During a news conference last weekend for his upcoming film, “Red Dawn,” Connor Cruise, the 17-year-old son of movie star Tom Cruise, learned for the first time that he was actually adopted. Randy Geller, an entertainment reporter for the St. Louis Gazette, accidentally revealed the adoption secret, when he asked Connor if taking a look at the original “Red Dawn” before shooting the remake, made him want to take a look at his original parents.

“Connor just stared at me confused and wanted to know what I was talking about,” Geller told Hollywood & Swine. “When I saw the angry look on his publicist’s face, I realized he didn’t know. But he did play the younger version of Will Smith in ‘Seven Pounds,’ so I assumed he understood he was adopted.”

According to sources close to the Cruise family, Tom and his ex-wife Nicole Kidman convinced Connor he was their biological son, going as far as explaining that Connor’s darker complexion was the result of the Australian born Kidman’s aborigine ancestors.

“This clears up so much, like why I call my mom ‘Nicole Kidman,’ and why she didn’t fight harder for custody in the divorce,” Connor said. “It also explains why dad loves Suri so much more.”

Connor was forced to attend the junket for “Red Dawn” after the film’s stars, Chris Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson, went on to star in the blockbusters, “The Avengers” and “The Hunger Games,” and refused to do press for “Red Dawn because they’re still trying to forget they were in it. The movie is finally being released after being shelved in 2010.

Tom Cruise instructed Connor’s publicist not to let any reporters bring up his adoption, but unfortunately the publicist was too busy making sure reporters didn’t bring up Katie Holmes, Scientology, “Rock of Ages,” and Uncle John Travolta’s sexual harassment lawsuits, that the adoption question was able to sneak through.

During their phone conversation, Tom Cruise apologized to his son for not telling him sooner, and offered to make it up to him by buying $50 million in movie tickets to “Red Dawn” to help make it a boxoffice hit.

“Katie and I were going to tell Connor the truth earlier in June after she got back from her trip to New York, but Katie never returned from New York,” said a devastated Tom Cruise. “I thought the worst thing that would come out of Connor starring in ‘Red Dawn’ was when I had to sit through it at the premiere.”