This story is going to be over-covered for the next few days, so I’m just going to try to make some points that the big guys aren’t going near.  I have read some very long articles about the insinuations and accusations flying back and forth between Tom Cruise’s people and the big guys at Viacom.  I found it very telling that the word scientology never comes up.  What this is really all about is that Viacom wants to avoid litigation.  Scientology likes to sue.  Tom Cruise likes to sue, or maybe he just has to a lot.  Did I mention that he is not now, nor has he ever been gay?  If all that Paramount had to deal with was the value of Tom Cruise as a movie star versus his expectations, they would have been negotiating in a normal fashion.  Tom Cruise is not just any movie star.

I wonder how they came up with the figure of $2 million?  The story is that he was lead to expect a renewed contract worth about $10 million.  Could it be that they were scared that if they offered him $3 million he might take it?

Tom Cruise