Someone Finally Decides to Stop Giving Tom Cruise Money
As you've no doubt heard by now, Paramount Pictures has ended its 14-year relationship with Tom Cruise, deciding not to renew the studio's deal with his Cruise/Wagner Productions (yes, this is more the left-coast beat, but we'd hate for you to be out of the loop during the staff lunch at Cosi). Cruise's partner Paula Wagner naturally claims that they chose to leave the lot, but Paramount's grandaddy, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone, suggests that Paramount's decision might've had something to do with Cruise's insistence on acting like a total spazcock:
"As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal," Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone told the Wall Street Journal in an interview posted online. "His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount."
Translation: If you're a huge, personable celebrity, you can get away with a lot. You can join a cult, blow rails, lick hookers, touch little boys, take up autoerotic asphyxiation, kill your ex-wife, whatever. But ain't nobody gonna put their shoes on Oprah's couch.
