~
At first glance, I thought the current Tom Cruise Hollwood episode was another Mel Gibson sort of thing. You know, Hollywood getting down on somebody for reasons only Hollyweirdos could come up with. I mean, here's a guy who's made millions upon millions for Paramount. Here's a guy who's been a #1 box office draw for years. Okay, not a consummate actor the likes of, say, a Gregory Peck; but surely not a Kevin Costner either.
But on reflection, I think I was wrong.
Whereas Mel could be forgiven because he was drunk as a skunk at the time he crossed the line, Tom... well... he is just high on life. I think there are several reasons that Tom got the royal - and very public - boot. The first are financial. If there is anything that motivates Hollywood, it's the bottom line. And Tom's was becoming a problem for Paramount. Tom's hat size got so big, he demanded more than they were willing to give. He was one of the very few actor/franchises so powerful he could demand, and get, payment "up front," meaning essentially that he got paid before the studios did! If his film tanked, he still had his, and the studio was left holding the empty money bag.
Okay, let's assume this is all true. There was no reason to make this separation public in the big way it was done. It could have been resolved quietly between the parties. You know, come up with some positive spin about why they both agreed to part amicably. No. There is something adversarial here. There has to be some other, some more personal reason.
There's Tom's annoying proselytizing of Scientology and his unseemly criticism of Brooke Shields (In May 2005, Cruise, her former co-star, a Scientologist whose religion frowns on psychiatry, excoriated Shields for both using and speaking in favor of the antidepressant drug Paxil to help relieve depression and other postpartum effects. By extention he was accusing all mothers of overdoing the postpartum blues thing). Now, if it was just that, I'd be 100% on Tom's side. Hell, this is America. He has the right to praise his belief system, even if I wouldn't. If muslims can go on with their anti-American rants in mosques all over America, surely Tom can rant about his religion. And if he has an opinion about post-partum blues, what the hell, he may not be a pharmacologist, but he still has First Amendment Rights to bloviate. So I'd be telling Tom he should hire himself the meanest pit bull lawyers he can get to go up against those mean bulldog studio execs, and sue them for one billion (with a "b") dollars. He'd have plenty of ammo on his side, and those Hollywood types need a good cleansing.
But Tom went farther. It's my understanding (though unconfirmed) that he began to insist if foreign theater chains wanted him to come to their countries to promote his films, if they wanted his and his group's support, why the motion picture people from those countries would just have to get themselves indoctrinated in Scientology. Well now. That's quite another thing, isn't it? That's sort of like a Japanese auto maker insisting its dealership owners in America brush up on Buddhism before they could sell Hondas in America.
Perhaps Cruise felt he could get away with it because - to make things even more complicated - his film company partner, Paula Wagner, is married to a Paramount exec!
But it seems the head of one of Paramount's major foreign distribution firms wasn't buying any of it. He was put off enough to write a strong letter of protest to Paramount. That's not the kind of letter a company enjoys receiving. It begs to be acted upon. On top of this, it's not difficult to imagine there was at least one recent mother either exec'ing at the studio, or a spouse of one of the execs, who expressed her own views on Cruise's postpartum prattling.
As an action hero, Tom is in his mid-to-late forties, an age past which few actors can manage the demanding physical work. And as a purely dramatic actor, while his million-dollar-smile and face can still handle those extreme close-ups, his acting ability might not be enough to bring in the kind of return on investment the studio expects. Couple that with Tom doing his best to alienate his most loyal fans, women; when Paramount weighed his profit potential against his deficit potention, Tom came out short.
But fear not, loyal Cruise fans, Tom and Paula Wagner have enough projects in the hopper to cruise along for years to come. Long enough for Tom to become the next aging, balding, bloated William Shatner.
~
