MAY: Rupert Murdoch's 20th Century Fox pulls the plug on Used Guys, a comedy set to star Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller with Meet the Parents director Jay Roach at the helm. The studio balks after the original $90 million budget grew to more than $110 million.
JUNE: Paramount Pictures decides to "postpone" production on Carrey's film Believe It Or Not, set to be directed by Tim Burton. Though the script — about adventurer Robert Ripley — is blamed for the delay, the studio is also said to be concerned about the budget, estimated to be $150 million or so, as well as Carrey's rich back-end gross deal.
JULY: Lindsay Lohan, starring in a film called Georgia Rule, is publicly called on the carpet by Morgan Creek Productions CEO Jim Robinson, who issues a damning letter to the hard-partying actress that was also leaked to the press. "To date, your actions on Georgia Rule have been discourteous, irresponsible and unprofessional, "says the missive." You have acted like a spoiled child.... " Lohan, who had been absent from production due to "heat exhaustion," arrives bright and early to the set the next day.
AUGUST: Following Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic tirade during a DUI arrest, The Walt Disney Co.'s ABC-TV cancels its collaboration with Gibson's Icon production company on a miniseries about the Holocaust. Word spreads that Disney is also trying to dump Gibson's next film Apocalypto, about the Mayan empire, but the studio insists it will still distribute the picture.
AUGUST: Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone tells the Wall Street Journal that his studio Paramount has dropped its production deal with superstar Tom Cruise, citing the actor's "conduct." The news comes on the heels of many recent problems between the actor and the company, including tough negotiations over the cost of Mission Impossible: III and studio chief Brad Grey's insistence that Cruise's Scientology associates not install massage tents on the movie's set.