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Rock of Ages

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Its exuberant silliness is almost enough to make up for its utter inconsequentiality, but Rock of Ages is ultimately too bland and overlong to justify its trip to the big screen.

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Adam Shankman

Julianne Hough

Sherrie Christian

Diego Boneta

Russell Brand

Paul Giamatti

Catherine Zeta-Jones

Patricia Whitmore

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"Rock of Ages," a rags-to-riches rock 'n' roll musical set mostly in a music club on Sunset Strip, wins no prizes for originality. A lot of it is zesty entertainment, with some energetic musical numbers; several big names ( Tom Cruise , Russell Brand , Alec Baldwin ) prove they can sing well enough to play the Strip if they lose the day job. The two leads are Diego Boneta , as a bartender in the Strip's hottest club, and Julianne Hough , as a naive kid just off the bus from the Midwest. They're both gifted singers and join the others in doing covers of 1980s rock classics.

Of course they also fall in love. Of course they have heartfelt conversations while standing behind the "Hollywood" sign. Of course they break up because of a tragic misunderstanding. Of course their mistake is repaired and (spoiler!) they're back together at the end. Has ever a romance in a musical been otherwise?

They're sweet and likable, but for me, the better story involves the fate of the club, the Bourbon Room. Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin), its owner, is desperate because he owes back taxes and will have to close the doors at any moment. His only confidante is a weathered rocker named Lonny (Russell Brand), whose primary function is to lean over him during phone calls and frantically tell him what to say. The person on the other end of the line is usually a venal music manager named Paul Gill ( Paul Giamatti ), who claims he will save the club by supplying his legendary client Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) for a one-night farewell concert.

If you're tracking those names, you're perhaps impressed. Adam Shankman's "Rock of Ages" not only has a high-profile cast, but they never seem to be slumming; they play their roles with great intensity and earnestness, which is really the only way to do satire.

A subplot is recycled directly out of old "Beach Party" musicals. If you are of a certain age, you may remember them. Frankie, Annette and the gang were always having a great time down at the beach when some stuffy local politician decided to run them out of town as a campaign tactic. In this case, the politician is Mayor Whitman ( Bryan Cranston ), who gets all of his instructions from his domineering wife, Patricia ( Catherine Zeta-Jones ). She leads a group of protesters across the street from the Bourbon Room, while Dennis and Lonny look grimly out the window.

There isn't an original idea in the screenplay by Justin Theroux and Chris D'Arienzo, based on an Off-Broadway hit. Even the songs are oldies. And that's OK, because the actors are having a lot of fun, and the production values of the musical numbers are slick and high-spirited. The only problem is that the plot meanders when nobody is singing. If you're making the kind of movie where everybody in the audience knows for sure what's going to happen, it's best not to linger on the recycled bits. If Drew misunderstands something he sees and thinks Sherrie was cheating on him with Stacee Jaxx, then let them clear that up without a lugubrious return visit to the Hollywood sign.

In a movie where all the stars except the leads are essentially satirizing themselves, Tom Cruise is the most merciless on himself. Stacee Jaxx, his muscular body a quiltwork of tattoos, travels with a couple of grim bodyguards ( Kevin Nash , of all people, and Jeff Chase , a giant 6'7" bodybuilder). Stacee has such a big ego that when he's interviewed by a Rolling Stone reporter ( Malin Akerman ), he's so narcissistically seductive he almost seduces himself. Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand have a big scene I'll bet neither one saw in his future.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Rock of Ages (2012)

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, suggestive dancing, some heavy drinking, and language

123 minutes

Diego Boneta as Drew

Julianne Hough as Sherrie

Russell Brand as Lonny

Catherine Zeta-Jones as Patricia

Malin Akerman as Constance

Paul Giamatti as Paul

Tom Cruise as Stacee Jaxx

Alec Baldwin as Dennis Dupree

Mary J. Blige as Justice

• Justin Theroux

Directed by

• Adam Shankman

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Tom Cruise takes on Axl Rose in ‘Rock of Ages’

Toward the end of “Rock of Ages,” just before he gets punched in the face by a baboon, the sleazy talent manager played by Paul Giamatti confronts the young musician hero, Drew (Diego Boneta). “Rock is dead!” he shouts, whereupon everyone else in the cast joins forces to prove him wrong by launching into. . . “Don’t Stop Believin’,” the Journey chestnut that the last five years of popular culture have beaten into the ground.

