Sen. Cruz 'disappointed' Bruce Willis wasn't at asteroid hearing

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) jokingly said he was "disappointed" that actor Bruce Willis did not appear before a Senate hearing on asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth.

"I was disappointed that Bruce Willis was not available to be a fifth witness on the panel," Cruz said according to The Los Angeles Times.

Willis famously starred in the Jerry Bruckheimer-directed movie "Armageddon" about a team of astronauts that try to blow up an asteroid before it hits Earth.

Cruz's comments came during a Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Science and Space hearing on threats from space. The hearing was on "assessing the risks, impacts and solutions for space threats." The hearing follows a meteorite exploding above Siberia in February. The explosion injured roughly 1,000 people.

"There is probably no doubt that actually Hollywood has done more to focus attention on this issue than perhaps a thousand congressional hearings could do," Cruz also said.

Movies like "Armageddon" don't realistically depict the reaction to an asteroid heading to Earth,  said U.S. Naval War College Professor Joan Johnson-Freese, who spoke at the hearing.

"I'm all for Bruce Willis testifying don't get me wrong but … what that movie did was basically convince the American public that if anything bad happened, people would get in the shuttle and go fix it," Johnson-Freese said. "It was a myth."

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