Posted on 06/14/2005 6:56:37 AM PDT by Paladin2b
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - It used to be that no one messed with Tom Cruise. Now the media are having a field day. Why are they beating up on him? Because they can.
The energetic superstar used to be invulnerable. He was represented by Hollywood's most powerful talent firm, Creative Artists Agency. His production company, headed by ex-CAA agent Paula Wagner, is housed at Paramount Pictures, where studio chief Sherry Lansing would lavish her biggest budgets on his movies. He was married to Nicole Kidman, one of Hollywood's smartest actresses. And his press was handled by the head of Hollywood's most powerful PR firm, PMK-HBH's Pat Kingsley, who kept the press from talking about Scientology.
Anyone who has ever dealt with Kingsley knows that going up against her takes guts and the full backing of your organization. That's because she's willing to use her entire arsenal to protect her most powerful clients. With the bat of an eyelash, she'd withdraw the cooperation of her agency's other stars, refuse to cooperate on other stories or ban a publication from getting another star interview. (It took Premiere magazine several years to work itself back into her good graces after one tough "Mission: Impossible 2" story.)
Kingsley controlled the select magazine covers Cruise would do for each picture, the friendly interviewers he was most comfortable with, the photographers who shot him to look his best. Knowing that he didn't have much to say, she controlled his image, preserving his mystique as a movie star. Her PR philosophy has always been, "Less is more." Keep the fans guessing. Hold the star in abeyance. Keep everyone lining up clamoring for more.
So what changed? As Cruise heads toward 43, he's getting to that age when a star is not always sure what his appeal is. His domestic box office numbers have been down, masked by continuing strong foreign box office appeal. And he remains such a powerful client -- representing so many millions of dollars a year -- that CAA can't say no to him. Still, Paramount, which is now in transition under new chairman Brad Grey, refused to greenlight "Mission: Impossible 3" until it could bring down the budget -- and Cruise's share of the first-dollar grosses -- to a level that would permit the studio to make some of its considerable outlay back. (Everyone knows that Steven Spielberg and Cruise will take home the lion's share of the grosses on Paramount/DreamWorks' upcoming "War of the Worlds." That's a loss leader, a given.)
Tentpoles are supposed to make the studio some money, and Grey wasn't happy with the "M:I-3" projections, Paramount sources say. He also had some extra leverage in the negotiation. Cruise is no longer the only A-lister on the Paramount lot. Grey has long represented Brad Pitt and soon will announce a Paramount deal with Pitt's Plan B Prods. Pitt, who already is committed to Paramount's "Babel" and "Benjamin Button," isn't just another movie star. He is Cruise's main competition. His new movie, "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" topped the current weekend box office with an estimated $51 million its first three days, a career best both for Pitt and co-star Aneglina Jolie..
Cruise and Pitt have much in common. They're both charismatic 40ish movie stars at the top of their game with a bigger following overseas than domestic and a predominantly female fan base. They can cherry-pick the best projects and directors. (As his three Oscar nominations attest, Cruise boasts a better rep as an actor.) They're both in recovery from busted marriages to famous actresses -- Pitt to Jennifer Aniston and Cruise to Kidman -- which always is a sensitive time for a male movie star. Kevin Costner's career, for one, never fully bounced back from fan backlash after he left his wife and broke up the family.
On the other hand, Kingsley had navigated the Cruise/Kidman breakup masterfully. And Pitt's PR rep, Cindy Guagenti, also knows what she's doing. In this Internet age, when every little movie-star morsel gets picked over and multiplies exponentially on the Internet beyond mere print and broadcast, you can't afford to make a mistake. Now it's virally transmitted on such gossipy sites as Defamer, Jossip and Liquid Generation -- where much of the stuff is sheer fiction. (Ask "Cinderella Man's" Russell Crowe, who might have just thrown away a sure Oscar nomination by allegedly throwing a phone at a hotel minion.)
But then, in March 2004, Cruise unexpectedly fired Kingsley. Why the break after 14 years in which the uber-publicist had guarded him fiercely? Kingsley's dictum to the press had always been, "Lay off Tom's religion." It was verboten to bring it up. But as he headed into his 40s, he wanted to talk about Scientology. It fell to Kingsley, at Warner Bros. Pictures' request, to instruct Cruise not to discuss Scientology during his European press tour for 2003's "The Last Samurai."
