Another sign the end is near...............

May be a repost but i haven't seen it posted here yet....

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=511988&gt1=28103

LONDON (AP) -- "Top Gun" is taking on "Top Gear" as Tom Cruise races into Britain's hit motoring-themed TV show to compete in an on-air challenge.

The BBC says Cruise will appear on its "Top Gear" program Sunday in a segment called "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car."

Cruise and actress Cameron Diaz will race in Kia Cee'd cars, competing to see who can complete the fastest lap of a British race circuit.

The channel said Thursday that the current champion is "Harry Potter" actor Rupert Grint.

Cruise and Diaz are in London to promote their new movie "Knight And Day," premiering Thursday in London.

I bet Tom can drive. He is a sports car guy that just has a profile issue. That and he is a complete whackjob.

$5 says Diaz smokes him.

I saw the bonus material from "The Italian Job."

Wasn't "The Italian Job" Charlize Theron?

That's a pretty valid point.

Looks like i'm gonna lose $5.

They all look the same.

Marty! wrote: Wasn't "The Italian Job" Charlize Theron?

yes.

Well anyone should be able to top Rupert's time, he was pushing the front through a bunch of the corners like a snow plow. I just hope Tom shows up in the fat suit from Tropical Thunder, thats the only way he'll be entertaining.

I loved the Tom Cruise comment when Mark Wahlberg was the guest on Top Gear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y19dwsXwBs

All I know is Tom is too short to be a naval aviator.

I wish tom would crawl back under the rock he climbed out from under. He is one of the most one dimensional actors out there today. I personally think he is so bad that I feel that if they made a movie about his life, he would not be able to fill the role.

I had pretty much given up on Tommy- hadn't had the desire to see any of his movies since the 90's. I saw the preview for Knight and Day, and had to go. Completley enjoyable movie, mindless, over the top....I'd recommend it.

I read a quote from Bondurant once (and I'm paraphrasing):

"Some actors come to the school to learn how to drive a race car, Tom Cruise came because he was doing a movie."

Should be interesting... I wonder if Simon and Jay Kay will battle it out for the top again. I'd love to see another round with Brian Johnson as well. He surprised me most of all.

I reckon it's high time they got rid of "star in a reasonably priced car." They feature maybe one interesting person each series, the rest are usually a bunch of B-list British reality TV twerps who I don't care about and don't want to hear about, or the occasional Big Name Movie Star who's stupid face I really don't need to see any more of than I already do (see OP.) I usually fast forward the whole segment and have myself a good extra ten minutes of going-to-the-loo-after-the-show-is-over time.

JoeyM wrote: I loved the Tom Cruise comment when Mark Wahlberg was the guest on Top Gear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y19dwsXwBs

Mark Wahlberg has been the best SRPC in a long time. Funny as all heck, but I think it went over the heads of the audience.

John Brown wrote: I bet Tom can drive. He is a sports car guy that just has a profile issue. That and he is a complete whackjob.

Cruise actually went racing for a short while after he made "The Color of Money" with Paul Newman.

Don't know how Tom got his licence, but I remember Jim Fitzgerald being brilliant enough of a marketing guy (he was lead instructor of the Rd. Atl. school back then) to say that they should take one of the driving school cars (Z31 Nissans with full cages, but not much else), and enter it in the 1990 IMSA Firehawk series race at RdAtl, and bill it in the papers as "Tom Cruise's Professional Racing Debut". Don't recall where he finished (IIRC, not very well, bounced off a lot of other cars that weekend), and all a Goog search for the results gives me is pix of Firestone Firehawk logos and a couple of the cars that the Clown drove.

I agree that Cruise seems to be some sort of freak these days..but back in the day, he did drive a lil' more than some of the other "celebrities" doing the SIARPC on Top Gear have done. I wonder if he'll be able to get on board with the FWD. And I hate to admit it (once again, I agreee he's become some sort of freak), but I kinda hope he adjusts to the FWD, just because he used to drive for real.

Your mileage may vary, of course...

