Unpopular Tom Cruise

Aug 29, 2006, 13:53 GMT

Actor Tom Cruise waves during a photo session following a news conference in Tokyo June 20, 2006. Viacom Inc.\'s Paramount Pictures unit is ending its 14-year relationship with Tom Cruise\'s film production company because of the actor\'s offscreen behavior, the company\'s chairman said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. REUTERS/Toshiyuki Aizawa

Tom Cruise's popularity has officially fallen by 40 per cent in the last 18 months.

The 'Top Gun' star was dropped by Paramount last week, and now official figures, known in the marketing industry as Q scores have emerged, have given an indication as to why.

Among the strange things Tom has done in the last 18 months include the now infamous couch-jumping incident on Oprah Winfrey's chat show, publicly proposing to fiancée Katie Holmes at the top of the Eiffel Tower and lecturing Matt Lauer on live television, and Brooke Shields against the use of anti-depressants to treat post-partum depression in accordance with his Scientology beliefs.

Anonymous Industry Insiders were shocked at Cruise's current alliance, and collectively think that Cruise's new deal with Six Flags' power-players has the whiff of desperation. Reports the Los Angeles Times:

"It all feels very knee-jerk," said an agency executive. "This feels very Plan C, maybe even Plan D. When you lose your studio deal and you get into business with amusement parks, that's a problem."

According to Defamer.com, "This is just another example of reflexively conservative, insecure, thinking-inside-the-box Hollywood turning up its nose at those who dare to think differently."

"Visionaries like Cruise and Wagner are rarely appreciated in their lifetimes, but once the full spectrum of alternative revenue streams afforded by their partnership with Six Flags come to light, such as a discretionary script development fund drawn entirely from the loose change that falls out of Magic Mountain patrons' pockets as they helplessly hang upside down in a variety of gravity-defying rides (money, it should be noted, that is wastefully earmarked for their carnies' malt liquor budget), those who once laughed at the fading megastar's "Plan D" will be killing each other to set themselves up in copycat deals with Knott's Berry Farm."

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