Tom Cruise's Reality Check

You're Fired!

As of August 31, 2006, Tom Cruise will be looking for a new job. After a 14-year relationship with Paramount Pictures, the two are parting company with Sumner Redstone, the Viacom chair (Viacom is Paramount's parent company) stating "But we don't think that someone who effects creative suicide and costs the company revenue should be on the lot."

Now, let's break that down into bite size problems. First, Cruise's outrageous behavior over the past year, like leaping on Oprah's couch to proclaim his love of Katie Holmes and his criticism of psychiatry and medications, has dropped him from the Hollywood darlings list. His Q rating (the rating system used to track how popular a celebrity is with the public) has dropped 40 percent since Cruise has made his private life a whole lot less private than most of us would like.

Second, when movies like Mission Impossible III earn more for Cruise than for the studio, it no longer made good financial sense for Paramount to continue the association. According to CBS News, the studio made $10 to $15 million on the movie while Cruise earned between $80 and $90 million.

And the Winner is Tom Cruise

Cruise and Holmes

Life hasn't been all bad for Tom Cruise. He recently won a prestigious Australian award, perhaps not the one he would have preferred, but hey, an award is an award. A number of powerful Australian women gathered to vote on the Ernie Awards, and the recently unemployed Cruise was awarded the 2006 Celebrity Ernie.

The Ernies are handed out for the worst derogatory—-read that as sexist—-public statements, so I can only imagine a good amount of their time was spent narrowing down which of Cruise's comments was the worst. He finally ended up earning the award for his comment during Katie Holmes' pregnancy, "I've got Katie tucked away so no one will get to us until my child is born."

Too Tough?

And to all the Tom Cruise fans who feel LoveToKnow Celebrity has been too tough of the egotistical mega power, read Tom Cruise Goes on Unemployment to find out what tough really is.