Cruise Waylaid by Water Gun

Tom Cruise didn't take too kindly to being punk'd.

Hollywood's Top Gun found himself all wet Sunday after a man posing as a TV reporter squirted Cruise with water from a specially rigged microphone during a red-carpet interview at the London premiere of War of the Worlds. The bit was supposed to be for a new Ashton Kutcher-esque British comedy show. But Cruise wasn't laughing, and his assailants face possible charges.

The video of the deluge is already making the rounds on the Web. In it, the beaming Cruise steps up for what he thinks will be a brief Q&A with a British camera crew staking out the entrance to the Leicester Square Theater. Cruise begins answering a question as the microphone unloads a stream of water in the actor's kisser, dousing his head and jacket.

Considering what transpired, the suddenly soaked Cruise tries to keep his composure, per the footage.

"Why would you do that? Why would you do that? What's so funny about that?" asks the flabbergasted actor while wiping himself off with a blue towel handed to him by an assistant.

The 42-year-old thesp---whose bride to be, actress Katie Holmes, was at the premiere but wasn't in the line of fire--initially kept smiling but was clearly upset.

"Do you like thinking less of people, is that it?" Cruise asks as he grips the perpetrator by both hands.

The interviewer mumbles something inaudible, then tries to bolt. "Don't run away!" Cruise says, now obviously peeved.

"You're a jerk...jerk...you're a jerk," Cruise says. "That's incredibly rude. I'm here giving you an interview, and you do that...It's incredibly rude."

After toweling off, Cruise continued plying the red carpet. He and Holmes, 26, who became engaged on Friday atop the Eiffel tower in Paris, held hands and kissed as flashbulbs exploded and fans cheered. They stuck around for at least an hour to sign autographs and wave to the crowd.

Meanwhile, security led away the prankster and three members of his camera crew. The quartet was later arrested on suspicion of assault; they were released on bail within hours but ordered to return to a police station on July 4 as authorities consider whether to file charges.

"They are being investigated in relation to an alleged assault on Mr. Cruise," a police source told London's Independent newspaper. "It was just water, but that can be very alarming when it comes from a crowd out of nowhere."

The Mission: Impossible star's sister and publicist, Lee Ann DeVette, was not immediately available for comment Monday. But the London Times quotes her as saying Cruise might seek retribution.

"He is not just going to forget about it. He wants to make sure we get to the bottom of it," DeVette said. "We want to know who was involved and what it was all for. We have not received an apology and are still waiting to get hold of the people at Channel 4 and at the production company [behind the TV show].

"Tom does want to take action, but we don't know precisely what until we know more about the people we are dealing with."

The people the Cruise camp is dealing with are the practical jokesters behind Britain's new Grand Classics series, which has also ambushed the likes of Paris Hilton and Sharon Osbourne. Osbourne, waylaid by a squirt earlier this month, was apparently less forgiving than Cruise. Ozzy's missus reportedly dumped a champagne bucket filled with ice and water over one of the offending cameramen.

On Monday, a rep for Channel 4 issued a statement on behalf of its show: "The water squirting was not intended to cause offense and was very much in a spirit of fun. The stunt was intended to be lighthearted rather than malicious, and we would apologize to Mr. Cruise for any offense caused."