week when, during a press call, he lashed out at Tom Cruise for comparing shooting for an action movie to serving a tour in Afghanistan. He didn’t specifically call out Cruise by name, which is why he now has room to wiggle – and back out.
It all started with a deposition Cruise gave as part of an ongoing lawsuit he filed against a tabloid for running a story about how he had abandoned his daughter after the divorce from Katie Holmes, in which he was cornered into answering a question about whether he considered his job as an actor as difficult as that of a soldier serving abroad.
Cruise laughed off the comparison, but initial media outlets failed to note that in their report, which, obviously, made him look awful – and awfully entitled as well. Wahlberg seemed to be speaking about Cruise when he unloaded during the aforementioned press call but, he tells TMZ paparazzi, that wasn’t the case.
Mark insists he had no idea those comments that bothered him so much had been attributed to Cruise.
“I didn't know that it was Tom Cruise that said that. Somebody just mentioned that people are [making that comparison],” the actor explains for a TMZ paparazzo.
He would never single out Cruise like that even though, to be fair, he still doesn’t think actors should compare themselves to soldiers because, after all, they’re only play-pretending, whereas military men and women actually risk their lives.
“I love Tom Cruise. I have much respect for Tom Cruise, but I have just as much respect for military guys, so it's just unfair for anybody to comment on that,” Mark adds.
Some of Mark’s fans give him props for rectifying a statement he made perhaps thinking Cruise was really guilty of such entitlement as the media said he was (which turned out to be false), but others would have still rather he hadn’t backtracked like this. Where do you stand on this?