Paramount Pictures has dropped Tom Cruise after a 14 year relationship that included such blockbuster films as the Mission Impossible series. Does this company have some sort of conscience or did something happen behind the scenes that we missed? Why did Paramount Pictures dump Tom Cruise?
Reuters
Sumner Redstone, Viacom chairman, said the behavior of the star of the "Mission: Impossible" series and "Top Gun" was unacceptable to the company, according to the Wall Street Journal story e-mailed to reporters.
Cruise, one of Hollywood's biggest stars, has been known more recently for his antics on U.S. television talk shows, including jumping up and down on Oprah Winfrey's couch to declare his love for Katie Holmes and criticizing the use of antidepressant drugs.
"As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal," Redstone was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal. "His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount."
I personally didn't have a problem with Tom Cruise jumping on the couch. Sure it was idiotic looking, but isn't that what stars do? They draw attention to themselves to stay in the spotlight. I also found Tom Cruises attack on Matt Lauer of the Today show over anti-depressants, while odd, not over the top. I happen to agree with Tom Cruise, I think that anti-depressants are overused and bad in the way they are being shoveled down our kids throats.
I found the situation with the reporter in England interviewing Tom Cruise and then spraying him with a flower absolutely asinine and an assault to boot. Tom took the time to respond to an unknown reporters question and what does he get in return? Sprayed in the face and embarrassed. Who knows what could have been in that flower, acid or worse. There's enough crazies in this world to do something idiotic like that. Way to ruin it for all fledgling reporters, asshole!
The one thing I found disturbing were reports that he bought his own sonogram machine to view his baby in Katie Holmes' womb when he wanted to. But you know what, it's his right to act within the law and there's no law against it.
Now don't get me wrong, I think Tom Cruise is kind of a lunatic and I don't particularly like him, but along with Mel Gibson I have to stand and defend his actions. While Gibson broke some laws driving drunk, he broke no laws with his rants that were the real issue for most people. Tom Cruise hasn't broken any laws to date, so we can't castigate him for that. In this country there is the right of free expression no matter how idiotic or ridiculous it sounds or appears as long as it is within the bounds of the law.
As for Paramount Pictures, well they have the right to do as they please. Dumping Tom Cruise is their right as a company if they feel that he doesn't represent how they want to be seen, but I'm guessing there's much more behind the curtain than we are seeing. Most of these greedy companies will put up with close to murder from their stars as long as they continue to bring in the bucks.
So was it a contract dispute? A personal conflict between Cruise and Redstone or another head person there? I'm betting it is. With his bizarre behavior my bet is that Cruise, in his recently arrogant manner, confronted them directly with demands and threatened to leave them if they weren't met. I'm also guessing that Paramount finally had enough and they called his bluff.
Tom Cruise's arrogance and unprofessional manner may have finally caught up to him. Don't get me wrong, by defending him above I'm not trying to remove him having to accept responsibility for his actions. We all must in the end accept the consequences of the things we do and say and stars these days really seem to be over the top in their demands. I'm just pointing out that I don't think his recent actions alone warranted the dismissal and that there is something else going on here.
What do you think?
