When David Beckham gathered 40 of his oldest friends to celebrate his 50th birthday last week it was a celebrity-packed group that included Tom Cruise, Eva Longoria and Gordon Ramsay.
But while the star-wattage was high, insiders said the party at Notting Hill’s Core restaurant was surprisingly intimate ‘because everyone there was a genuine friend who had known David for decades’.
So it came as some surprise when, as cocktails flowed, Tom Cruise – who had arrived solo – was seen introducing ravishing Cuban-born actress Ana De Armas around the room.
In 2022 she gave an Oscar-nominated turn as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde, yet Ms De Armas is better known as the stiletto-wearing CIA agent who bested scores of James Bond goons a year earlier in No Time To Die.
And her entrance to the Beckham do was no less covert, as it is believed she sneaked in through the restaurant’s back door.
For weeks there has been speculation that Cruise, 62, who is promoting his latest blockbuster Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, has been dating the stunning Ms De Armas, who, at 37, is just five years older than Cruise’s daughter Isabella.
Ana de Armas, pictured at the Oscars in March, was previously nominated for playing Marilyn Monroe in the movie Blonde
But not everyone is convinced the relationship is genuine. A Hollywood source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Everyone has been talking about Tom and Ana but a lot of people in LA were dismissing it as a ‘fauxmance’ [a fake romance designed to garner headlines] because they both share the same talent agency [CAA] and there’s nothing like a new ‘love interest’ to get people talking, particularly when you’re on a global promotional tour, which Tom is.’
It seems, my source says, the affair was cooked up by their publicists.
But not so fast.
One well-informed Beckham insider said that while Ms De Armas’s presence at his 50th was unexpected (‘no one knew she was turning up’), it proved that her budding romance with the Top Gun star is ‘the real deal’.
‘Tom has known David for 25 years. There is no way he would bring someone to David’s 50th unless it was serious. Tom’s not that kind of guy,’ the source says.
‘People at the party were talking about how it must be serious if Tom invited Ana to join him at such an intimate event. Everyone else was there with their wives and husbands.’
The pair eventually left together in a black cab, although Ms De Armas ducked down in the back seat to avoid the paparazzi. Victoria Beckham seemingly endorsed the Bond star’s presence by posting a black and white photo to social media of her husband roaring with laughter – with Ms De Armas in the background.
While three-times divorced Cruise and Ms De Armas, who has one brief marriage behind her, have been linked since Valentine’s Day, the Beckham party elevated their relationship from Hollywood tittle-tattle to bona fide rumour.
Ms De Armas, standing right, at David Beckham’s 50th birthday dinner in London last week
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Lending it further credibility still were reports last night that Cruise has cast Ms Armas in the lead role of his new film, which has the working title Pressure – suggesting they are likely to be spending much more time together over the coming months.
They are now said to be preparing to make their red carpet debut together at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday. A source who has worked with Cruise for years and saw the pair together recently, says: ‘This is the real deal. Tom is very protective of Ana and, of course, he’s a complete gentleman. People have been speculating about the nature of this relationship but I can assure you it’s the real thing.
‘Ana is lovely but can sometimes have insecurities and Tom is taking it slowly because he’s serious about her. He’s very relaxed around her. Neither of them are into the Hollywood scene which is part of the attraction.’
Indeed, Ms De Armas’s dislike of the celebrity circus of LA is why she prefers to live with her two dogs in a sprawling farmhouse in Vermont, on the other side of the US. It was from her home that she posted a picture to celebrate the fifth birthday of her dog Salsa last week. In the background was a bouquet of pink flowers believed to have been sent by Cruise – one of which she plucked from the arrangement and placed behind her ear.
For his part, Cruise lives a ‘low-key’ life in the UK – attracted by, among other things, our country pubs.
But he still maintains a home in Clearwater, Florida, where the Church of Scientology has a large presence. A lawyer connected with the controversial church, which Cruise has been a member of since his early 20s, said last night: ‘Tom has been talking about it [the romance]. We’re all hoping he will bring [Ms De Armas] and introduce her soon.’
While the origin of their friendship is not clear, the MoS understands it began around Valentine’s Day, shortly after Ms De Armas split from her boyfriend Manuel Cuesta, the stepson of the President of Cuba.
One source said they believed Ms De Armas may have been introduced to Cruise by her close friend and fellow Latin actress Penelope Cruz, who once dated the actor.
‘Penelope is great friends with Tom and has been looking for the perfect girl for him for ages,’ a source at Warner Bros, the film studio behind the Mission: Impossible films, said last night.
The actress with Cruise and her two dogs pictured in London last month
‘Tom is the hardest-working man in showbusiness and the word around Warner Bros is that Penelope suggested he meet Ana because she’d just split with her boyfriend and was in the UK for meetings.’
The pair were spotted at dinner in London’s Soho and, a few days later, shared a drink at A-lister honeypot Chiltern Firehouse. Since then, they have been seen walking through Hyde Park with a group of friends (and two burly bodyguards) and recently celebrated Ms De Armas’s 37th birthday together in London.
