{"id":3081,"date":"2009-09-09T11:23:27","date_gmt":"2009-09-09T11:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/lovitz-vs-cruise-religious-cag.html"},"modified":"2009-09-09T11:23:27","modified_gmt":"2009-09-09T11:23:27","slug":"lovitz-vs-cruise-religious-cag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/lovitz-vs-cruise-religious-cag.html","title":{"rendered":"Lovitz vs. Cruise: Religious Cagematch on &#8216;Conan&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Did you hear about the time that Tom Cruise challenged Jon Lovitz to a religious debate? On a recent visit to the Tonight Show, Jon Lovitz told the tale of how his derision of Scientology during a gig led Cruise to disparage Judaism and challenge him to a debate. And the two engaged in a healthy, intellectual debate, point-by-point, over who had the more authentic religion, prophet, holy places etc. Well, not really. But it makes a funny story, even though it didn&#8217;t happen. (Relevant part of clip ends around 5:16. Enjoy!)<object width=\"512\" height=\"296 \"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.hulu.com\/embed\/5LghHG_ROGhjK5mIOX0SzQ\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.hulu.com\/embed\/5LghHG_ROGhjK5mIOX0SzQ\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowFullScreen=\"true\"  width=\"512\" height=\"296\"><\/embed><\/object><a href=\"http:\/\/www.locatetv.com\/person\/tom-cruise\/23692\" target=\"_top\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.locatetv.com\/person\/tom-cruise\/23692\/584x85_belief.gif\" alt=\"Tom Cruise\" title=\"Click for TV and online listings for Tom Cruise at LocateTV.com\" border=\"0\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The religious debate of the century: Jon Lovitz on behalf of Judaism, Tom Cruise representing Scientology in a most hallowed venue: on the Tonight Show with Conan O&#8217;Brien.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrities","category-entertainment","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lovitz vs. Cruise: Religious Cagematch on &#039;Conan&quot;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/lovitz-vs-cruise-religious-cag.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lovitz vs. Cruise: Religious Cagematch on &#039;Conan&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The religious debate of the century: Jon Lovitz on behalf of Judaism, Tom Cruise representing Scientology in a most hallowed venue: on the Tonight Show with Conan O&#039;Brien.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/lovitz-vs-cruise-religious-cag.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-09T11:23:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.locatetv.com\/person\/tom-cruise\/23692\/584x85_belief.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Esther Kustanowitz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lovitz vs. Cruise: Religious Cagematch on 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