LOS
ANGELES: Citing Tom Cruise's year-long metamorphosis from pure box-office
phenomenon to pop-culture punch line, Viacom's chairman, Sumner M Redstone, said
on Tuesday that Paramount Pictures was ending its 14-year relationship with the
actor's production
company.
However, Cruise's
representatives insisted they had quit and had already lined up $100 million in
financing to produce movies on their own. It came as the latest sign that the
media conglomerates that control Hollywood are growing impatient with the
megastars who earn the highest
salaries.
Last year, Cruise
seemed to sprout cracks in his megawatt-smile facade: jumping up and down on
Oprah Winfrey's couch to declare his love for Katie Holmes; assailing Brooke
Shields for taking prescription drugs to treat postpartum depression; and
speaking out publicly against psychiatry and for his religion,
Scientology.
Weak opening of
Cruise's third installment of the "Mission: Impossible" series in May left
Paramount executives believing that the negative attention and mockery of Cruise
had hurt the film.
"As much as
we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal," Redstone
told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the studio's decision on its
website.
"His recent conduct
has not been acceptable to Paramount." One person who was briefed by Viacom
executives said the studio did not want to renew the contract for a production
deal that had been reported to cost as much as $10 million a
year.
But Paula Wagner,
Cruise's partner in Cruise-Wagner Productions, said in an interview she and
Cruise had, sometime "in the last few days," told their agents at Creative
Artists Agency to inform Paramount that they were terminating the contract
talks.
As for Redstone's
allusion to Cruise's conduct, Wagner fired back, "I have no answer for a stupid
statement." She speculated that Redstone was "trying to save face," having
learned from Wall Street chatter of Cruise's hunt for alternative financing.
A spokesman for Redstone Carl
Folta scoffed at Wagner's talk of new financial backers.
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