Yeah, don't dis' the Cruiser (at least not when it comes to racing. Dis' him all you want for being crazy). He actually ran some Firehawk races back in the day and took it quite seriously. Newman actually turned him onto the sport.

In my pre-GRM days I would occasionally help crew for the team he ran with since the vice-president of Chili's was a teammate and I was working at Chili's and got hooked up with the VP through car stuff. All I can really say about him is that Cruise is an intense little dude. Nice enough, friendly enough, charming enough, but really, really intense.

jg

P.S. Actually, I'm sure Guido has some perspective on this because he was pretty active in the series at the time if I'm getting my dates correct. Whenever he pokes his head out of his clowncave I'm sure he'll have some input.

Jay wrote: I reckon it's high time they got rid of "star in a reasonably priced car." ... I usually fast forward the whole segment and have myself a good extra ten minutes of going-to-the-loo-after-the-show-is-over time.

I usually do the same thing (fast forward through it), but it is a cheap way for the BBC to take up 10 minutes of air time. They only need two cameras in the studio, and then just grabbing some video from their standard cameras on the track. There's no travel expenses, support cars, obtaining/maintaining worn out supercars, thinking up ridiculous stunts, super high quality editing/production like their typical car tests, etc. Its just cheap filler. I think if I knew who the people were, I'd enjoy it a lot more too, so I figure they'll keep it for a while. I'll just have to keep fast forwarding through it.

Bob

friedgreencorrado wrote:

John Brown wrote: I bet Tom can drive. He is a sports car guy that just has a profile issue. That and he is a complete whackjob.

Cruise actually went racing for a short while after he made "The Color of Money" with Paul Newman. Don't know how Tom got his licence, but I remember Jim Fitzgerald being brilliant enough of a marketing guy (he was lead instructor of the Rd. Atl. school back then) to say that they should take one of the driving school cars (Z31 Nissans with full cages, but not much else), and enter it in the 1990 IMSA Firehawk series race at RdAtl, and bill it in the papers as "Tom Cruise's Professional Racing Debut". Don't recall where he finished (IIRC, not very well, bounced off a lot of other cars that weekend), and all a Goog search for the results gives me is pix of Firestone Firehawk logos and a couple of the cars that the Clown drove. I agree that Cruise seems to be some sort of freak these days..but back in the day, he *did* drive a lil' more than some of the other "celebrities" doing the SIARPC on Top Gear have done. I wonder if he'll be able to get on board with the FWD. And I hate to admit it (once again, I agreee he's become some sort of freak), but I kinda hope he adjusts to the FWD, just because he used to drive for real. Your mileage may vary, of course...

IIRC, the Cruiser got a traditional SCCA comp license and ran a few Regionals and Nationals. Seems like he drove a Datsun (maybe an ex-Newman/Fitzgerald car from BSR) before going to Firehawk.

Cole Trickle said: There's nothin' I can't do with a race car.

John Brown wrote: I bet Tom can drive. He is a sports car guy that just has a profile issue. That and he is a complete whackjob.

I've seen inside Cruise's "garage" (a hanger at an airport in LA where other celebs keep their cars too). In addition to the private jet on the tarmac and a helicopter in the hangar, there were 10-12 nice sportscars and sedans in there (nothing crazy rare, but things like Dinan-badged BMW M5, a ZR-1, and a few Italian exotics) Sadly, I didn't have a camera with me the one time the door was open, dammit.

Bruce Willis's hangar had some nice stuff in it too, a few of which I got to ride in throughout the week.

we were using these two:

93celicaGT2 wrote: That's a pretty valid point. Looks like i'm gonna lose $5. They all look the same.

lol

burried in the jalopnik comments

"Some say his Thetan levels cannot be measured. And that his testicles are named "Goose" and "Maverick." All we know is, Tom Cruise is gay."

http://jalopnik.com/5594657/tom-cruise-and-cameron-diaz-visit-top-gear-molest-the-stig?skyline=true&s=i

Just watched it. They both did very well (watch for Tom's line through the last two corners.)