Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2006
Tom Cruise and Sumner Redstone
After Mission Impossible III failed to blow up at the box office, the action movie's star and Viacom's CEO struggled with irreconcilable differences. Cruise's increasingly oddball public image had turned off his female fans, including Mrs. Redstone. Rather than renew Cruise's generous production deal with Viacom's Paramount Pictures, the media mogul cut his biggest star loose in August and trash talked about him to the Wall Street Journal. After proving he was still desirable by arranging a quickie deal with some financiers, Cruise later settled down by buying his own studio, United Artists. That's some kind of risky show business.