 |
Sinfest
welcome to the fest
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
MsFrisby
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 3966
Location: a quiet little corner of crazy
|
 Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 7:03 pm Post subject: Only check for Cruise is a REALITY check |
 |
|
| Quote: | Studio blows 'overpaid' Cruise off the screen
John Harlow, Los Angeles
SUPERSTAR Tom Cruise has joined the ranks of the unemployed. The Hollywood studio that bankrolls his films is not backing any more Cruise movies until he agrees to a significant paycut.
The 44-year-old actor is eager to get back to work to put behind him disappointments such as Mission Impossible: III, but last week his 13-year deal with the Paramount studio was allowed to lapse. Executives say Cruise faces a “financial adjustment and reality check” before he can continue his illustrious career.
Cruise fans fears that, unless the hardworking actor learns some humility, an illustrious career which has matured from the cocky boy of Risky Business and Top Gun to more naunced performances in The Last Samurai and Collateral may burn out. “Right now,” said an insider close to the negotiations, “he is simply too expensive to employ.”
Cruise is not the only star to suffer as Hollywood bosses cut jobs and get tough with expensive talent. Jim Carrey, Mike Myers and Reese Witherspoon are all “on holiday” with no immediate film in prospect, while Brad Pitt recently took a pay cut to play Jesse James.
Last week, soon after the arrest of Mel Gibson for drink driving, the studio crackdown reached younger actors such as Lindsay Lohan.
Lohan was publicly censured by her employers for refusing to put her work above her social life. Her mother said it was an “ungallant” attack on her 20-year-old, daughter who was just a “good girl enjoying herself”.
Studio executives are increasingly frustrated by hit films that leave them impoverished because the stars, as well as directors such as Steven Spielberg, have grabbed the biggest share of the profits. Cruise has become a symbol of the battle for power between studios and their stars, a struggle that dates back to 1919 when Charlie Chaplin set up his own studio, United Artists, to keep the lion’s share of profits from his silent comedies for himself.
Studios are feeling more bullish because many summer hits, from Cars to Superman Returns, have been driven by strong scripts and computer effects rather than celebrities.
Yet by all standards Cruise is a special case. For 20 years the diminutive star has earned the studios billions of pounds. Last year, according to Forbes magazine, he earned £35m from War of the Worlds, still a Hollywood record.
Since 1992 Paramount has paid Cruise-Wagner Productions, Cruise’s private film development company, up to £7m a year to base its office on the Paramount lot in Los Angeles. It also paid for 10 staff. In return Paramount gets the first bite at any Cruise film. Paramount has now refused to renew the deal on its current terms, effectively suspending its work on half a dozen future Cruise films.
Cruise, whose fortune is conservatively estimated at £250m, is meanwhile paying staff out of his own pocket and remains confident it will soon be “business as usual” at Cruise-Wagner Productions. But the abrupt demise of the current deal remains an embarrassing psychological blow after a turbulent year for “the Cruiser”.
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV has been battling to hold on to public affections since he decided to shed Pat Kingsley, his long-term publicity adviser who for years shielded him from controversy.
Kingsley would never have allowed him to appear on the Oprah Winfrey television show and jump on top of the couch while declaring his love for the young actress Katie Holmes.
However, that did not affect his popularity as much as criticising Brooke Shields, the actress, for using prescription medicines to ease her post-natal depression: as a Scientologist, Cruise disapproves of all psychological drugs.
“At that moment he moved from the realm of eccentricity to something scary and cruel,” said Martin Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center which studies how films affect society. “It was easier to forgive jokes about eating placenta than what is perceived to be an attack on a vulnerable woman’s real problem.”
Hollywood studios are influenced by Q Scores, an annual poll of a celebrity’s likeability. In the last poll the percentage of Americans who liked Cruise fell from 30% two years ago to 19%, while people who disliked him jumped from 14% to 31%. The next Q Score, due to be released confidentially to the studios next month, is expected to be even worse.
Henry Schaffer, of Marketing Evaluations, which carries out the Q Score polls, said that Cruise has suffered in particular with young women, especially compared with more low-profile stars such as Tom Hanks. “The two Toms used to be neck-and-neck at the top of the Hollywood tree, but the more flamboyant Tom is in danger of crash and burn,” he said.
Schaffer said that Gibson, who is facing drink-driving charges and more intangible damage related to his anti-Jewish outburst when he was arrested in Malibu on July 28, had recently been recovering in public esteem from the extremely divisive release of his last film, The Passion of the Christ.
“This could be a big blow,” said Schaffer. He added that before Gibson’s forthcoming court appearance he should “do a Hugh Grant”: go on American television and apologise directly and with a light touch.
Cruise is a tougher problem, according to Hollywood spin doctors. One former public relations adviser to the actor said that Cruise had two options: defensive or aggressive.
First, he should cultivate a quieter lifestyle. “He should come across as humble, not judgmental, even if it is the best acting he has ever done — because inside he is still a cocky boy, but the times have changed,” said the former aide.
Then, when the time is right, he should make a positive splash with his baby daughter Suri and her mother, Holmes.
While Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt demanded a £2.2m charity donation from People magazine for the first shots of their offspring, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, Suri has been invisible except to a close circle that includes Penélope Cruz, Cruise’s ex-girlfriend. Although Tussauds is already showing a waxen effigy of a bundled Suri in New York, the public is impatient to see pictures of the real baby, born last April.
American tabloid magazines are offering up to £3m for the first snap. Insiders suggest that any baby pictures might be wrapped up into a wedding celebration for Cruise and his 27-year-old girlfriend.
