Hollywood is full of open secrets, hush-hush rumors, career-ruining scandals, deep dark secrets, and other various unsundry talk with varying degrees of publicity.

John Travolta's gayness has been called "Hollywood's biggest open secret." More than a few men have discussed their affairs or run-ins with the actor. Since Travolta's career spans 4 decades, these anecdotes have had a lot of time to accumulate. If you believe them, Travolta remains a huge player in the Hollywood gay scene.

I remember reading an in-depth article about this; someone was publishing a book. maybe this was it. Warning: Gawker link, but this is Gawker-level discourse. In addition to the guys who've gone public about their trysts with Travolta, you have actual actresses like Carrie Fisher going on record and asking him to come out. There's at least one photo of him kissing a man floating around the internet. In my view (though I'm a nobody), Travolta is probably gay, or at least bisexual, and does stuff with guys at bathhouses.

Cruise is a different case. You sometimes hear rumors that the Church of Scientology has dirt on Cruise that they will leak if he tries to leave the Church, and this dirt is probably related to his sexuality/sexual experiences (Side-note: Travolta is Scientologist as well). Like a lot of things related to the powers that govern Scientology, this is unsubstantiated. Moreover, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise:_An_Unauthorized_Biography](a biographer) of Cruise was unable to find any evidence that he's anything but straight, and google searches give you very dubious sources. When you search about Travolta, it's a different case.

I have heard that Katie Holmes had to "audition" to be Cruise's wife, and that the church picked ScarJo to be his bride, who refused, so they settled on Holmes. This rumor would imply that Cruise has no interest in women and marries actresses to benefit his own marketability. The latter half, if true, doesn't necessarily require the first bit.

With stars as big as Travolta and Cruise, anything that could damage their image or money-making potential is going to be kept secretive and swept under the rug. This has been true in Hollywood since its earliest days, and will fuel speculation about stars regardless of what's really going on. Still, If you believe the rumors, then Travolta is being way too aloof about banging dudes. But Cruise has really been able to keep this under wraps. Even when his image spun out of control in the early 2000s after he fired his manager, the gay rumors never collected evidence like they did for Travolta.

These things are basically unknowable, but people like to speculate and use what they can to build a case. Whether it's pure urban legend or likely fact ultimately remains unanswered.