The celebrity cutaway in sports games is seen by some as an affront to the game’s purity, a direct offense to smart fans everywhere.Others (spoiler: me) are big fans of cramming as many Leonardo DiCaprio ‘pointing meme’ moments into their lives as possible, and therefore have zero problem with a little A-list moment. Let us eat cake!And, no offense, but when the World Cup final is as uneventful as this one was over 120 minutes… a little zap of “Was that Beyonce!??” — or “Did that commentator just say ‘AKA Rocky’?” — never hurt anybody.With this final being played in New Jersey, just over the Hudson River from New York City, the celebrities were out in force. There was even a ‘red carpet’ for those famous faces arriving at the game.So, without further ado, here are just some of the best celebrity cameos we saw at this final — excluding those artists (Shakira, Madonna, Post Malone) who were involved in the various ceremonies.Carlos Alcaraz and HoyeonThe Spanish tennis superstar and Squid Games actress were part of the opening ceremony, presenting the World Cup trophy in a Louis Vuitton trophy trunk.(Dan Mullan/Getty Images)Tom CruiseThe superstar gave a speech to open the match. Presumably, this fits in with his press tour promoting the Oscar-seeking film Digger this fall.Here’s a snippet of his very Maverick-channeling speech: “So as we gather for one final chapter, let us celebrate a tournament that brought the world together. Let us celebrate each other. This is football. This is unity. This is greatness.”Some will have seen that as rousing, others corny.Tom Cruise pre-match (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)Elmo and Cookie MonsterThe Sesame Street characters have become fan favorites during this World Cup, particularly after an Elmo tweet during the NBA Finals that drew amusing backlash. “Elmo hopes both teams have fun!,” he said during the New York Knicks’ series against the San Antonio Spurs. (Elmo is famously from New York, as are all the Sesame Street characters.)Elmo then released an “apology”-type video for the World Cup, saying, “Elmo wants Team USA to win… but Elmo loves everybody. Don’t make this a thing.”The Cookie Monster account posted, “Elmo teach me not to eat trophy. Me teach Elmo to pick a team.”