Say it ain't so!

And Tom and Jerry are still working?

Sumner is so full of crap...

Here's the real deal, in case the Mel Gibson episode didn't drive home this point...

In Hollywood, you can be a racist, a kook, a idiot, a fruitcake, a criminal, a pedophile, a mass murder, there is no depth too low, but there is one rule that you must follow in Hollywood:

YOU MUST MAKE MONEY

And more importantly, you must make enough money to offset your liability. Tom Cruise is such a flake and his shelf-life is reaching it's end that it's not worth it for Paramount.

Which is fine. But why must CBS/Paramount/whatever they're called these days pretend to have a set of morals they stick to? Their hypocrisy is way more perverse than the fact that no-one may touch Suri or talk baby talk to the little alien.

Seriously. It's about the green in this case.

Cruise is walking a freak show gone off the deep end. Add Scientology into the mix and it make Snakes on a Plane seem real and legitimate very unlike the wacko religion. I mostly agree with the Bunkley post though: The marginal returns Cruise could produce for Paramount were set to decline. It doesn't take a rocket scientist nor even a forensic accountant to make that determination. I wish Cruise the best in the future and hope he wakes up from the wet dream of the cult known as... well, you know. The opinion expressed here is my own.

Whole thing smacks of Xenu. Alien joker's pulling intergalactic strings like a hot-fingered puppeteer.

Tom painted himself into a corner ever since Top Gun/The Color of Money. The Color of Money could have led to him becoming a serious actor, but Top Gun was such a huge, huge hit that he repeated the same movie over and over: the maverick non-comformist bad boy who must grow up/conform/mature when his partner dies/his car racing rival dies/all his clients leave him/whatever outlandish plot idea they can cook up. Basically just the same movie over and over, topped off with that stupid grin and strut that Cruise has patented. The further he got disconnected from any kind of a real life, the more outlandish his movies got. And let's not forget who buttered his bread: female ticket buyers. Tom's contract explicitly stipulates that he can only be photographed from certain angles of his face so that his huge nose doesn't stand out so obviously. Weird behavior that involves brainwashing up-and-coming pretty starlets typically turns off other women, does it not?

While I agree that Tom is a bit of a flake with a high potential for a shrinking box office, my understanding is that the deal with Paramount was with his production company. If that is true, I think that it is somewhat cynical to believe that Paramount's decision was related to the box office impact since no one really cares who produces movies.

While I agree that Tom is a bit of a flake with a high potential for a shrinking box office, my understanding is that the deal with Paramount was with his production company. If that is true, I think that it is somewhat cynical to believe that Paramount's decision was related to the box office impact since no one really cares who produces movies.

YAY! Celebrities being held accountable for their actions!

Maybe next: World to Paris Hilton, do something or get out of our way.

I'm frankly very happy that he is no longer associated with Paramount. Just wish everyone would drop him, his actions are that of a 2 year old and his cramming his religion down not only Katies throat, but his other children and even his x-wife is crazy. His religion is wacked just as he is.l

I think it is ridiculous to cut ties with him. What behavior are they citing exactly? Has he been going on wild drunken binges, picking up hookers on the city streets, messing with children or promoting the KKK? No! So where's the bad behavior?

The man has opinions and he has shared them. He's been happy in his relationship and he has shown it. Yes many of us disagree with this Tom Cruise and quite frankly we don't want to hear his opinions or have him ruin yet another couch but seriously, seriously.

What type of behavior has he exhibited that would prompt this? I think we should all cut ties with Paramount movie due to their behavior, stupid decision making.

And if he and Katie don't want the world to see the kid yet. That's their decision. Aren't they the parents, isn't the child their responsibility and don't we all have better things to do than wait to see pictures of the kid? Seriously!

Celebrities are public property. That's why they get paid the big bucks. In return, they promise to smile, look pretty, show us their babies, and not go nuts.

They may be people, too, but they're people who make more on one project, than many of us will ever see in our lives.

