Treñas didn’t do a Tom Cruise

By Alex P. Vidal

 

“Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”—Aristotle

UNLIKE Hollywood actor Tom Cruise who erupted at crew members on the set of Mission: Impossible 7 over a breach of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) protocols, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas didn’t berate city officials who neglected the physical distancing rule during the distribution of financial aid at the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand on December 15.

Treñas actually couldn’t crack the whip on the erring city officials because he was also present when the supposed protocol violations happened.

Cruise’s outburst occurred in an apparent effort to prevent further disruptions to a film whose production has already been delayed by the pandemic.

“We are creating thousands of jobs,” Cruise, 58, the star of the film, can be heard saying in a leaked audio clip littered with expletives. “I don’t ever want to see it again! Ever! And if you don’t do it, you’re fired!”

Cruise, Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in real life, had been speaking to members of the Mission: Impossible 7 crew about a breach in COVID-19 protocols on the set in London.

 

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The actor, one of the highest-paid in the world, apparently became enraged after spotting two crew members standing together at a computer screen in violation of an on-set rule requiring people to stand about two meters apart, it was reported.

Sources did not indicate when the recording of Cruise had been made. Reuters has reported that the filmmakers for Mission: Impossible 7 the latest installment in the 24-year-old series – arrived in London this month.

Treñas reportedly admitted he was part of the city officials who may have violated the social distancing guidelines in the ceremony but insisted “it was unintentional.”

The violations were spotted after the photo was posted on Facebook showing Treñas and the aldermen disregarding the one-meter physical distancing measure.

The mayor reportedly said “they sometimes forgot” about the protocol but explained he has been consistently reminding the public about it.

He agreed that physical distancing and other health protocols should always be properly observed at all times while there is a pandemic.

 

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Treñas and other city officials graced the distribution of financial assistance by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to 600 city residents.

He refused to call the event a mass gathering but vowed the incident won’t happen again.

If all of them were on the set of Cruise’s film, they would probably earn a mouthful of unprintable from the celebrated actor from Syracuse, New York.

The leaked audio was reportedly of Cruise addressing about 50 staff members at a Warner Bros film-production complex in Leavesden, northwest of London.

The actor wore a mask on the set and had been personally enforcing COVID-19 rules, an effort to prevent further delays in shooting, it was learned.

Cruise told the crew in the leaked clip that the production was the “gold standard” for Hollywood and that he had been speaking with studios, producers and insurance companies who were all “looking at us and using us to make their movies.”

He said he would not accept any apologies for what had happened on the set, an apparent reference to the breach in COVID-19 protocol. “You can tell it to the people that are losing their homes because our industry is shut down,” Cruise said, adding an expletive. “It’s not going to put food on their table or pay for their college education.”

New York Times reported that the sixth film in the series, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, was released in 2018 and took in $791 million in global ticket sales.

It was also filmed in Europe, among other places, and its production was delayed after Cruise reportedly broke his ankle while performing a stunt in which he slams into the side of a building.

 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)