The next time she met with Cruise was her last, though. When he left for Europe, she was not on his jet.
Cruise replaced her with someone he could trust to do what he wanted: his older sister and fellow Scientologist, Lee Anne Mapother De Vette, who had long functioned as his assistant and PR go-between at C/W Prods. And Cruise's press since PR amateur DeVette took over has been markedly different.
He can't stop talking about Scientology, which is, arguably, his star-sapping kryptonite. In August's Rolling Stone cover story, he took the writer on a tour of the famed Scientology Center. "He's such a zealot now," says someone who received one of his Scientology Christmas cards. "There are no halfway measures anymore. He's beside himself with trying to convert the world."
The other Cruise hot-button issue that Kingsley controlled with an iron fist -- backed up by legal action from attorney Bert Fields -- was the media's insistence on questioning his heterosexuality. The rumors kept reasserting themselves despite Cruise's 10-year marriage to Kidman and a three-year relationship with his "Vanilla Sky" co-star, Penelope Cruz.
After the Cruise/Cruz breakup, the star didn't date anyone seriously for a year. (This prompted scuttlebutt that he was asking women out and getting turned down.) Then he set up a meeting with 26-year-old actress Katie Holmes. "One minute, they were having a professional meeting," one observer says. "The next they were lovers."
It's still unclear why, in a ham-fisted maneuver, De Vette was compelled to orchestrate the April public outing of the Cruise and Holmes affair in Rome, where Cruise received a lifetime achievement award at the David di Donatello Awards. ("War of the Worlds" wasn't opening until June 29.) The press, accustomed to having to chase down every nugget of elusive star gossip, reacted by suggesting that the whole thing was fake. When Cruise went wild on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," fed by the intensity of his gaga female fans, he jumped on the sofa, knelt on the floor and virtually howled his love at the moon.
Even the reputable media, including Time, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, couldn't resist the story. It didn't help that Cruise's religious beliefs prompted him to criticize Brooke Shields during an "Access Hollywood" interview for relying on psychiatry and prescription drugs to treat postpartum depression. He was far better off when journalists complained that he was a lousy interview with nothing to say. While a tsunami of bad press has swept over him, there is no evidence to suggest that Cruise is aware of it.
By extreme contrast, under Guagenti's stern direction, Pitt is handling his career like a consummate pro. Pitt and presumed romantic interest Jolie have kept their distance from the press. While they have been tracked by paparazzi, they have assiduously tried to avoid being caught. On the set of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," screenwriter Simon Kinberg says, they literally drove their trailers into an Ikea hangar every day until the press hordes gave up and went away.
In promoting "Smith," Pitt is also staying in message, or focusing on his humanitarian interests, as shown on ABC's "Primetime Live" last week when he talked with Diane Sawyer about feeding African children rather than his recent African safari with Jolie.
The question is, will all the bad publicity adversely affect Cruise's career? Although Cruise has not been promoting "War of the Worlds" effectively, the Spielberg/H.G. Wells/Cruise combo is not likely to be negatively impacted by its star's PR debacle. But "M:I-3," where Cruise controls a budget that could approach $200 million, is a different story.
Paramount sources say Grey is gravely concerned about the fate of this franchise. According to Paramount insiders, Grey insisted on cutting the budget and building in some protection against budget overruns. Cruise also trimmed his hefty profit-sharing arrangement.
Isn't this kind of stuff eerily reminiscent of the days before 9/11?
Some folks have nothing at home but People Magazine.
You have to have a REALLY gargantuan hole in your life if you need to fill it up with vomit like this.
As much as I hate Scientology, I'm glad he has come out so strongly on it. The light destroys the darkness.
And Noah.
Like any great cult, they have an eye-catching product but a darkside, a soft white underbelly if you will.
All cults remain in power through PR, threats, punishments, and powerful friends in the media and government
Re: "Anyone who has ever dealt with Kingsley knows that going up against her takes guts and the full backing of your organization. That's because she's willing to use her entire arsenal to protect her most powerful clients. With the bat of an eyelash, she'd withdraw the cooperation of her agency's other stars, refuse to cooperate on other stories or ban a publication from getting another star interview."
