Paramount Dumps Tom Cruise
Tue, 08/22/2006 - 4:48pm
Paramount is, like, so over Tom Cruise. They are ending a 14 year relationship between themselves and Tom's production company "citing the actor's controversial and sometimes erratic behavior of the past year."
Paramount now believes that Mr. Cruise's behavior hurt the box office of his most recent film, "Mission: Impossible III." Now, Mr. Redstone said he wants to sever the studio's connection to its biggest star.
"As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal," Mr. Redstone said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. "His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount."
A spokeswoman for Cruise/Wagner Productions declined to comment.
Mr. Cruise's representatives presented a different version of events. They said that Mr. Cruise's production company had decided to set up an independent operation financed by two top hedge funds, which they declined to name. Paula Wagner, Mr. Cruise's partner in the company, said such an arrangement represented a new business model for top actors prominent enough to take advantage of the flood of money coming into Hollywood from Wall Street.
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