Despite that defiant final stand, Giamatti’s pronouncement is pretty much on the money. Rock is dead, and this corporate nostalgia cruise of a musical — as far from the unfettered spirit of Elvis and the Ramones as can be imagined — is the proof. Yet the movie has its cheesy pleasures, and some of them are even intended. I’m just not sure whether Tom Cruise’s impersonation of Axl Rose is one of them.

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It’s pretty simple: If the hair metal of the Reagan era has any meaning to you — if songs like “Just Like Paradise” and “I Wanna Rock” conjure up endless late-night drives during senior spring — you’ll probably enjoy “Rock of Ages,” which has been adapted from the 2009 Broadway jukebox musical. If your tastes run to either side of the 1980s, you should make other plans.

Director Adam Shankman managed to jolt new life into the big-screen version of Broadway’s “Hairspray” and he struggles to do the same here. The opening scenes of “Rock of Ages” offer hope that an enjoyably ridiculous time may be at hand: Sherrie (Julianne Hough), the Oklahoma twinkie who wants to be a rock ’n’ roll star, sings “Sister Christian” as her bus pulls out of town, and one by one, her head-bobbing fellow passengers join in. We laugh, but, wait, are we supposed to? The movie tries to keep us guessing for as long as possible.

Which isn’t very long, actually. Still, screenwriters Justin Theroux, Allan Loeb, and Chris D’Arienzo play loose with D’Arienzo’s musical book, jettisoning some characters, adding others, undercutting the corn with comic subversions where they can. When Drew launches into Foreigner’s “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” his power ballad for Sherrie, he’s taking care of business at a urinal.

There’s nothing the writers or director can do about the deadly dullness of these two leads (at least Boneta can sing) or their perfectly cliched dialogue (Drew looks up at the Bourbon Room’s marquee and vows that “someday my name will be up there”), so they fill the movie with bigger stars doing weirder work. Alec Baldwin, looking like something Lester Bangs’s cat dragged in, plays the club’s rawk-lovin’ owner, Dennis. Russell Brand plays his comic sidekick, Lonny, with Ron Wood’s hair. At one point, these two decide they’re in love and sing a tremulous version of REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling” — it’s hilarious at the same time it makes you realize that playing gay has become the new blackface.

Bryan Cranston (TV’s “Breaking Bad” and every movie made in the last two years) is the city’s opportunistic new mayor and Catherine Zeta-Jones plays his God-fearing, metal-hating wife, who looks like Pat Benatar dressed in Nancy Reagan red and who wants to shut the Bourbon Room down. Zeta-Jones even gets to belt Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” in the film’s low point, a klutzy, over-edited S&M dance number set in a church. “Chicago” notwithstanding, Zeta-Jones can dance about as well as Giamatti can sing, which is about as well as Mary J. Blige can act.

Yes, Blige is here, too, in a desperate attempt to inject soul into a white-on-white musical genre. She plays the owner of the strip club where Sherrie ends up working, but don’t fret — it’s one of those PG-13 strip clubs where women keep their clothes on and where pole-dancing is an act of feminist empowerment celebrated by Journey’s “Any Way You Want It.”

Without question, the oddest and most absurdly watchable special effect in “Rock of Ages” is Tom Cruise as Stacee Jaxx, the movie’s decadent rock god. Who knew when Cruise slid into the living room all those years ago, lip-synching to Bob Seger in his tighty-whities, that we’d end up here? Because the actor has never done anything halfway, from acting to falling in love, Stacee is the most intensely focused burn-out in the history of rock. It’s like watching Lance Armstrong’s impersonation of Jim Morrison.

