Top Gun red carpet delight after Tom Cruise dropped in
A WARWICKSHIRE couple have attended the Top Gun: Maverick premiere after a chance encounter with Hollywood star Tom Cruise.
In August last year, the trained pilot A-lister left the couple utterly stunned after landing in their back garden in a helicopter as nearby Coventry Airport was shut.
Having come to the rescue, Alison Webb and partner Neil Jones said that they chanced their luck and asked his people for tickets for the hotly-anticipated premiere. Alison told the BBC: “I felt like a real superstar with everyone watching, a once in a lifetime experience.”
Although she and partner Neil Jones did not get a second chance to talk to Cruise, Ms Webb said they had a ‘real buzz’ walking the red carpet on Thursday.
“We got into Leicester Square, we had tickets for the red carpet - although not the celeb bit - but it was really nice, walking the whole thing,” Alison added.
She continued: “Then Tom Cruise introduced the film, it was amazing, we really enjoyed it. Just a fabulous night.”
Tom Cruise was in the country in 2021 filming the latest Mission: Impossible movie in Birmingham. Alison recalled at the time she was merely told that a ‘VIP who was running late’ needed somewhere to land.
She was simply starstruck when she discovered it was the A-list actor. Cruise posed for pictures and gave a free helicopter ride to her family.
At the time, his representatives left their details and when the date of the Top Gun premiere was announced, Alison cheekily asked if she and her partner could attend.
Two tickets soon arrived and ‘properly glammed up,’ she and Neil walked the same red carpet as others on the guest list.
Looking back on the events leading up to the premiere, Ms Webb said ‘it was nuts’ and the story of the helicopter ‘still has some momentum.’
“I am still getting calls about it after all this time”, she said.