Bruce Springsteen Roasts Spielberg at MoMA Film Benefit: 'He Fucked That Up'

Bruce Springsteen took the stage at the Museum of Modern Art on Thursday night and accused Steven Spielberg of ruining skinny dipping — with 1975's "Jaws." The MoMA and Chanel 18th Annual Film Benefit honoring Spielberg went on to raise the most money in the event's history.

"One of the great pleasures on the Jersey Shore in 1975 was night swimming, preferably naked with someone you wanted to have sex with," Springsteen said. "Steven Spielberg fucked that up. He fucked it up good. Over the years, I asked myself, 'Why would a nice man like that — why would he do that?'"

Why won't Spielberg go in the water?

Springsteen has known Spielberg for 30 years and joined him on several trips aboard his boat. He told the MoMA audience he has never once seen the "Jaws" director enter the ocean — or even the yacht's own pool.

"You know the bigger boat that they needed in 'Jaws'? He's got that, only much nicer," Springsteen said. "I've been on that boat, and I can tell you, Steven Spielberg does not go in that water. This boat is so fucking big, it has a pool on it. Steven Spielberg does not go in that fucking pool. I'm not sure I've seen him in a bathing suit."

His diagnosis: "The reason night swimming is fucked — not just on the Jersey Shore, but every fucking place in the world — is because that very nice man, Steven Spielberg, is scared of the water."

"Jaws," widely considered the first summer blockbuster, changed how Hollywood distributed big-budget films. Springsteen's bit inverted that legacy into a personal grievance.

Who else honored Spielberg?

Springsteen capped a lineup of industry titans at the benefit, including:

• Tom Cruise, star of Spielberg's "Minority Report" (2002) and "War of the Worlds" (2005)
• Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Cate Blanchett, Drew Barrymore, Steve Martin and Stephen Colbert

Cruise's appearance was a last-minute surprise, even to Spielberg. "I'm very grateful for the moments we've shared personally. Since I was a young man, you were always very generous with me," Cruise said. "It's been an absolute privilege to make two films with you."

Scorsese marveled at the pair's career longevity and closed with a question for his friend: "How did we get to be in our 80s?"

Spielberg called the evening "a family affair" on the red carpet, telling Variety: "Everybody who's coming tonight, I mean, they're all close friends. Either I hire them to be in my movie, or they enlisted me to direct them in something else. And so this is really a family affair for me. There's nobody attending tonight who I don't know and love."

What did Emily Blunt reveal?

After guests dined on American Wagyu, a scene from "Disclosure Day" screened, showing Blunt's character unwittingly use a newfound mind-reading ability to dodge a speeding ticket. Blunt then described what a good take looks like from Spielberg's side of the monitor.

"You'll see him coming right out of the tent with his fists in the air and he's cheering," Blunt said. "It's like the best damn moment of your career."

"Disclosure Day," which returned Spielberg to alien-life territory nearly 50 years after "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," grossed a modest $248 million worldwide this summer.

Spielberg has teased a "kick-ass" Western in the past, but stayed coy about his next move. "I've got a lot of things in development right now," he told Variety. "I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to make next."

The benefit funds MoMA's acquisition and restoration of classic films for future generations. Chanel has backed the annual event since 2011 and served as the museum's lead film sponsor since 2021 — 14 years of combined support that now underwrites the most lucrative Film Benefit in the museum's history.