Paramount Breaks Ties, Mocks Tom Cruise

My first question is, "Will Viacom head Sumner Redstone refuse to work with Mel Gibson? Or is wild-eyed bigotry not a problem for him?" Roger Friedman at Fox News has the best analysis of what's really going on in this story that has made headlines literally around the world. As he points out, Paramount leaked their negotiations to the press, which showed bad faith, they're running low on discretionary funds and so on. None of that excuses slapping around a star you've done business with for many, many years. It's bad business and bad manners. Everyone's production deal gets bloated and needs paring down from time to time. But that doesn't explain why Redstone would publicly attack Cruise's private behavior. As for Paula Wagner's claim they've got a $100 mil line of credit to make movies that could bump up to $200 mil or more? Great -- that'll pay for about half a Tom Cruise film.