Stacee’s something to behold — whippet thin in furs and bandannas and tats and (look away!) leather chaps without a tighty-whitey in sight. Cruise sings credibly in a roaring tenor that lacks the razorblade gargle of the real thing, but he turns Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me” into something between a freak show and a motivational seminar. This has officially become the strangest career in Hollywood.

Otherwise, “Rock of Ages” is exuberant, silly, overlong, sexist; it’s clever in little matters and proudly dumb in the things that should count. There are cameos for fans of the stage version (the play’s original Drew, Constantine Maroulis, pops up as a record executive) and of ’80s pop (is that Debbie Gibson in a crowd scene?). Yet despite its amusements, the movie’s as genuinely dangerous as the music it celebrates, which is not at all. Welcome to the new karaoke night: “Rock of Ages” desecrates three grand traditions — Broadway musicals, movie musicals, and rock ’n’ roll — but you’ll still come out humming the tunes.

Ty Burr can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @tyburr.

Tom Cruise Talks about His Work in the Musical ROCK OF AGES

Tom Cruise talks about his decision to star in and how he prepared for Adam Shankman's Rock of Ages. Rock of Ages also stars Julianne Hough.

Tom Cruise 's bread-and-butter is action movies, but every now and then he's willing to try something new like he did with Collateral (the only movie where he plays a villain), Magnolia (the biggest supporting role in his career), and disappearing under the make-up and personality of Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder .  His newest challenge will be playing rocker Stacee Jaxx in Adam Shankman 's adaptation of the rock musical Rock of Ages .  The plot centers on a small-town-girl (Julianne Hough) who falls for Jaxx against the backdrop of 80s rock like Journey, SEO Speedwagon, and Styx.  Cruise recently spoke about what drew him to the project, and how he prepared for his role.

Hit the jump for more.  The outstanding cast also includes Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Alec Baldwin, Malin Akerman, Bryan Cranston, Will Forte, Mary J. Blige, and Diego Gonzalez Boneta .  Rock of Ages opens June 1, 2012.

Speaking to 24 Frames , Cruise says his decision to join Rock of Ages came from a combination of his wife's influence and trying to build on his hip-hop work from Tropic Thunder :

"I had started dancing because I was inspired by my wife. She kept saying, 'You've got to do a musical sometime,'" Cruise said. "[ Katie Holmes ] is a dancer, so she would say, 'Let's go to dance class,' and she would take us and that's how I kind of came up with the idea of Les Grossman doing hip-hop. And then to take it to this level with this? It was really fun."

Cruise says he was also impressed with Shankman's previous musical adaptation, Hairspray :

"What he accomplished with 'Hairspray' was amazing. My daughter has seen it 15 times and our whole family has watched it over and over and it's just enormously entertaining. To be able to hold that tone throughout is really something."

Just like he commits himself to the physical demands of acting in an action film (he did an insane stunt off the tallest building in the world for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol ), Cruise says he prepped for six months to do Rock of Ages and was working on singing for five hours a day and dancing for five hours a day.  We'll see if it pays off when the musical hits theaters next summer.

Rock of Ages (2012)

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‘rock of ages’ director: ‘i was like a 15-year-old girl’ hearing tom cruise sing (video).

Adam Shankman talks to THR about Warner Bros.' movie musical, which opens in theaters on June 15.

By Rebecca Ford

Rebecca Ford

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Director Adam Shankman had his work cut out with him when it came to taking the musical Rock of Ages and transitioning it to the screen. Sure, he had an all-star cast including Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Julianne Hough, Malin Akerman and Tom Cruise , but he also had a group of actors that included some who had never sung in a film.

PHOTOS: Broadway Musicals That Have Sung Their Way to the Big Screen

Cruise, who plays rockstar Stacee Jaxx in the Warner Bros. film, is known for his full-on commitment to his characters, but could the man sing?

