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It’s been 41 years since Risky Business hit the screens, catapulting Tom Cruise to international stardom in his now-iconic tighty-whities.

Even after more than four decades, fans are still unearthing tantalising behind-the-scenes stories, including more details of the alleged affair between Cruise and his co-star Rebecca De Mornay.

Cruise and De Mornay met on the set of the 1983 film, a teenage romp about a high schooler whose life spins out of control when his parents leave him home alone.

Packed with steamy on-screen scenes, it’s no surprise that the sizzle carried over from Risky Business into their off-screen lives.

Image: Everett Collection

While it’s not news that something spicy was going on between Cruise and De Mornay, new information that De Mornay was reportedly dating actor Harry Dean Stanton at the time of the alleged affair has netizens shook.

This tangled love story was revealed by co-star Curtis Armstrong in his 2017 memoir, Revenge of the Nerd: Or . . . The Singular Adventures of the Man Who Would Be Booger.

In an excerpt obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Armstrong detailed the affair.

“It’s no secret that Tom engaged in an intense affair during the shooting with De Mornay — who, at 23, managed to maintain her inaccessible, sexual mysteriousness under any circumstances, unless you could catch her in a joke, at which point her mask would drop as her eyes lit up and she would burst into a full-throated laugh.”

Apparently, the sexual tension between Cruise and De Mornay was obvious to cast members on the set of the 80’s flick, but the couple tried their best to stay apart, considering De Mornay and Stanton were an ‘official’ couple.

“Part of the delay was caused by the presence of Harry Dean Stanton, who was involved with Rebecca. During the hours she worked, Harry Dean — an affable man and great actor — spent his days slowly swimming the length of the hotel pool, literally for hours at a time,” Armstrong continued. Cruise, he wrote, treated Stanton “as a guest overstaying his welcome” while he visited De Mornay.

Eish, Stanton was apparently cuckolded right under his nose.

Despite De Mornay’s initial apprehension about the relationship with Cruise, the star eventually split from Stanton and the iconic Cruise-De Mornay relationship lasted two and a half years, marking them as the 80’s dreamy duo.

In a 2023 interview with The Wrap, De Mornay added more juicy deets to the story and reflected on her whirlwind romance with Cruise.

“It was personally jarring and thrilling and discombobulating to have become famous so quickly… I was a more complicated, mysterious presence, innately, than Tom. His presence is more like, I would say, a major chord, in music terms, and I’m more of a minor chord… America really, really loves the major chords.”

Major chord? More like major drama. The titillating backstory adds even more fire to Risky Business as a steamy classic.

[source:sheknows]