LOS ANGELES — “What better way to spend an evening than with a bunch of Irishmen,” a dressed-down Tom Cruise, in blue jeans and a navy sweatshirt, said when he presented J. J. Abrams, the producer of his next film, “Mission: Impossible IV,” with an award at the Oscar Wilde: Honoring the Irish in Film party last night in Los Angeles. (Yes, you read that right.) Mr. Cruise introduced the decidedly non-Irish Jeffrey Jacobs Abrams as James Jacob O’Abrams.

Mr Abrams told us earlier he could think of no reason for his receiving the award other than that his wife, Katie McGrath, is of Irish descent. But Trina Y. Vargo, the president of U.S.-Ireland Alliance, explained the connection for us.

“Someone once said, ‘There are two groups of people, the Irish, and those who lack imagination.’ So in our book, that makes J.J. Abrams more than Irish,” she said. “Since J.J. graciously agreed to become an honorary Irishman, he has since visited Ireland with his family and he has optioned the rights to Colum McCann’s book ‘Let the Great World Spin.’ So we’ve adopted him!” (Of course, the Dublin-born Mr. McCann has lived in the United States for more than two decades, and his latest book is set in New York.)

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