Let's just say this wouldn't have happened under Pat Kingsley.
The facts are all over the MSM (The Wall Street Journal had it first and best) and the blogosphere, so let's not dwell on the main fact: Tom's out at Paramount, along with Paula Wagner, Cruise's production partner. The Hot Blog makes a key point of saying they weren't fired, but they were negotiating for a new deal, and talks broke off. Either way, he's out.
What I'd like to cover are two key things that popped out at me as odd... well, you know, odder than the world's biggest star getting fired by a studio.
First, the PR on this thing was completely screwed by Cruise's team. The PR winner here was going to be the team that got their story out first, and Paramount nailed this brilliantly by having none other than Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone to comment. Jeezus... this guy doesn't comment on anything. Anyway, they get their story out first about how they don't want to be in the Tom Cruise business anymore, and that (with some help from some salacious quotes by Redstone, which I'll get to later) gets all the headlines.
Later, however, the Journal says:
After being contacted by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Cruise's representatives presented a different version of events. They said that Mr. Cruise's production company had decided to set up an independent operation financed by two top hedge funds, which they declined to name (Craig's bolding for emphasis). Paula Wagner, Mr. Cruise's partner in the company, said such an arrangement represented a new business model for top actors prominent enough to take advantage of the flood of money coming into Hollywood from Wall Street.
"This is a dream of Tom and mine," Ms. Wagner said.
Not only is it buried, but it stinks. "Yeah, I do too have a girlfriend! She lives in Niagra Falls. You wouldn't know her."
Only now are they hitting back by saying that Redstone's remakrs were "outrageous and disrespectful" as they're trying to make that the story instead of "Tom Gets Fired," but it feels like too little, too late. Even later, she hits back harder. This is a good one, but again, feels like sour grapes:
"It is graceless. It is undignified. It's not businesslike," she said. "I ask, what is his real agenda? What is he trying to do? Is this how you treat artists? If I were another actor or filmmaker, would I work at a studio that takes one of their greatest assets and publicly does this?"
Here is Rick Nicita, Cruise's agent at CAA (and married to Paula Wagner) who is literally trying to tell the press that they're writing the wrong story. Again, good, but too late:
According to Rick Nicita and Tory Metzger, Cruise's agents at CAA, Paramount made an offer to renew C/W's overall Paramount deal. It was "within the zone of acceptability, but it wasn't acceptable," Nicita said. "It was not improper. That was not the issue. What is the issue is Paramount's behavior over the last 12-18 months. We got fed up."
Nicita, who is married to Wagner, said he became unhappy with the way Paramount "was negotiating the deal in public. It showed a lack of goodwill and a lack of appreciation for what Cruise/Wagner did for the studio and a sense of history. This shows that they're willing to not only invoke the wrath of CAA, but they're taking on the whole town. It's not so much Cruise/Wagner leaves -- it's Cruise/Wagner flees." (Craig's bolding for emphasis)
If they wanted to win this battle, as soon as negotiations were starting to go sour, they should have gone public with this notion of how poor Paramount treats artists. Not now... not after Sumner says "we're done."
Secondly, did you actually read those quotes that Redstone gave?
"As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal," Mr. Redstone said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount."
"It's nothing to do with his acting ability, he's a terrific actor," said Mr. Redstone. "But we don't think that someone who effectuates creative suicide and costs the company revenue should be on the lot."
So Brad Grey hanging out with mobsters is cool... but jumping on couches and calling Matt Lauer glib, well, that's over the line buddy.
Look, say what you will about Cruise. He's probably a certifiable whack job, and we've seen enough evidence of that recently. Get him to a bar with Mel Gibson, and I bet they'll spill some interesting truths about how they really feel. However, there is no one in the world who works harder to market their movies than Tom Cruise does - like it or not... he's a workaholic, going on every show, morning radio, internet chat sessions, flying around the world, anything you can think of... he'll do it. Mind you, he will work this hard even if his girlfriend is about to give birth to his first born (probably alien) child.
His costs were probably too high, his movies weren't complete blockbusters given his price, so Paramount didn't want to be in that business. Tough call, as probably only Will Smith can bring in as many ticket dollars as Cruise worldwide. Wagner claims that Tom Cruise is responsible for 15% of Paramount's theatrical revenue over the last 10 years, and 32% in the last six years. Maybe this is also a reflection of how little theatrical revenue matters to these global conglomerates we now call movie studios.
Read more about it, oh, everywhere:
As for Mr. Redstone's allusion to Mr. Cruise's conduct, Ms. Wagner fired back, "I have no answer for a stupid statement." She speculated that Mr. Redstone was "trying to save face," having learned from Wall Street chatter of Mr. Cruise's hunt for alternative financing.
A spokesman for Mr. Redstone, Carl Folta, scoffed at Ms. Wagner's talk of new financial backers. "Did they give you a name?" he said.
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