Ah, the truth comes out. It seems that the "unacceptable behavior" Sumner
Redstone mentioned was actually perfectly acceptable -- at a reduced price --
and when Cruise's agent walked out on the negotiations over the attempt to
low-ball that Redstone got pissed and decided to make the "behavior" crack in
public out of pique.
The fact that someone as obviously petty, vindictive and manipulative as Sumner
Redstone controls a huge amount of the Television we see in this country should
be more of a concern than anything else.
-- JR
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Kusumoto" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 23:36
Subject: Re: [MOPO] WSJ: Paramount terminates ties with Tom Cruise
> More from today's VARIETY -- Cruise's people say they walked away on their
> own because they got low-balled, with Paramount (my guess) apparently
> leveraging MI:III's performance as a way to avoid giving him more money:
>
> -koose.
>
> =============================
>
> VARIETY MAGAZINE
> Tue., Aug. 22, 2006, 8:12pm ET
> FRISKY BUSINESS
> Spunky Sumner severs Par's ties to Cruise
> By CHRIS GARDNER, Variety
>
> The 14-year Tom Cruise-Paramount relationship has ended on a note of anger
> and outrage.
>
> Cruise and his production partner, Paula Wagner, say they have raised a
> revolving fund of $100 million from two hedge funds and are striking out on
> their own.
>
> Wagner denounced Sumner Redstone's comments about Cruise as "outrageous and
> disrespectful."
>
> Redstone told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that Paramount was ending
> its relationship with Cruise because "his recent conduct has not been
> acceptable."
>
> In fact, Wagner said, CAA, Cruise's agent, has terminated discussions with
> Par earlier in the week.
>
> After making 14 films in 14 years, the studio had declined to renew the
> original Cruise deal and offered a sharply reduced pact.
>
> Cruise has been a tabloid-regular over the past year due to his relationship
> with actress Katie Holmes and his increasingly outspoken nature about the
> Church of Scientology.
>
> Wagner defended Cruise/Wagner's longtime success for the studio, saying that
> in the last 10 years, the shingle's product has accounted for 15% of
> Paramount's theatrical revenue and for the past six years it has tallied
> 32%.
>
> Their credits include the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, "Vanilla Sky" and
> "War of the Worlds."
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
>
> From: "JR" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "David Kusumoto"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,<MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>
> Subject: Re: [MOPO] WSJ: Paramount terminates ties with Tom Cruise
> Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 22:58:16 -0400
>
> Hollywood has always been about "what have you done for me lately?" -- but
> this is ridiculous. It was only 1 year ago that Tom Cruise starred in WAR OF
> THE WORLDS which was one of last summer's mega-hits. Since then, the
> god-awful MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III came out. Clearly Cruise did nothing
> "controversial" enough between the release of those two films to cause
> audiences to turn against him personally as an actor. The difference was
> that one film was worth watching and the other wasn't. On the other hand, I
> expect Cruise will land on his feet and go on to make many more hundreds of
> millions in other films, they just won't be Paramount's. It's a very odd
> world where a billion-dollar corporation makes critical financial decisions
> based on the sort of things cited against Cruise in this article. How
> shocking! He bounced up and down on Oprah Winfrey's couch (the bastard!)...
> he criticized drug abuse (in an incompetent way, yes, but that's clearly
> what he was talking about)... and he talked about Scientology (so did John
> Travolta and many others).
>
> -- JR
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: David Kusumoto
> To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
> Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 19:14
> Subject: [MOPO] WSJ: Paramount terminates ties with Tom Cruise
>
> FYI, below.
>
> -koose.
>
> =============================
>
> 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.
>
> Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
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