CRUISE

BANGSHOWBiZ.COM:

Tom Cruise was sacked by his film studio because he is no longer a sex symbol.

The Top Gun star was dropped by Paramount Pictures earlier this year and Summer Redstone, the chief of Viacom - the company which owns Paramount - has now revealed why they made the decision.

Redstone claims he made the decision not to renew the Hollywood star's multimillion-dollar contract because his wife, Paula, started to dislike Cruise.

He said in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine: "Paula, like women everywhere, had come to hate him. The truth of the matter is I did listen to her.

Entirely unacceptable

"His behaviour was entirely unacceptable to Paula and to the rest of the world. He just didn't turn one woman off. He turned off all women, and a lot of men."

Redstone also cited Cruise's erratic behaviour, including the infamous 'couch-jumping' incident on Oprah Winfrey's chat show, and his bizarre Scientology beliefs, as another reason.

He added: "He was embarrassing the studio. And he was costing us a lot of money.

"When did I decide to fire him? I don't know. When he was on the Today show? When he was jumping on a couch on Oprah? He changed his handler, you know, to his sister - not a good idea.

"His behaviour cost us US$100 million, US$150 million on Mission: Impossible III. It was the best picture of the three, and it did the worst.

"The explosion of publicly ending his contract was good. It sent a message to the rest of the world that the time of the big star getting all this money is over. And it is! I would like to think that what I did, or what we did, has had a salutary effect on the rest of the industry."