It's a quid pro quo. No such thing as a free lunch. Sure, Cruise is allowed to have all the opinions on Scientology as he wants, but as soon as he 1) stops being a bankable celebrity and 2) causes a ruckus with his Babymomma, and then has the nerve not to show the baby... he's not holding up his part of the deal. Why pay him?

After this, it'll be really interesting to see if the South Park Cruise/ Scientology "Trapped in the Closet" episode that's been nominated for an Emmy wins it....

Have to agree with the other bloggers, though; the biggest problem is that the assumption that Mr. Cruise's presence in a film will automatically deliver a "blockbuster" doesn't seem to be solid any more, whatever the reason and whoever produces it.

Some of the concerns may come from the projects he's chosen. Personally, I've had particular problems with the MI movie franchise: in the first one they undermine the basic assumptions of the [two!] series by implausibly making Jim Phelps a bad guy -- then they bring in John Woo to do the choreographed action/ violence thing in MI-2 -- then they bring in JJ Abrams to resuscitate the concept again in MI-III. The pictures are expensive to produce, and they don't scale down to smaller budgets very well, so they better be box office blockbusters. And, let's face it, Mr. Cruise isn't getting any younger, either.

Aren't we all?

Both sides are trying to look good while admitting that the marriage is over. It's spin, pure and simple. Tom Cruise doesn't want it to look like his antics and Scientology fanaticism cost him in popularity and box office, while Paramount doesn't want to look like a bunch of moneygrubbing bottom-liners.

In the end, it doesn't much matter. Cruise will make more movies. If anything, this may spur him to grow as an actor-- doing more things like Magnolia and Rain Man could only be good for his filmic legacy.

Can I have his parking space?

"If that is true, I think that it is somewhat cynical to believe that Paramount's decision was related to the box office impact since no one really cares who produces movies."

But Les, the reason stars get these production deals in the first place is because they've established their box office credentials. With a few exceptions (including Mel Gibson), these kinds of deals are just vanity projects that aren't going to bring any concrete return by themselves, but they make actors feel respected and, in the absence of old-style contracts, keep them loyal to the studio. Cruise originally got the deal with Paramount on the strength of his personal appeal, not his business savvy (or at least not his business savvy in any respect that didn't apply to managing his personal appeal), and his plummeting Q factor's what's killed it now.

Sumner Redstone is the LAST man in Hollywood who should be calling out someone on morals. His (now ex-)wife Phyllis sued for divorce on the grounds of adultery, after her PIs caught Sumner sneaking around with a younger woman (who happenned to be the former wife of movie producer Jon Peters). After his divorce, he married another woman.

Yes he has jettisoned a wake of schlock-busters; but witnesses his breakdown at Robards' deathbed in Magnolia. I thank you Robert Altman for single handily destroying the glib ethos that is Tom Cruise before my very eyes. May Tom appear standing room only and nightly for Xenu now and forever more.

No kidding about his nose ... I never really got him anyway ...

I'm with Tom. He has and always will be a rockin', rollickin' star. Since when did "odd behavior" prevent an actor from doing his acting thing? Someone get George Clooney, Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Mel Gibson, Nick Nolte, Tom Cruise, that guy who won an Oscar for "Piano", Brad Pitt, on the line.

It has got to be about the money. If it were about morals and unacceptable behavior, they would have terminated their relationship last year when everyone was really talking about how crazy he was.

And to give you another example, Kate Moss is EVERYWHERE these days. Companies that dropped her after she got busted doing coke are taking her back and I'm pretty sure new ones are adding her on. It's all about perception and money, not the morality of the stars in question.

Besides, if star quality, popularity and the various hollywood deals were really based in part on morality and acceptable behavior, rather than who can bring in funds, we'd have no fun here on this column (ahem, Miss Hilton).

