Cruise brands pranksters 'bullies'

Tom Cruise has told how he confronted the water pranksters because he hates bullies – as he decided not to press charges against them.

The Hollywood star was drenched as he attended the London premier of War Of The Worlds on Sunday by a freelance film crew who stopped him on the red carpet to pretend to interview him.

But as a stunt for a forthcoming Channel 4 ‘comedy’ called Grand Classics, they squirted him with water from a phoney microphone, prompting the actor to angrily brand them ‘jerks’.

Last night, Cruise said: "There are bullies, people who like to make people feel less and feel bad. Those people need to be confronted. In my life I have never felt something like that is funny."

But he has decided not to press charges against the four-man crew, who were held by police for several hours before being released on bail to face possible assault charges next month.

Channel 4 apologised to Cruise, saying: “The water squirting was not intended to cause offence and was very much in a spirit of fun. We hope Tom Cruise will be able to see the joke in the spirit with which it was intended."

Immediately after he was squirted, Cruise ichallenged the spoof interviewer: “Now why would you do that? What’s so funny about that? You like doing mean things to people.

The interviewer tried to back away from the situation saying: “I apologise. I didn’t think you’d take it like that. I thought it was a funny joke.

But the star, clearly annoyed but maintaining his composure, said: "Don’t run away. That's incredibly rude.

The prankstershad previously targeted Sharon Osbourne, who screamed: 'You fucking bastard!' at the cameraman, before returning to soak him in a bucket of water

Published: 22 Jun 2005