LOS ANGELES, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Paramount Pictures Tuesday ended its 14-year affiliation with Tom Cruise's U.S. production company, saying the actor's recent behavior has been "unacceptable."
"As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal (with the actor's Cruise/Wagner production company)," Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone told The Wall Street Journal. "His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount."
Cruise has made headlines in the past year by bouncing on Oprah Winfrey's couch and declaring his love for Katie Holmes, supporting the Church of Scientology and condemning the use of anti-depressant drugs.
Redstone said negative publicity generated by Cruise hurt the box office take of "Mission Impossible III," so he was letting Paramount's biggest star go, the Journal said.
Cruise's partner Paula Wagner said taking the firm independent after 14 years "is a dream of Tom and mine," the Journal said.
She said two top hedge funds, which she declined to name, will assume the financial burden dropped by Paramount.
