Photo: Twitter / Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise, the unofficial hardest working man in showbiz (sorry, The Rock), can do a lot of things, from flying real fighter jets to performing chilling stunts so he won’t have to rely on the dreaded green screen and CGI. But that doesn’t mean that he’s not prone to accidents.
Luckily, this is a happy-ending story. It also happens to be an old one that’s just been uncovered by Bloomberg, during research for a story on Larry Ellison’s $300 million private island Lanai in Hawaii. Ellison is the 11th richest person in the world and the eccentric founder of Oracle, and he retired to Lanai shortly after the start of the 2020 international health crisis.
Ellison bought Lanai in 2012 from David Murdock for an estimated $300 million, and he currently owns 98% of the island, including most businesses there. The Bloomberg piece describes Lanai as prime real estate that Ellison may or may not be turning into an exclusive playground for the rich, his own private mini-country where he gets to control every little thing – and every living being on it.
On Lanai, Ellison hangs out in fine company, including the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise. While speaking with locals – all of them under the promise of anonymity since they’re bound by NDAs and the fear of retaliation, Bloomberg learned of a visit by Cruise shortly after the purchase of the island. It was on that occasion (in 2012 or 2013) that Cruise rolled and totaled a car during a joyride on the island’s mostly unpaved roads.
No less than eight people confirm the story for the publication: the crash is almost the stuff of legend among locals. Cruise was at the wheel of a Toyota Land Cruiser, but he wasn’t injured. From the outside, it looks as if the crash never happened because there was no police report and no third-party involved in clearing the wreckage.
“There are no police records of the incident because it occurred on private land, no one was reported injured, and Ellison owned the tow truck,” Bloomberg writes. “Until now, it never appeared in the press.”
More than Cruise’s temporary inability to handle rough terrain, the story speaks to the kind of strange ownership Ellison has over the island, as per the publication. It perfectly jibes with the headline, Larry Ellison’s Lanai Isn’t for You – or the People Who Live There, the story of a billionaire who bought a piece of paradise and made it his own by driving locals out, making empty promises about sustainability and prosperity, and ruling with an iron fist.
Ellison bought Lanai in 2012 from David Murdock for an estimated $300 million, and he currently owns 98% of the island, including most businesses there. The Bloomberg piece describes Lanai as prime real estate that Ellison may or may not be turning into an exclusive playground for the rich, his own private mini-country where he gets to control every little thing – and every living being on it.
On Lanai, Ellison hangs out in fine company, including the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise. While speaking with locals – all of them under the promise of anonymity since they’re bound by NDAs and the fear of retaliation, Bloomberg learned of a visit by Cruise shortly after the purchase of the island. It was on that occasion (in 2012 or 2013) that Cruise rolled and totaled a car during a joyride on the island’s mostly unpaved roads.
No less than eight people confirm the story for the publication: the crash is almost the stuff of legend among locals. Cruise was at the wheel of a Toyota Land Cruiser, but he wasn’t injured. From the outside, it looks as if the crash never happened because there was no police report and no third-party involved in clearing the wreckage.
“There are no police records of the incident because it occurred on private land, no one was reported injured, and Ellison owned the tow truck,” Bloomberg writes. “Until now, it never appeared in the press.”
More than Cruise’s temporary inability to handle rough terrain, the story speaks to the kind of strange ownership Ellison has over the island, as per the publication. It perfectly jibes with the headline, Larry Ellison’s Lanai Isn’t for You – or the People Who Live There, the story of a billionaire who bought a piece of paradise and made it his own by driving locals out, making empty promises about sustainability and prosperity, and ruling with an iron fist.
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