Tom Cruise narrowly avoided being assaulted with a stick at an Irish pub in the ’90s after falsely being accused of stealing cigarettes, it’s been revealed.
The Hollywood star was filming Far And Away with Nicole Kidman in Kerry.
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Irish politician Michael Healy-Rae has now spoken of one particular incident that took place in a pub in the southern county.
Talking on the Pat Kenny Show, Healy-Rae remembered how Cruise was branded a “bastard” and falsely accused of stealing cigarettes while drinking at the Loo Bridge Bar near the town of Kilgarvan.
“This day, this young boy and young girl came into the pub and had jeans and sunglasses and tanned faces on them,” Healy-Rae revealed.
“There was a man sitting down the end of the counter called Ger The Manny. Everyone has a nickname and his name was Ger The Manny. He was an elderly man and he had his stick up on the counter and he was sipping away at a little glass of Guinness.”
Wanting more ice for his Diet Coke, Cruise then reportedly leaned over the bar to dip his hand in the ice bucket and get more ice for his drink.
“Ger jumped up off his stool, he caught his stick and drew a belt at yer man’s hand trying to hit him across the hand,” he continued. “But he just missed and there was a big bang down on the counter right near the Yank’s hand.”
“The Yank said, ‘My goodness I was just leaning in to get a bit more ice’.”
“Ger The Manny shouted out, ‘You bastard you were trying to steal [barman] Matt’s fags’.”
Healy-Rae added: “If Ger had been an inch or two longer he could have broke the arm of Tom Cruise trying to accuse him wrongly of trying steal a cigarette.”
Earlier this year, Justin Bieber challenged Tom Cruise to a UFC fight.