Tom Cruise Gets Forcibly Kissed at Olympic Closing Ceremony, Furious Fans Ask 'Where's the Consent?'

Tom Cruise blazed the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics 2024 with his stellar action-packed performance. But the "pass over the torch" ceremony from Paris to Los Angeles for the 2028 Games was overshadowed by another instance of the night. During the performance when the Mission Impossible actor met his fans for a brief moment, he was groped by a woman in an attempt to leave a peck on his cheek.

The video from the Stade de France stadium when Cruise prepares to receive the Olympic flag has since then gone viral over the internet as netizens point out the oddities of it. A woman rushes towards Cruise with a cell phone to capture her fan-girl moment and leans in for a kiss. However, the Hollywood star moves away to avoid it. A few seconds later he gives the woman a gentle acknowledgment for all the love and carries on with his performance. The viral moment left the fans concerned sparking debate on the consent of celebrities as reported by LadBible. 

@meme_cycle commented by asking, "Imagine if the roles were reversed…" @backlogged_gamr said, "Damn she just risked it all. ." as they quipped with a sarcastic comment. User @hushpuppysa wrote, "I don’t know, really. I’m too busy admiring that expertly timed headswing of his, narrowly dodging the inevitable," pointing at the timing of Cruise moving his head away from an advancing fan. User @Oloomzy asked, "Did she ask for consent? " pointing at the importance of public safety of celebrities. Another X (formerly known as Twitter) user @nynamalves shared her opinion on the incident by tweeting a comment, "Not at all pleasant, being kissed unexpectedly by either a woman or a man is very unpleasant. If it were the other way around, everyone would be pissed off." 

User @Rasheeda_S posted the clip of the video in slow motion with a freeze-frame of the awkward incident, captioning it, "How’d that lady almost make out with Tom Cruise on international TV " Several condemned the act and advocated Cruise. Among them, @SiulOczoro989 wrote, "The worst kind of people in audiences. Absolute zero respect for personal space. If it had been a man with a woman people would already be looking for all his information to burn him alive," expressing their disgust over the shocking fan-moment. @KProtein19 dubbed it as a "sexual assault," and wrote, "How pathetic can you be."

Nevertheless, the Olympics' official channel on YouTube posted a trailblazing video of the closing ceremony. Captioned, "Wait, is that Tom Cruise? Yes, that is Tom Cruise, rappelling from the Stade de France roof! He will help transport the Olympic Flag from here in Paris to Los Angeles, via the streets of Paris and the hills of Hollywood, as he takes the flag from Simone Biles," the video received immense love as fans were in awe of the 62-year-old American actor who became the flagbearer for next Games to be held in 2028.