Tom Cruise Confuses Portuguese for Spanish, Brazil for Argentina

Tom Cruise can't tell his Latin American countries (or languages) apart. The star recently touched down in Brazil with Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise for a five-day press junket to promote his new movie, Valkyrie, and while journalists were wowed by Katie's stylish outfits and Tom's ripped abs, they didn't hesitate to hang Tom out to dry after he made a few cultural slip-ups.

According to AP, Tom said hola and gracias while conversing with a reporter in Rio de Janeiro, not realizing that Brazilians actually speak Portuguese. (The Cruises are obviously not getting exposure to such native cultural traditions as—oh, we don't know—language, at the Copacabana Palace, their hotel in Rio). Following that gaffe, the actor said that he first fell in love with Brazil by watching movies about samba and tango. The latter is perhaps Argentina's most iconic cultural export, so, whoops on that one!

Luckily for Cruise, Brazilian journalists are a sensitive, tolerant people; instead of responding with disappointment and ire, they reportedly begged the star to take photos and eventually had to be controlled by security. So much for objective reporting.

What do you think? Is confusing Portguese for Spanish an innocent mistake, or should Tom have done some basic preparation before talking to reporters?