Somehow, one of the things we all seem to know about Tom Cruise is that he likes to send cake to a lot of people during the holiday season. The gift of what is said to be a delicious white chocolate coconut cake has become legendary, as various A-listers have publicly gushed about being recipients for decades. No matter how well-known a celebrity you are, if you got the Cruise Christmas Cake, you’d want everyone to know about it too.
And if you’ve worked with Tom Cruise and never gotten one of those cakes, you’d probably be at least a little bit salty about it. As “Desk Clerk” in Stanley Kubrick’s final film Eyes Wide Shut, Scottish actor Alan Cumming played, you guessed it, a hotel desk clerk who shared a brief but memorable three-minute scene with Cruise’s character, Dr. William Harford, as he searched for an individual who had already checked out. And apparently that just wasn’t enough to land him on the list to receive a cake. Watch the host of The Traitors, currently on the 2026 TV schedule, get all up in his feelings in this clip from The Graham Norton Show:
From Top Gun: Maverick co-star Glen Powell to Mission: Impossible star Hayley Atwell and recent Digger scene partner Riz Ahmed, if you’ve worked with Tom Cruise, you’re likely on his list to receive a coconut cake. And it doesn’t seem to matter how long ago you’ve shared the screen. Just ask Kirsten Dunst, who has gotten the cake annually since working alongside one of the biggest movie stars in the world on Interview with the Vampire over 30 years ago.
Because of all this, I can absolutely empathize with Cumming for feeling some kind of way about never having received the coveted coconut cake that’s become as famous as the actor who gifts it. It also makes me curious about who else is on this no-cake list. But I think the funniest thing about all of this is that Alan Cumming revealed that, even if he did receive the coconut bundt, he likely wouldn’t even be able to eat it. While on The Graham Norton Show, he had this to say to Severance star and fellow guest Tramell Tillman, himself a cake recipient:
[I] never got a bloody cake, no… Listen I’m vegan, so probably I wouldn’t be able to have it.
Even though he admits that he can’t actually even eat the cake, the Toy Story 5 voice actor seems particularly bothered by the volume of coconut bundts that are sent out. If it were a very selective, very small group of recipients, it could soften the blow of hurt feelings for not getting one yourself. But I’m only aware of any of this myself because of how often it’s talked about and how many different people reveal they’re a part of this Cruise Cake Club. Apparently, even Graham Norton himself made it onto the list, which Cumming learned in real time while on the talk show. He said:
He must send out thousands of cakes. Maybe I just watch your show a lot, but it seems that everybody on your show has got a cake from Tom Cruise. Did you get one too? Bitch. Why Tom, why?! Why am I not getting a cake?
I don’t know if any of this pleading will get the Emmy Award-winning host and his iconic fashion choices any closer to receiving a coconut cake (or a vegan replacement) from Tom Cruise, but I’m rooting for him. I also hope, if he ever does make that list, he’ll let us know about it.
