James Corden reveals the bizarre way Tom Cruise gave him his phone number

Corden revealed the 'ridiculous amount of effort' Cruise went to to give him his number. Photo / Getty Images

James Corden has revealed the "ridiculous amount of effort" Tom Cruise went to to give him his phone number.

The Late Late Show host told Howard Stern he had a great relationship with the Top Gun star, so much so that Cruise's publicist asked Corden for a favour.

"His publicist got in touch and said he was being honoured with a big filmmaker's award in Vegas," Corden told Stern. "And would I go and host it as a surprise. I said, 'Absolutely!'"

Cruise was incredibly grateful after the awards show and told Corden, "Stay in touch, give me a call."

"I said, 'Tom, that's really lovely, but I don't have your phone number'. He went, 'I'll get it to you'."

Two days later Corden was in his office in Los Angeles when he received a mysterious package, news.com.au reports.

"In conference room one was a massive amount of balloons that said 'thank you' and a box," Corden recalled. "I opened the box and there was a cake in the shape of a telephone with all these odd symbols on the dial. Then in an envelope was a dictaphone and it said 'press play'.

"It says, 'Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to work out the code and call the number on your cell phone. This message will self-destruct in five seconds'."

A confused Corden sat in the conference room trying to decipher the code, and it took him a few attempts to get it right.

"I called and this voice went, 'Hello?' I went, 'Is that Tom Cruise?' And he went, 'Is that James Corden?' I said, 'Yeah', and he went, 'Well now you've got my number!'

"It's just the most amazing thing," Corden said.