Today, someone asked me to research a chronological mystery concerning the film "American Psycho" and a Tom Cruise appearance on Dave. The query:

"The director of the movie 'American Psycho' [Mary Harron] once said that Christian Bale based his performance on an interview Tom Cruise did with David Letterman. Many people claim it's this interview [link to Tom and Dave on Late Show] but as far as I can tell this interview was from 2002, while 'American Psycho' came out BEFORE it in 2000. However, I haven't been able to confirm this for sure. Do you have any confirmation that the [linked] Tom Cruise interview is (or isn't) from 2002? Do you know of any David Letterman/Tom Cruise episode before 2000?"

After a little digging, I replied:

"(1) The video to which you linked is from August 4, 2004. Tom was promoting 'Collateral.'

"(2) That was Tom's third appearance on Late Show. His first two occurred on January 11, 2002 ('Vanilla Sky') and June 17, 2002 ('Minority Report').

"(3) Tom's first appearance on Dave occurred on Late Night, August 10, 1988, to promote 'Cocktail.'

"So it's the 1988 Late Night interview to which Mary Harron was most likely referring, since it precedes 'American Psycho' by twelve years."

I've decided to upload Tom's 1988 appearance to clear this up for all of the "American Psycho" aficionados out there. As always, the film clip that aired here has been deleted due to copyright caution.

Regarding Tom's brief mention of "Rain Man": no one was familiar with it yet, because, as Tom said towards the end, it wouldn't be released until four months later, on December 16, 1988.

Also, note the music Paul and the band played during the break -- Frankie Ford's "Sea Cruise" (1959). Not unique for Tom: the band first played it after a "Tour of Staten Island" remote piece on June 2, 1982.