Shankman described to The Hollywood Reporter the first time he heard Cruise sing.

“The first time I heard him sing was before we formally agreed that we were going to go forward with this,” he said. Shankman sat in the other room as Cruise did his first lesson with Axl Rose ’s former voice coach.

“He sounded amazing,” Shankman told THR. “And within one lesson his range broadened as he opened up. I opened the door, and I was like a 15-year-old girl, I was screaming and jumping up and down and going, ‘Oh my god this is going to work.’ ”

PHOTOS: ‘Rock of Ages’ Premiere Features Tom Cruise and Julianne Hough, plus Josh Duhamel and Fergie in Costume

For the film, which opens in theaters on June 15, Cruise worked on his singing voice for months.

“He was singing literally four or five hours per day. He wouldn’t stop, and I started to get scared he was going to blow out his voice,” Shankman said, adding that “There’s no 100 percent with him, there’s 10,000 percent.”

Shankman, who also directed the musical movie hit Hairspray, added that he was impressed by the level of commitment from all of the actors.

Who surprised him the most? Malin Akerman , who plays Rolling Stone journalist Constance Stark. Akerman’s character interviews Stacee Jaxx, but ends up falling for his rock star ways in one of the craziest scenes in the film.

“Because of her fearlessness and her willingness to let all of that insanity that she got embroiled in just sort of happen without blinking an eye,” Shankman said.

For her part, Akerman told THR it was an honor to work with Cruise.

VIDEO: ‘Rock of Ages’ Star Malin Akerman on Tom Cruise: ‘He Transformed Himself Into a Rock Star’

“To be able to work with Tom Cruise is incredible,” said Ackerman . “If you look back at his body of work, he’s such an incredible actor so I always feel like whenever you get to work with someone who’s been in the business for a while whose really good at their job, they always make you a better actor.”

Watch THR ’s complete interview with Shankman above.

Email: [email protected]; Twitter: @Beccamford

Related Stories

'rock of ages' premiere features tom cruise and julianne hough, plus josh duhamel and fergie in costume, 'rock of ages' star malin akerman on tom cruise: 'he transformed himself into a rock star' (video), laughter amid the darkness, 'rock of ages' star alec baldwin on russell brand's sex appeal: 'he has a lot of magical powers' (video), how 'rock of ages' star tom cruise embraced his inner rock god (video), thr newsletters.

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100 Most Featured Movie Songs

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Rock of Ages Soundtrack [ 2012 ]

List of songs.

Juke Box Hero / I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll

Diego Boneta, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand & Julianne Hough

Drew & Sherrie in the record store / Lonny & Dennis at the bourbon room office

I Wanna Rock

Diego Boneta

Drew on stage at the bourbon

Wanted Dead or Alive

Tom Cruise & Julianne Hough

Sherrie meets Stacee Jaxx afer stage performance,

We Built This City / We’re Not Gonna Take It

Russell Brand & Catherine Zeta-Jones

Outside the Bourbon rooms street scene song battle

Shadows of the Night / Harden My Heart

Mary J. Blige & Julianne Hough

Sherrie starts work in the Venus club

Don’t Stop Believin’

Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand & Mary J. Blige

Closing song before the end credits

Pour Some Sugar On Me

Stacee Jaxx on stage at the Bourbon Rooms

Rock You Like a Hurricane

Julianne Hough & Tom Cruise

Stacee Jaxx & Sherrie private dance in the Venus club

More Than Words / Heaven

Julianne Hough & Diego Boneta

Sherrie sings in the Bourbon as Drew starts to take rehearsals with his band opening for Stacee Jaxx

Any Way You Want It

Mary J. Blige, Constantine Maroulis & Julianne Hough

Justice & Sherrie in the The Venus Club / Paul introduces his next big thing Drew to the record company