Their achilles heel of cults is truth
Re: "Cruise could not stop talking about Scientology...he's a zealot...he criticized Brooke Shields for seeking psychiatrists and drugs following postpardum depression...he is faking his outing of love for his new girl..."
And the danger of leaving the cult is being fed to the dogs
Re: "Kingsley did not fly back with Cruise...that was the last meeting between Kingsley and Cruise...Cruise's career is becoming confused and in danger of doing a Kostner under the new PR agent...questions about Cruise's religion and homosexuality (once forbidden subjects in interviews) are now fair game...box office numbers and deal renegotiations beset Cruise...Pitt is on the rise in Paramount..."
Who is more powerful in a cult, the idol or the idol maker?
They really should refrain from using sentences like this when talking about Tom Cruise.
He not only attacked Shields' prescription choice, he also went after her careeer saying something similar to "What has SHE done with her life recently?" I guess Tom doesn't approve of women putting child over career. Sheilds should have made a big deal over that but she didn't.
I think they both look bad.
Cruise looks like a movie star going through a mid-life crisis, and Pitt looks like an airhead who dumped his wife for the wacko Angelina Jolie. I predict Pitt and Jolie will slowly admit their relationhip, which I have no doubt was the cause of the Pitt-Aniston breakup, based on their recent behavior.
I think Cruise is the better actor, between him and Pitt, but Cruise's obsession with Scientology is starting to hurt his career.
Cult of Celebrity! Absolutely.
Cruise and Pitt are both unnaturally pretty men, but neither one can act. They're actors. Actors, who can't act. It's the first three letters!
It used to be that no one messed with Tom Cruise. Now the media are having a field day. Why are they beating up on him? Because they can.IMO, all cultist nut-jobs are fair game. The media should not be treating Scientology as Cruise's "religion." It's not. He's a cult member and, like all cult members, he's trying to get more people in the cult by any means necessary. The "media" should be nailing him on it every time he opens his mouth (because it's all Scientology lies).
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I think al-queda will wait until Bush is out of office to hit again. They are patient and hope for a weaker man in the office.
You got that right. The Sci-Ties are creepy, creepy people.
Whenever I visit family in Clearwater Beach, FL, I drive right by their HQ in downtown Clearwater. You see them crossing the street, toing and froing from their "classes" and in their uniforms. Ugh.
For Cruise to be involved in this organization must mean that he has rocks in his head - somewhere. But then, he is an actor, and many actors are, well, children who can be swayed easily.
Really? Do you think so, Paladin? I don't recall any fan backlash about his divorce. I thought his career slump was the result of making nothing but crummy movies.
We have always lived in a culture of celebrity. It goes all the way back to our national roots in England. The only difference is that we in America made it bigger and better (like all things). It's a product of the Information Age.
Gossip about famous people is nothing new - it used to be Countesses and Earls, now it's actors and sports stars. Neither is worth the attention, in my opinion.
Agreed.
I don't get the fascination with these two anyway, I know many normal, every-day, average Joe's who are a million times sexier than either of them.
YUK!
Yeah look what Scientology has done for Tom, crazy-@ss freak.
I have this weird story. When I was 19 yrs old about 18 years ago I was walking thru downtown boston on a beautiful day with 2 girls from work just checking out the sights. This young woman approaches me and starts asking me all sorts of weird life and faith questions. I'm a pretty polite person so I went along with it for a while then suddenly she starts insisting that I go somewhere with her. I kept telling her i was busy and couldnt but this bitch would not take no for an answer. the next thing I know I was being dragged about 2-3 blocks to some run down building, up 3 flights of stairs into a rooom full of scientology cult zombies. they started giving be the whole join us crap. I couldnt believe this was happening! anyway I ended up buying the stupid Hubbard book just so i could get the hell out of there.
18 years later and I'm still getting crap in the mail from them!
I have this weird story. When I was 19 yrs old about 18 years ago I was walking thru downtown boston on a beautiful day with 2 girls from work just checking out the sights. This young woman approaches me and starts asking me all sorts of weird life and faith questions.The use to have an office on the main street at The University of Texas. They wouldn't say who they were but they would have people on the sidewalk offering free "personality tests." Typical cult, go after people when they are young and confused.
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