FYI, below.
-koose.
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Paramount Ends Relationship
With Tom Cruise's Company
By MERISSA MARR, WALL STREET JOURNAL
August 22, 2006 6:43 p.m.
Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone said his company's Paramount Pictures is terminating its 14-year relationship with actor Tom Cruise's production company, citing the actor's controversial and sometimes erratic behavior of the past year.
Mr. Cruise, the star of Paramount hits like "Mission: Impossible," "Top Gun" and "Days of Thunder," has based his moviemaking company, Cruise/Wagner Productions, on the Paramount lot since 1992.
But in the past year, Mr. Cruise's star has fallen in the wake of a series of public incidents in which he stumped for his faith in the Church of Scientology; severely criticized the use of antidepressant drugs; and engaged in sometimes offbeat behavior, such as jumping up and down on Oprah Winfrey's couch to proclaim his love for actress Katie Holmes.
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.
