While Rosie O’Donnell has come out as a lesbian since publicly professing her love for Tom Cruise in the ‘90s, she clarified that she isn’t “interested in the downtown mechanics.”
Rosie O’Donnell’s top gun is still Tom Cruise—just not in a sexual way.
Indeed, the former talk show host—who publicly came out as a lesbian in 2002—reflected on how she can still be moved by the sexiness of a man, like she recently was while watching Luke Evans in The Rocky Horror Show on Broadway.
“Makes a girl think—gay girl, too,” O’Donnell quipped on the Aug. 11 episode of Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast. “I was like, ‘I don't know what your deal is, sir, but come over near me and let me smell you.”
The 64-year-old added, “I don't want you naked in my bed—I'm not interested in the downtown mechanics—but I would like you to maybe have lunch with me and get me a lemonade.”
For her part, Poehler agreed, noting that attraction can prompt questions like, “Do I want to kiss them? Do I want to be them? [Or] do I want to get their approval?”
Plus, the Saturday Night Live alum emphasized her point by pointing out O’Donnell’s public obsession with the Mission: Impossible star in the ‘90s was never sexual, which O’Donnell agreed with.
“I often said, ‘I don’t want him in bed. I want him to mow my lawn and bring me an iced tea,’” she continued. “I didn’t know how much clearer I could be.”
O’Donnell added, “When I finally did come out and people were shocked, I was like, ‘How the hell are you shocked?’ And they’re like, ‘The Tom Cruise thing.’ I’m like, ‘How much clearer did I have to be?’”
After all, she clarified, “I could never leave the throngs of gay people out in the world, of which I am a member, and proud to be a member.”
After The Rosie O’Donnell Show premiered in 1996, Cruise played into O’Donnell’s love for him, appearing on an episode in December of that year where he gave her flowers and multiple kisses.
Since then, the A League of Their Own actress has kept in touch with Cruise, who she says has always treated her kindly.
“Every year, I think, 'What a classy guy he is that he has never forgotten my birthday,'” she said during a SiriusXM radio appearance in 2021. “A lot of people say to me, 'It's just his secretary.' But I don't believe that. I think he knows in early March, 'Oh, it's Rosie's birthday coming up.' And he sends me something every single year for 25 years.”
And as O’Donnell sees it, “I love Tom Cruise and I will always love Tom Cruise.”
To learn more about other celebrity friendships you might find surprising, keep reading…
