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By Matthew Roberts<br />
Cruise made his own personal<br />
idolatry of the number 46 public at<br />
Laguna Seca in 2008, when he was<br />
so desperate to spend more time<br />
with Valentino after meeting him on<br />
the Sunday morning that the rider<br />
actually had to tell his PR manager<br />
to make up an excuse so that the<br />
actor wouldn’t try and visit him<br />
again in his motorhome before the<br />
race.<br />
After the famous battle that ensued<br />
that afternoon between Rossi and<br />
Casey Stoner, I was waiting – as I<br />
always did during that period – to<br />
conduct the post-race interviews in<br />
the television reporters’ pen at parc<br />
fermé. It was an exclusive area, with<br />
just the BBC and Italian TV represented<br />
at the flyaway races outside<br />
Europe at the time, and it always<br />
felt like a massive privilege to be<br />
the one of the guys getting the first<br />
word with the protagonists so soon<br />
after such a momentous race.<br />
As I waited for an elated Rossi and<br />
seething Stoner to return from their<br />
cool-down lap and planned my first<br />
question to both, a figure appeared<br />
alongside me between the steel<br />
barriers that I sensed was not the<br />
familiar, rotund, profusely sweating,<br />
effervescent, bearded mass of Sky<br />
Sport Italia’s Paolo Beltramo.<br />
In fact, right there next to me was<br />
one of the biggest stars in Hollywood,<br />
hijacking my primo real<br />
estate so that he could congratulate<br />
the race winner in person.<br />
Within seconds, in my earpiece, I<br />
was given the instruction from my<br />
producer back in London to grab his<br />
thoughts about the race.<br />
“Tom… a quick word for the BBC?”<br />
I offered, politely.<br />
Taking my hand gently in his soft,<br />
moisturised palms, Cruise smiled<br />
kindly back and nodded his head,<br />
saying, “No, I’m sorry, but I can’t do<br />
that.” Anybody watching our exchange<br />
via the live television cameras<br />
that surrounded us would have<br />
thought he was being friendly and<br />
accommodating. But that famous<br />
Top Gun smile held about as much<br />
sentiment as a happy birthday video<br />
message from Kimi Raikkonen.<br />
The truth is, not everything is as<br />
it seems, and as long as Valentino<br />
Rossi continues to defy the laws of<br />
ageing on track, who could dare to<br />
tell him what is appropriate for his<br />
image off it?<br />
Whether he starts to look like Elton<br />
John one day or not, when that guy<br />
decides to stop having fun, it will be<br />
a sad, sad situation for all of us.
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