Sister Christian / Just Like Paradise / Nothin’ But a Good Time

Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand & Alec Baldwin

Sherrie arriving into town on the bus

Harden My Heart

Julianne Hough & Mary J. Blige

A rain soaked Sherrie meets Justice outside the Venus Club

Waiting for a Girl Like You

Diego Boneta & Julianne Hough

Drew & Sherrie love scene

Paradise City

Film Intro song

Every Rose Has Its Thorn

Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise & Mary J. Blige

Drew & Sherrie up at the Hollywood sign

I Want to Know What Love Is

Tom Cruise & Malin Akerman

Stacee Jaxx & Constance Sack backstage at the Bourbon

Here I Go Again

Diego Boneta, Paul Giamatti, Julianne Hough, Mary J. Blige & Tom Cruise

Drew signs for Paul Gills record label

Undercover Love

Drew sings on stage as front man of Z Guyeezz on their first show at the Bourbon

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Catherine Zeta-Jones

Patricia Whitmore sings in the Church

Can’t Fight This Feeling

Russell Brand & Alec Baldwin

Lonny and Dennis show their emotions as the song closes they kiss

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A musical comedy-drama in which Tom Cruise plays a self-indulgent rock star who plays for a band named "Arsenal": 3 wds - Daily Themed Crossword

Hello everyone! Thank you visiting our website, here you will be able to find all the answers for Daily Themed Crossword Game (DTC). Daily Themed Crossword is the new wonderful word game developed by PlaySimple Games, known by his best puzzle word games on the android and apple store. A fun crossword game with each day connected to a different theme. Choose from a range of topics like Movies, Sports, Technology, Games, History, Architecture and more! Access to hundreds of puzzles, right on your Android device, so play or review your crosswords when you want, wherever you want! Give your brain some exercise and solve your way through brilliant crosswords published every day! Increase your vocabulary and general knowledge. Become a master crossword solver while having tons of fun, and all for free! The answers are divided into several pages to keep it clear. This page contains answers to puzzle A musical comedy-drama in which Tom Cruise plays a self-indulgent rock star who plays for a band named "Arsenal": 3 wds.

A musical comedy-drama in which Tom Cruise plays a self-indulgent rock star who plays for a band named "Arsenal": 3 wds

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• ___ Zimbalist of old TV

A 2011 Tom Cruise Video Proves That Victoria Beckham's Party Isn't the Only Place He Likes To Dance

Tom Cruise's appearance at Victoria Beckham's 50th birthday party on Saturday solidified that their A-list friendship was fine - there are no feuds to be found . However, the 61-year-old Mission Impossible star reportedly surprised some of the guests with his behavior at the swanky event.

Cruise took over the room with his "breakdance" routine that included a few splits in his repertoire, according to the Daily Mail.  A source noted, "People were absolutely dumbfounded" - but they shouldn't be. Besides the actor's penchant for doing his own stunts and shaking his booty in Risky Business , there are a few fans who know how much Cruise loves to sing and dance in his personal life - and yes, there is video evidence, unlike Beckham's party. 

In 2011, when Cruise was still married to Katie Holmes, he was thrown a surprise birthday party on the Scientology religious retreat vessel, The Freewinds, where he whooped it up with singer Stacy Francis. After he heard the first few notes of "Old Time Rock & Roll" from his 1983 film, he couldn't help himself as he started to boogie onto the dance floor - and before long, he was shouting the lyrics into the microphone. Francis eventually handed him the mic and sure enough, Cruise was down in a split in a matter of seconds. (See the video HERE. )

Cruise's singing and dancing talents are something he keeps rather hidden, only cranking it out for big birthday celebrations or the rare movie musicals like Rock of Ages . And back in the day, it was Holmes who "inspired" him to add the dance scene at the end of his 2008 film, Tropic Thunder , and eventually tackle the role of hair-band rocker, Stacee Jaxx. 

"I had started dancing because I was inspired by my wife," Cruise told MovieWeb in 2011. "She kept saying, ‘You've got to do a musical sometime.' Kate's a dancer, so she would say, ‘Let's go to dance class,' and she would take us and that's how I kind of came up with the idea of Les Grossman doing hip-hop. And then to take it to this level with this? It was really fun."

