Congratulations to Tom Cruise on his new gig! Cruise is reportedly part owner of United Artists, the historic film studio founded by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D.W. Griffiths. He and Paula Wagner, his producing partner, are working in conjunction with MGM to restore the studio to its former glory.
This couldn't have come at a better time for Cruise, whose career suffered a major blow when his deal with Paramount wasn't renewed earlier this year. Sumner Redstone, head of Viacom, Paramount's parent company, recently told Vanity Fair:
When did I decide [to fire him]?... I don't know. When he was on the Today show? When he was jumping on a couch at Oprah? He changed his handler, you know, to his sister—not a good idea. His behavior was entirely unacceptable to [my wife,] Paula, and to the rest of the world. He didn't just turn one [woman] off. He turned off all women, and a lot of men.... He was embarrassing the studio. And he was costing us a lot of money. We felt he cost us $100, $150 million on Mission: Impossible III. It was the best picture of the three, and it did the worst.
Frank talk, but what Redstone doesn't mention is Scientology, Cruise's religion and possible motivation for the change in his behavior. (Maybe he'd heard what happened to Brad?)