Tom Cruise’s Camp Speaks

By: Shannon Gossage

It was reported Wednesday that Paramount Pictures was calling it quits with Cruise. The chairman of Paramount’s parent company Viacom, Sumner Redstone, released a statement that said, "As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal. His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount." Richard Lovell, the president of Creative Artists Agency which represents Cruise, said, "Paramount has no credibility right now. It is not clear who is running the studio and who is making the decisions."

Cruise has remained mum on the subject so far, but his lawyer Bert Fields has thrown in his two cents. Said Fields, "That a mogul like Sumner Redstone could make a statement so vicious, so pompous, so petulant as that he didn’t want to make a deal with Tom Cruise because of his personal conduct – it tells you more about Sumner Redstone and Viacom than about Tom Cruise." He also said that 83-year old Redstone has "lost it completely, or he’s been given breathtakingly bad advice." Alan C. Greenberg, a Viacom board member, backed Redstone saying, "Tom Cruise has gone nuts."

Matt Lauer came to Cruise’s defense, despite their past differences. Lauer said, "You know what, I have to say something. You talk about erratic behavior and things like that affecting the box-office and yes maybe he jumped on a couch, and I was in the middle of one of those episodes here on the Today show and maybe he speaks out about Scientology and some people don’t like that. But what about the stars who are in and out of rehab every week? Is that any worse? And yet you find movie companies still in business with them. So, this is all a strange world we live in." A strange world, indeed, Matt!