The recent split between Tom Cruise and his studio seems to have more meat to it than just a simple disagreement on revenue sharing.
Cruise who was cast adrift by Paramount last month has had a couple of months of bad press mainly of his own making and if a story making the rounds of Hollywood is any indication his reputation is going to remain rather shaky for a bit yet.
The website Radar is reporting that part of Cruise’s departure from the studio can be traced back to a late night confrontation between studio chief Brad Grey and some friends of Tom (FOT's ??).
As Radar tells the story, a group of Scientologist enforcers waited for the studio head to leave the office for his car, surrounded him in the parking lot and made some rather forceful suggestions that Grey rethink his treatment of Scientologists number one supporter.
At the time the issue was Cruise’s share of the receipts for Mission Impossible III, and while the strong arms were flexed, in the end Cruise had to take a cut in the pay package for the movie that was a rather large disappointment for Paramount.
Apparently weary of the constant controversy surrounding the star’s aura of late, Paramount cut him loose, one of the biggest Hollywood stories of the year and apparently a warning to prima donnas everwhere.
It apparently was not the first run in with heavies from Scientology, back in John Travolta's high star days, the Scientologist folks paid a visit to urge that Battlefield Earth be given a green light, proving at least that when it comes to picking hit movies, Scientologists aren't exactly sitting in the best balcony.
We’re not sure what the intervention team from Scientology is called, but it sounds like Tony Sopranos crew could take a few lessons from them in the ways of intimidation.
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