Matt Lauer Channels Tom Cruise in Dramatic Reenactment of *That* Infamous Interview Exchange
Spoiler: It went a little differently than it did way back in 2005.
Thanks to a long-running friendly feud with Ellen DeGeneres, Matt Lauer is somewhat accustomed to being pranked on television. So he barely batted an eye when Andy Cohen asked him to recreate his infamously testy 2005 TODAY interview with Tom Cruise in a special edition of Clubhouse Playhouse on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
You may recall that this interview started derailing after Tom criticized Brooke Shields, who had revealed that she took antidepressants for postpartum depression in her memoir Down Came the Rain. He suggested that Brooke use "vitamins and exercise" instead and that prescription drugs and psychiatry were basically a crock and called Matt "glib" for suggesting that they actually help people.
On WWHL, Andy assumed the role of Matt and gave Matt a scruffy wig to play Tom; Matt obliged but wanted to make sure everyone knows that he likes Tom and they're now friends. While Andy stuck to the script, Matt indulged in a bit of improvisation: He called Andy "bilg — that's the opposite of glib" and complimented Andy's interview style (as Matt).
Following the original interview, Matt said Tom was a real "mensch" and apologized to both he and Brooke — which is good, because Brooke was not having it when she first got wind of the comments.
“Tom should stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them,” she told PEOPLE in 2005.