So, maybe fans have Holmes to thank for Cruise's love of dance, and while the video clip is over a decade old - it still stands the test of time. 

Before you go, click here to see celebrities who have left the Church of Scientology.

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Tom Cruise Is a London Boy

Sometimes when God closes a door (Taylor Swift says “So long” ), She opens a window (Tom Cruise does the splits). Cruise is living that life in London, and for him that means break-dancing, doing the splits, and watching the British absolutely lose their crumpets. Cruise has lived in London since 2021 and has, in that time, been at the former queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the British Grand Prix, according to the Mercury News . And now he has attended the most British event of all: Posh Spice’s birthday party. Fortunately, he still has the American propensity to do the most. While at the party, Cruise began break-dancing and ended his routine by doing the splits, according to the Daily Mail . “People were absolutely dumbfounded,” a source mentioned. All we’ll say about that is that if there’s one thing the Mission: Impossible franchise could do to s ecure those Imax screens , it just might be a (gay?) club scene in which Cruise distracts the bad guys by jumping into the splits like a Drag Race contestant. Just an idea.

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Why Tom Cruise ‘absolutely dumbfounded’ guests at Victoria Beckham’s star-studded 50th birthday party

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Tom Cruise brought down the house at Victoria Beckham’s star-studded 50th birthday party .

The “Top Gun: Maverick” star, 61, “absolutely dumbfounded” guests Saturday night by breakdancing and doing splits, a fellow partygoer told the Daily Mail Monday.

Cruise, who has known Victoria and her husband, David Beckham, for nearly two decades, has been living in the UK while filming “Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two,” which is expected to hit theaters next year.

The “Risky Business” star was dressed to the nines for the occasion in a classic black tuxedo with a bow tie and shiny black shoes.

Cruise was far from the only A-lister who attended Victoria’s grand fête in London.

All of the fashion designer’s fellow Spice Girls — Melanie “Mel C” Chisholm, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Melanie “Mel B” Brown — also showed up for the festivities.

The girl group even staged an impromptu reunion to perform their 1997 hit song “Stop” for the attendees.

Victoria had her party at the private members’ club Oswald’s and stunned in a celestial sheer mint gown featuring ruffled details along the hem.

The guest of honor arrived on crutches after breaking her foot during a workout earlier this year, but she did not let the injury stop her from going all out for her milestone birthday.

She was joined by her athlete husband, who was dressed in a tux, as well as their four children: sons Brooklyn, 25, Romeo, 21, and Cruz, 19, and daughter Harper, 12.

Other stars at the soirée included Gordon Ramsay and Eva Longoria.

Notably absent from the momentous occasion was Brooklyn’s wife, Nicola Peltz, who instead spent time with her grandmother .

The “Bates Motel” actress, 29, shared a photo with her grandma on her Instagram Story but also made sure to send her mother-in-law some birthday love.

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“Happy Birthday to my beautiful MIL @victoriabeckham,” she wrote in another Instagram Story. “I’m so sad I’m not there to celebrate you and hug you! Sending all my love from me and Naunni.”

Peltz and Victoria were rumored to have feuded during the former’s 2022 wedding to Brooklyn .

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They allegedly butted heads over wedding planning, and tensions were also high after the bride decided to wear a wedding gown not made by Victoria’s fashion house.

However, Peltz denied she had any beef with the former pop star and explained that she could not wear a dress by Victoria’s eponymous brand due to timing issues.

“I was going to and I really wanted to, and then a few months down the line, she realized that her atelier couldn’t do it, so then I had to pick another dress,” she  told Variety  at the time.

“She didn’t say ‘you can’t wear it;’ I didn’t say I didn’t want to wear it. That’s where it started, and then they ran with that.”

Brooklyn also  denied there was any bad blood between his wife and mom.

Victoria and Peltz appear to have mended their relationship, as they have posted sweet messages about each other on social media numerous times since.

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