Bacall lobs another bomb at modern Hollywood

by Karina Longworth Jul 31st 2005 // 5:53PM

Filed under: Classics, Celebrities and Controversy, Tom Cruise

Lauren Bacall - who, you'll remember, we fetishized earlier this week - is becoming a one-woman army, fighting single-handedly to protect the spectre of Old Hollywood. In an interview with TIME, she had the following insights on the new poster boy of the de-evolution of celebrity respectability, Tom Cruise: "When you talk about a great actor, you're not talking about Tom Cruise." The woman who will always be best remembered as Humphrey Bogart's better half went on, "His whole behavior is so shocking. It's inappropriate and vulgar and absolutely unacceptable to use your private life to sell anything commercially, but I think it's kind of a sickness." Bacall famously made similar, slightly-less-venomous comments about Cruise's ex and her Dogville and Birth costar, Nicole Kidman,not so long ago, insisting that the younger actress is too, well, young to be called "a legend".

I'm all for defending a historical viewpoint in light of today's truly slipshod star culture, but part of me wants to tell the old broad to lighten up. What do you think?
 

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