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Did Tom Cruise Return His Golden Globe Awards? Jerrod Carmichael’s Shelly Miscavige Joke Explained
Did Tom Cruise have to return his Golden Globe awards? Viewers were left confused during the 2023 awards ceremony as host Jerrod Carmichael made a joke about the Top Gun actor and scientology leader David Miscavige‘s missing wife, Shelly Miscavige.
“Look, I’m just the host briefly or whatever, but I have a pitch. I think maybe we take these three things and exchange them for the safe return of Shelly Miscavige?”Jerrod joked while introducing Tom’s Top Gun: Maverick costars Glen Powell and Jay Ellis.
Tom really did return the three Golden Globe awards he’s won over the course of his career in 2021, when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was embroiled in a scandal related to the lack of diversity among the organization’s membership. It caused NBC to drop the 2022 Golden Globes telecast in protest, and the HFPA promised to increase the number of BIPOC members by 50 percent within the following 18 months.
The Mission: Impossible star won his first Golden Globe in 1990, taking home Best Actor, Drama for Born on the Fourth of July. He followed it up with a Best Actor, Comedy or Musical win in 1997 for Jerry Maguire. Tom’s third Golden Globe came from his 2000 victory in the Best Supporting Actor category for Magnolia.
Shelly was last seen in public in 2007 at her father’s funeral, and her disappearance has been the subject of several documentaries. Actress Leah Remini, who left the Church of Scientology in 2013, has been seeking answers to Shelly’s whereabouts from as far back as Tom’s 2006 Italian wedding to Katie Holmes. The actor is a prominent member of the Church of Scientology.
“I asked innocently, ‘Where’s Shelly?’ because I thought it was odd,” Leah revealed during a 2017 appearance on Conan. “They were calling it the wedding of the century in the church … And with that there was a reaction of people just scattering. They didn’t want any part of this. Literally just scattered.”
Leah went on to explain that she asked the church’s spokesperson where Shelly was, saying it was “weird that she wasn’t here.” The former King of Queens star claims she was told, “You don’t have the f–king rank to be asking about the leader’s wife.”
The Los Angeles Police Department has looked into Shelly’s whereabouts based on Leah’s statements that she’s a missing person but did not pursue the case.
In a November 2022 press release, the department stated, “In 2014, Los Angeles Police Department detectives assigned to the Missing Persons Unit (MPU) went to Shelly Miscavige’s location and personally made contact with her and her attorney. Detectives found her to be alive and safe, and subsequently closed the missing persons investigation.”
