After fourteen years of A-list star treatment by Paramount Pictures, Cruise was jettisoned by its parent company Viacom's chairman Sumner Redstone. Redstone said, "As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal: his recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount." Shortly after the debut of Mission: Impossible III, USA Today conducted a poll in which 1/2 of the respondents indicated that they had an unfavorable view of the Risky Business star. They cited his off-screen behavior which included his vociferous advocacy of Scientology, his acrimonious attack on psychiatry, and his cutting criticism of Brooke Shields (as to her taking medicine to cope with postpartum depression). I guess poor Tom has "jumped the shark," or, rather, the sofa.
Cf. http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/22/news/newsmakers/cruise_paramount/index.htm?section=money_latest; http://www.variety.com/VR1117948838.html; http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2006-08-23T001318Z_01_N22285827_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-CRUISE.xml&src=rss&rpc=22; and http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060822/people_nm/media_cruise_dc_1.
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6 comments:
Jumped the shark, indeed.
I'll preempt George here and insert the poor puns. Paramount figured that staying with Tom would be a Risky Business even though he had been their Top Gun for over 14 years. Over Cocktails one night, Viacom's chairman discussed Tom's antics on the Oprah show and declared that they must begin the impossible mission of cutting him loose. "Our strategy up until now has been to focus on one A-list actor, but in reality, all we need are a Few Good Men," said Redstone.
Not bad at all, J. Now that he's lost Stanley, Nicole, and now Sumner, what's Tomcat going to do? I guess he can always sit back with Katie and Suri and watch South Park with Eyes Wide Shut.
Is scientology worth all that? A 'theological' Cocktail at best.
Poor Tom: for a fellow who had All the Right Moves, it looks like he's Losin' It. I guess it Taps for now for that former Top Gun.
I guess his Oprah interview has more Collateral damage than originally thought. It was not as if it was an Interview With a Vampire (literally speaking of course) where he would have to be on his best behavior, but it's never a good idea to goofily jump on her couch. He is Far and Away one of the biggest stars to have fallen out of the public's favor. I think eventually the Color of Money will turn Tom away from Scientology.
Since Geo. is incommunicado at the moment because of a password problem, I think
that it might be ok to further exhaust the plethora of puns in re our mal de mer
Cruise. Tom is one of the Few Good Men (along with Travolta) who might call themselves The Last Samurai that might reappear during those fateful Days of Thunder in the War of the Worlds to take fellow believers back to that saving Space Station. However, we need to be tolerant to The Outsiders and not prejudge them: rather we should embrace them with Endless Love. As I look out at that gorgeous
Magnolia in the yard, I remember that mine may be a Minority Report and that I may need to join a Firm soon.
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