Tom Cruise was conspicuously absent from the best actor drama category in this year’s Golden Globes nominations for his performance in the blockbuster smash Top Gun: Maverick. Now a new report is claiming the snub is a direct result of the star’s recent decision to protest the Globes’ lack of diversity by returning the three statuettes he won in the past.

Last year, Cruise returned the Golden Globes he won for Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the group that organizes the annual awards ceremony. His actions were in response to the HFPA’s diversity “scandal” that saw the cancellation of the annual NBC telecast last year over the HFPA’s lack of black voters.

Sources told Radar Online that Cruise’s protest didn’t ingratiate him with HFPA members.

“He took a stand and no doubt it didn’t go over well with them,” one unnamed source told the outlet. “A lot of people are convinced that’s the real reason he was snubbed.”

Cruise was apparently so confident he would be nominated for his performance that he even was preparing an acceptance speech, Radar reported.

His speech might not go to waste, however. As a producer of the Top Gun sequel, Cruise is nominated in the best picture drama category.

Radar also claimed that Cruise is blaming his Interview with the Vampire co-star Brad Pitt for his Golden Globes snub.

“It stinks that Brad, once again, seems to have milked his relationship with the foreign journalists at the Globes to get his own movie — which many consider way inferior to Top Gun — a ton of nods,” another unnamed source said, referring to the box-office flop Babylon. “As far as Tom’s concerned, this snub is all Brad’s fault!”
Top Gun: Maverick is building significant Oscar momentum heading into Hollywood awards season. The Paramount release is so far the top grossing movie of the year, though Avatar: The Way of Water is expected to eventually surpass it.

Following last year’s diversity “scandal,” the Golden Globes vowed to diversify its voting body and membership. The HFPA recently announced that its voting body is now majority female and ethnic minority.

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