Man Overboard Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Oprah Winfrey Show

While a lot of media stops on Cruise's "War of the Worlds" promotional tour ended up featuring some declaration of love for non-co-star Katie Holmes, the one stop at "The Oprah Winfrey Show" was perhaps the most famous due to Cruise's somewhat-manic proclamations, many of which involved jumping up and down on the set's couch while the audience cheered.

The episode has since become a bit of a pop culture moment for the 2000's time capsule and has since appeared in parodist films of the era ("Scary Movie 3" comes to mind). "The War of the Worlds" ended up being a big hit for Cruise and director Steven Spielberg despite the tangential talk show topic though the TomKat marriage only lasted until 2012. Holmes barely acted during this period while Cruise continued to appear in high profile releases like "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" and "Tropic Thunder".

Answer: Russell Crowe

Although media coverage of Russell Crowe's more aggressive public tendencies spanned most of a decade surrounding the actor's three Best Actor Oscar nominations (one of which he won, for "Gladiator"), Crowe maintained a fairly prolific film career during and after, taking on major roles in movies like "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World", "Cinderella Man", and "American Gangster" despite the attention. That said, the negativity carried over into popular culture as well; most notably, a 2002 "South Park" episode was intercut with several scenes from the fake TV show 'Fightin' Around the World with Russell Crowe', during which Crowe provoked fistfights against often unassuming people and animals.

Answer: A haunted house

Although Cage's career may have hit heights when he won an Oscar for his role in "Leaving Las Vegas" in 1995, he has since become famous for his roles in action movies and, in later years, high-profile B-movies, partly because he hit a point in his spending habits where he couldn't afford to be choosy.

After purchasing the supposedly-haunted mansion of Delphine LaLaurie in New Orleans' French Quarter, and another property in the city, for millions in auction, he started losing his high-priced purchases left and right, owing in the tens of millions in debt.

The mansion was sold away by Cage only two years after he took ownership of it. Other items he bought around this time: a dinosaur skull, a German castle, England's Midford Castle, and an island in the Bahamas.

Answer: Crispin Glover

Although Glover, who had a role in "Back to the Future" the previous year, was actually on Letterman to promote the well-received 1986 movie "River's Edge", the then-23-year-old actor showed up to the taping in-character as a completely different role-- one that wouldn't appear onscreen until 1991 (Rubin Farr, from the independent movie "Rubin & Ed").

The appearance ended up throwing a lot of confusion into the minds of viewers though Glover's eccentricity would help him land roles in David Lynch's "Wild at Heart", the 2003 remake of "Willard", and the 2007 remake of Herschell Gordon Lewis' "The Wizard of Gore".

The appearance marked one of very few instances in which host David Letterman walked out of the interview-- two minutes in!-- moments after Glover nearly kicked him in the face.

Answer: "Just do it!"

"JUST DO IT! Don't let your dreams be dreams." Shia LaBoeuf found fame at a young age for appearing in a few Disney projects in the 2000s and, at one point, he was considered a young Tom Hanks, picked up as the star in the "Transformers" series, a successor to Harrison Ford in the "Indiana Jones" series, and as a co-lead in Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" sequel.

Instead, in the mid-2010s, LaBoeuf took the reins on his career, instead attempting to propel himself to more daring, avant-garde roles in films by Lars Von Trier ("Nymphomaniac"), music videos for Sigur Rós, and self-made short films and performance art projects. During one red carpet event, he walked with a paper bag on his head, the words 'I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE' Sharpied on the front.

His "Just do it" speech, about a minute long on YouTube and part of a performance piece, went viral as an out-of-context, manic rant.

Answer: The Machinist

Allegedly working off the weight on a diet of cigarettes and whiskey, Bale dropped from around 170lbs to 110lbs for "The Machinist", building it all back up as muscle for "Batman Begins". It wasn't Bale's last drastic weight transformation for a role though. Over the next decade, the actor would continuously fluctuate for roles, inevitably gaining significantly more fat for "American Hustle" in 2013 and then, again, changing his weight to portray Dick Cheney in the 2018 film "Vice". Bale was nominated for four Oscars in the 2010s, winning for "The Fighter" in 2011.

Answer: Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson, while a successful action and rom-com film star in the 1980s and 1990s, also tried his hand very successfully as a director starting in the mid-1990s; he was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director for his sophomoric effort, "Braveheart" (1995), winning both.

His projects continued to be ambitious as he shifted out of acting, and his 2004 film, "The Passion of the Christ", ended up being one of the most controversial right out of the gate for its graphic depictions of Jesus' crucifixion.

This all happened during a time in Gibson's life where he was in and out of police custody for drunk driving. His anti-Semitic remarks during this time also led to a decade-long blacklisting in Hollywood which, in the 2010s, slowly went away.

His 2016 war film "Hacksaw Ridge" received six nominations at the Oscars including, like "Braveheart", Best Picture and Best Director.

Answer: I'm Still Here

While Phoenix had been featured in a number of well-received films and even been nominated for Oscars for his roles as Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line" and Roman ruler Commodus in "Gladiator", the "Late Show" appearance caught most off-guard. Though outspoken about his distaste for The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences before and after, his disheveled appearance on Letterman hinted at something much more worrisome.

The truth was, he and Casey Affleck were laying out the groundwork for Phoenix's upcoming mockumentary, "I'm Still Here", which meant changing his professional persona.

He went back into movie-making immediately after (having never left) and went on to be nominated for Best Actor in 2013, five years later, for "The Master".

Answer: Michael Richards

Although Michael Richards found great success in the 1990s playing Cosmo Kramer on the famous sitcom "Seinfeld" (winning Emmy Awards for the role more than once), he ended up getting hit with what many called 'The Seinfeld Curse' in which the four leads never really had success after the show (though Julia Louis-Dreyfus really bounced back in the 2010s!).

The Curse was somewhat self-fulfilling when Richards lashed out at the crowd at a stand-up set at a Los Angeles comedy club. The resulting attack on the hecklers ended up keeping him off TV and out of movies, by and large, for the better part of a decade.

Answer: Leonardo DiCaprio

Playing the scene with such intense passion, DiCaprio ended up going to smash the table in front of him but hit his glass instead, shattering it and slicing himself on the broken pieces. Tarantino kept the scene in the film, feeling it best conveyed the emotion, and then built the rest of the scene around it after the fact. DiCaprio was not nominated for an Oscar for the role, but his co-star, Christoph Waltz, won Best Supporting Actor (just as he did for "Inglourious Basterds". DiCaprio would win for "The Revenant" a few years later. Tarantino is well-known for rolling with these sorts of punches.

While filming "The Hateful Eight", he continued filming as Kurt Russell unknowingly smashed a priceless antique guitar on loan from the Martin Guitar Museum.

It was the only shot they could use, considering.