Hoda Kotb “blacks out” as she poses with Tom Cruise at the Paris Olympics
The ‘Today’ host had earlier posted on social media that meeting the ‘Mission: Impossible’ star was a dream come true.
Hoda Kotb isn’t exactly sure how she landed her photo with Tom Cruise … but she’s definitely not mad about it.
“It was so crazy,” Kotb told Entertainment Tonight about her photo shoot with Cruise at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. “We were all together and 10 seconds later, I didn’t know what happened. I blacked out and then I had a picture.
On Instagram, where the Today host initially posted the photo, Kotb wrote that a photo with the Mission: Impossible star had always been a dream of hers.
“You know when you dream of meeting Tom Cruise… and then it finally happens,” she captioned the photo, which showed her and Cruise getting drenched in the rain during the opening ceremony on July 26. Saw it happen.
Kotb Today co-host Savannah Guthrie was also on hand for the interview, and added more details about her friend’s starstruck moment.
“The poncho-waking-wet-Tom-Cruise shot was the Olympics shot,” Guthrie said, adding that Kotb worked hard to finalize the photo op. “If there was a gold medal for a shot … we were like, ‘Where’s Hooda going to go?’ And then she came back and was like, ‘I got the shot.’
Cruz ended the Paris 2024 Games as a star, when he facilitated the transfer of the Olympic flag between France and Los Angeles during the LA 2028 handover ceremony. After jumping into the Paris stadium on live television, he exited the event center on a motorcycle and then skydive into the Hollywood sign.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke with the segment’s creative director and executive producer Ben Winston this week, and he pushed back on Cruise’s suggestion that a stunt performer jump.
“I don’t think there’s anyone like him in the world,” Winston said. “There is no better collaborator.”
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