What's Up, with all this talk. The Judgements come down from the halls of
the God Fearing Movie Business. A Joke
The material that is feeding the Kids of the Nation is the Joke and We are the
consumer's of the Stuff.
Look in the Mirror Hollywood. You are
the Problem.
Tom is a Man on his way to Discovery
of The World as Natural and Good that
the Movies, will never be able to
create for US, or them-selves.
Ride on Tom to the Top of The Hill.
MDT

Part of the problem, in my humble opinion, with the revelation of the Cruise split with Paramount involves the 'short memory' syndrome of us Americans. Everything that is occuring today has already occurred to different and varying degrees in other times. Tom Cruise's demise is only an opening for another Tom Cruise developing from a look alike of the original Cruise, I believe I saw recently on a promo about some high school kids reuniting back in one city(a stretch by anyone's imagination, for sure) to rekindle past relationships. There was a kid who closely remsembles the Cruise of old.

Who would have thunked that Vinny Barbarino character on Welcome Back Kotter would catapult into the mega box office star in the person of John Travolta today. John is also aging, however, one hears little off camera antics like that attributed to Cruise which should dispel the notion that Cruise's marketability due to age was a precusor to his demise. Cruise has simply failed to hire a publicist who can deflect his weirdness from the public prying eye of the tabloids. Travolta is no doubt just as strange, yet he rarely ends up being a joke on Oprah or other TV programs like a Cruise.

Cruise's problems are self-inflicted, and they were tolerated by Paramount until he chose to disagree with their creative direction, then they Paramount chose to expose them and rid themselves of a non team player. Such is a way of life.

For those old enough to have braved the reunion get-to-gathers, it doesn't take one long to remember why one forget these people existed, much less wanting to move back together to re-live periods in one's life that one may have long out-grown. But, nonetheless, the Hollywood set have but one thing firmly implanted in their motives, perhaps two, greed and more greed.
And look alike characters from other once successful characters sell.

As an earlier correspondent noted, Cruise's fan base was buoyed by female fans, and as some of us understand, a woman's fancy can change as often as her hairstyle. Tom is done, one can stick in a fork in his movie career, however, some smaller big screen actors have actually done well on TV, Keither Sutherland comes to mind. Tom could end up making a go on one of the many fabulous HBO dramas that appear to be hot these days like Deadwood or the Sopranos; in fact, maybe a aging star like Cruise could extend the Sopranos run for another 5 years or so.

But, really who knows?

Vince

I agree with Lexus.

Michael Trager -

Have you been smoking crack, or just spending too much time with the late Dr. Bronner of Dr. Bronner's Magical Peppermint Soap?

Your post is non-sensical jibberish. At first I thought it was poetry. On further reflection, I'm pretty sure it's just the "mania" talking.

Maybe now Tom will find the time to take acting classes. Wouldn't that be lovely...

To Norm Paulhus...it'll be especially surprising if that South Park episode wins since the "Creative Arts" Emmy ceremony was this past weekend! The Simpsons won the category.

Wow. I can't believe people really devote time to stuff like this. WHO CARES? Is Tom paying the rent, utilities, etc. Don't people have enough going on in their own lives? I like his movies, but I don't know the man. I'll never meet him, and he could give a rat's a_ _ about me. Do something productive. Coach a youth sports team, volunteer somewhere, read a book. SOMETHING! Man, I need to get a job.

Now that I look at it, that is a pretty spectacular honker. Maybe it acts as an antenna to recieve inter-stellar messages from LRon beyond the stars.

Well, seeing how American stardom works,
Tom as governor of Kalifornia! If Arnold can make it...

rs-
You can't read through every post on this blog and then chastise the rest of us for being on here. C'mon, Tom, cut with the fake name, we know it's you...

Who's glib now? I guess the choices you make today really do affect your achievements tomorrow! Maybe he should rethink scientology and put some of that bling away for Surry's psychiatric care!Run Katey Run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think people are making Tom Cruise into something more complicated than he is. He's a very controlling, rich guy. I think he was very appealing to Katie, but she's in for it now which is too bad. Scientology is a new religon I guess, but it honestly isn't any more wacko than any other religon. I agree that controlling guys aren't "in" right now and all the things with Tom Cruise's publicity have made Paramount drop him. It's totally about $$$. A couple less Scientology classes for Suri....

I hope this is the beginning of the end of us having to hear about Tom Cruise all the time. He is such a flake and could not act his way out of a wet paper bag. Sit back and laugh Brook Shields...he could be in for a bumpy ride...