The actress – and her two dogs – have been photographed getting on and off helicopters and private planes piloted by Cruise, a self-described ‘aviation nut’ who learned how to fly for the first Top Gun movie.
While he has been a global box-office banker for four decades, Ms De Armas is a star in her own right.
Born Ana Celia de Armas Caso in Cuba to Spanish parents, she started out in Cuban soap operas or ‘telenovas’ before moving to Spain at 18 to pursue her acting career.
She told one interviewer she only learned English ‘properly’ when she moved to Los Angeles in 2016 to appear in the crime film War Dogs.
Her career took off the following year in Blade Runner 2049 and then in 2019’s Knives Out opposite Daniel Craig, who liked her so much he picked her to play enigmatic Bond girl Paloma in 2021’s No Time To Die.
The following year she became the first Cuban actress nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in Blonde.
A source who worked with her said: ‘Ana is hugely talented. She’s someone who takes her work very seriously, which is something she and Tom have in common. She’s always on set early, always prepared. She can be quite anxious, but in a good way. I think that stems from having English as a second language.’
While she had a brief marriage to Spanish actor and model Marc Clotet from 2011 to 2013, her most high-profile romance to date was with Ben Affleck, whom she met when the pair starred together in the 2022 film Deep Water.
A person who knew her around that time said: ‘Ana hated the attention that came with being with Ben. She’s not someone who craves the limelight. She sees herself as a serious artist and understands the work of promoting a movie and that she has to do a certain number of red carpet events.
‘But she bought the farm in Vermont because she doesn’t want to be in Hollywood. She’s a country girl at heart. I think the reason there has been so much speculation about the nature of her relationship with Tom is because they have been so discreet.’
Cruise’s love-life, of course, has long been the subject of Hollywood gossip. His first wife, actress Mimi Rogers, was six years his senior when the pair married in 1987 when Cruise was just 24. He credits her with introducing him to Scientology but, when the marriage failed after three years, she said witheringly: ‘Tom needed to be celibate to maintain spiritual purity.’ Then came Nicole Kidman. They met on the set of Days Of Thunder and married in 1990.
They adopted two children, Isabella and Connor, but cracks began to show when rumours circulated that Ms Kidman never fully embraced Scientology. In 2001, just months after their tenth wedding anniversary, Cruise filed for divorce, an action the actress said left her ‘blindsided’.
Wife number three, Katie Holmes, spawned one of the most cringeworthy moments in Tinseltown romantic lore when Cruise jumped up on Oprah Winfrey’s couch mid-interview to declare his love.
The couple’s daughter Suri was born in April 2006, with the pair getting married that November in a castle in Italy. By 2012, though, that marriage was also over amid reports that Cruise became estranged from Suri, now 19, because his religion viewed her mother as a ‘subversive’.
While the nature of Cruise’s relationship with his youngest daughter is not known, the pair have not been photographed in public together for more than a decade.
After the split from Ms Holmes, Vanity Fair magazine published a bombshell report claiming his next girlfriend, Iranian-British actress Nazanin Boniadi, had allegedly been ‘auditioned’ by the Church of Scientology, something the couple denied.
Despite the long list of women in his life, rumours around Cruise’s sexuality have persisted. In 1992, He told US interviewer Barbara Walters: ‘I’m not gay. I really don’t know where it comes from. I guess some people just want to make stuff up.’
And in 2001 he sued gay porn star Chad Slater, who falsely claimed he had an affair with the actor. Cruise won $10 million (£7.5 million) in damages. His lawyer called the claims ‘false, defamatory and a fabrication’, adding: ‘Tom Cruise is not gay.’
It is virtually impossible to find anyone in the film business who dislikes Cruise, a man who has a disciplined work ethic, turns up early and is known for buying gifts for those on set.
A colleague of his told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Tom really is a great guy. To have been as successful as he has, for as long as he has, and still be this guy who will talk to everyone, arrive early, stay late and is always prepared – it’s remarkable.
‘People talk about the weirdness of Scientology, but he’s a 62-year-old man who is free to worship and believe in what he wants. There have always been people who try to tear him down because that’s the nature of Hollywood.
‘People who really know him, love him.’
Last night, spokesmen for Cruise and Ms De Armas declined to comment on the relationship.
A legal source who knows the star said: ‘Tom is youthful and vigorous and acts like a man in his 40s. When you see him with any woman he is always the consummate gentleman. I don’t think age comes into it with him. Of course there is a ‘trophy’ element with any man in his 60s dating a much younger woman but he doesn’t act like an old man. Far from it.’
And another source offered one reason why 5ft 7in Cruise is said to be particularly fond of Ms De Armas.
‘A lot of Tom’s lovers have been taller than him but Ana is an inch shorter,’ the source laughed.
‘And that’s another great thing about her!’