This is not expected to happen until Cruise has sorted out his employment prospects. Like Bruce Willis and Harrison Ford who have confirmed they are returning after a series of flops for a fourth chapter of their Die Hard and Indiana Jones franchises, that may depend on what films he wants to make.
One studio executive joked: “He can get all his perks back when he agrees to make Top Gun 2, in a jet, wearing an oxygen mask. Tom Cruise will have to finally shut up when he is saving the world.” |
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2300515,00.html
_________________
A person's character is their destiny. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Snorri
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 10706
Location: hiding the decline.
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 7:23 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Yeah, I read about this in the paper. As much as I dislike Tom Cruise, I don't really see the position from the studio. They seem to think because of his decreasing popularity that they should earn more from his films.
Stupid big busineses.
_________________
 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Halen
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 1877
Location: England
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 8:19 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| I'm sure he's weeping huge tears at his loss of income. Times are going to be tight for him, that's for sure! Poor guy, he's going to be completely flat broOH WAIT HE'S FILTHY RICH FOREVER THE BASTARD. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Samsally
Joined: 10 Jul 2006
Posts: 5311
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 8:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Halen wrote: | | I'm sure he's weeping huge tears at his loss of income. Times are going to be tight for him, that's for sure! Poor guy, he's going to be completely flat broOH WAIT HE'S FILTHY RICH FOREVER THE BASTARD. |
This made my night. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Just_A_Girl
Joined: 11 Jul 2006
Posts: 527
Location: Lost in America
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:19 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | | the arrest of Mel Gibson for drink driving |
haha what?!
I already know Tom Cruise is a crazy egomaniac, but Mel Gibson drunk driving? Now that's funny.
I also found it funny how both times the author refered to the Mel Gibson incident, he seemed to draw a blank on how to spell drunk. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MsFrisby
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 3966
Location: a quiet little corner of crazy
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:22 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Don't tell me you hadn't heard about the Mel Gibson thing?
Anyway, I was just giggling that the studio execs say that Cruise needs a better grasp on reality.
NO SHIT, SHERLOCKS! 
_________________
A person's character is their destiny. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Feiticeira
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 1739
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:33 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Just_A_Girl wrote: | | Quote: | | the arrest of Mel Gibson for drink driving |
haha what?!
I already know Tom Cruise is a crazy. but Mel Gibson drunk driving? Now that's funny. |
Yes, alcoholic relapses and no longer caring if you live or die = COMEDY GOLD. But you know what would be even funnier than that?
The offspring of you and Jeep. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
thewaitersitsondown
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 2673
Location: The walrus was Paul
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:35 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Feeling the love too much these days Feit?
_________________
TORTOISE RUGBY. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Just_A_Girl
Joined: 11 Jul 2006
Posts: 527
Location: Lost in America
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:38 pm Post subject: |
|
|
This was actually the first time I'd heard about the Mel Gibson thing.
And Fris, I definately agree with your Studio execs/Tom Cruise sentiments. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Just_A_Girl
Joined: 11 Jul 2006
Posts: 527
Location: Lost in America
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Feiticeira wrote: | | Yes, alcoholic relapses and no longer caring if you live or die... |
I don't recall reading that in the article.
| Feiticeira wrote: | But you know what would be even funnier than that?
The offspring of you and Jeep. |
Yes, we do plan on our children having a good sense of humour. Thank you. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Xavyor
Joined: 22 Jul 2006
Posts: 202
Location: UK
|
| Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:25 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Just_A_Girl wrote: | | Quote: | | the arrest of Mel Gibson for drink driving |
haha what?!
I already know Tom Cruise is a crazy egomaniac, but Mel Gibson drunk driving? Now that's funny.
I also found it funny how both times the author refered to the Mel Gibson incident, he seemed to draw a blank on how to spell drunk. |
The article is probably British. They use the term "Drink Driving" over here. They also don't use the words "a", "an", or "the" as often as we do and therefore you get phrases such as "He was taken to hospital."
_________________
Morality: That instinctive sense of right and wrong that tells some people how everyone else should live their lives. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Thy Brilliance
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 3213
Location: Relative
|
| Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:41 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Feiticeira wrote: | | Just_A_Girl wrote: | | Quote: | | the arrest of Mel Gibson for drink driving |
haha what?!
I already know Tom Cruise is a crazy. but Mel Gibson drunk driving? Now that's funny. |
Yes, alcoholic relapses and no longer caring if you live or die = COMEDY GOLD. But you know what would be even funnier than that?
The offspring of you and Jeep. |
Oh Feit, haven't you realized, life itself is a comedy. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Michael
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 10431
|
| Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:09 am Post subject: |
|
|
I thought it was a tragedy?
mine is more like a romantic comedy anyway. Sorry. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
smeat
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 542
Location: Shmocation
|
| Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 12:20 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Mine is more like a horror romantic drama.
_________________
Allowed to live by the good graces of Deleted, Shh.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture." - Ray Mummert, creationist, Dover Pennsylvania, 2005 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
kame
Joined: 11 Jul 2006
Posts: 2563
Location: Alba Nuadh
|
| Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 1:37 pm Post subject: |
|
|
This is proof positive of the way hollywood works: "We'll tolerate any crazy shit you do, but if you stop making money for us, you're out on your ass."
The hypocrisy warms my black, black heart.
_________________
bi-chromaticism is the extraordinary belief that there exists only two options
each polar opposite to each other
where one is completely superior to the other. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
