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Tom Cruise: 'I Don't Run United Artists; I Just Own It.'
Posted by Seth at 2:15 AM on August 29, 2008
Horny gossip spinster Liz Smith had unwittingly curried favour with Tom Cruise by appearing on an episode of Fox News Channel's gossip-for-conservatives show Lips & Ears, in which she opined that misunderstood Nazis: Just The Nice Ones-vehicle Valkyrie should be "accepted in the same way World War II movies by Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood and Francis Ford Coppola." (The actor has a staff combing the airwaves 24-hours a day for Cruise-positive messages; both Smith and Lips & Ears have now been slid into the Allies column.) What followed was a candid chat with the actor on everything from his crumbling UA dominion, to his comedic turn as a Harvey Weinstein-type in Tropic Thunder, to his billion-year war bride Katie Holmes bruise-inducing preparations for her Broadway debut:
'I LOVE Paula Wagner, but she wants to produce elsewhere and in her own venue, and I don't intend to stand in her way. I'll say this of her leaving United Artists - whatever Paula wants is what I want her to have! And I hope we'll continue working together on future projects."
So spoke Tom Cruise on the phone with me this week. He added, cryptically: "I don't run United Artists; I just own it."
WHEN I asked Tom why he felt so many people in the business have gone after the Valkyrie" project as if it's a bad idea or something historically obscene, he sighed: "It just doesn't make sense to me either. The moment I read the screenplay I knew it was an important story, and as it's a true tale of heroic resistance to one of the great villains of history, I can't imagine that people won't want to see it."
Cruise's unflappably sanguine outlook has, of course, been what has helped propel him to superstar heights, and never will it be of greater service to him than in this highly transitional period in his career. Still, we'd have expected more from Cruise in his "don't ask me, I just sign the checks!"-attitude in addressing UA's failings. In Hollywood, where blame is flung around like fistfuls of chimpanzee crap on the set of Speed Racer, a clear and focused Alpha-superstar such as himself should be expected to step up and shoulder the blame for development misfires like Lions For Lambs 2: Armaggedon Reckoning.
- A NICE LITTLE CHAT WITH CRUISE [NY Post]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Scout 3.0
Posted 3:14 AM 29/8/08
I'm willing to concede that the screenplay for Valkyrie might be pretty good. It's the casting of Cruise in the main role that makes the movie laughable.
Scout 3.0
hummingpenguin
Posted 3:07 AM 29/8/08
Since when was this guy "unflappably sanguine"? On his Inside the Actors Studio, he was wound tighter than a spring. James Lipton made him so nervous, he couldn't sit up straight. Sanguine, he is not.
hummingpenguin
jasonelias
Posted 3:03 AM 29/8/08
Tom owns Orion and ABC Records too!
jasonelias
Juancho
Posted 2:56 AM 29/8/08
This man is just begging to have his funding pulled, no?
Juancho
Unrequited Narcissism
Posted 2:50 AM 29/8/08
Dr. Von Schadenfreude:
"So tell my Tom, where it all begin. If it helps, just stretch out on the COUCH! and let it all flow out."
Unrequited Narcissism
Sweet Panda Love
Posted 2:48 AM 29/8/08
So that tells us that apparently no one is running UA.
Sweet Panda Love
DarkKnightShyamalan
Posted 3:47 AM 29/8/08
Kind of like that weird dust-coated van with four flat tires in my apartment garage. It doesn't run, but I guess someone owns it.
DarkKnightShyamalan
LLH
Posted 3:43 AM 29/8/08
@Scout 3.0: cruise in ANY main role is ALWAYS laughable.
LLH
TurdBlossom
Posted 4:38 AM 29/8/08
Bet if Valkyrie was anything but a punchline there would be no doubt who runs UA.
TurdBlossom
NoGrumpys
Posted 5:24 AM 29/8/08
"I don't run Katie Holmes - I OWN IT"
NoGrumpys
flamincheeto
Posted 5:11 AM 29/8/08
Can he just go away already?
flamincheeto
Unrequited Narcissism
Posted 5:38 AM 29/8/08
"So spoke Tom Cruise on the phone with me this week. He added, cryptically: "I don't run United Artists; I just own it."
Ultimately, that's more an indictment than exculpation of self.
With the Cruise Curse in hyper-drive, Tom should consider developing acute laryngitis.
Unrequited Narcissism
unclevanya
Posted 7:25 AM 29/8/08
I'm not the engineer on this crazy train, I just shovel the coal.
unclevanya
krismry
Posted 8:14 AM 29/8/08
I just call Ace Greenberg at Bear Stearns and let him worry about it. Oh, wait...
krismry
NotReadyForPrimeTime
Posted 9:32 AM 29/8/08
How does Tom Cruise know that Liz Smith will be at the premiere of All My Sons on September 18?
NotReadyForPrimeTime
DrAftershave
Posted 9:23 AM 29/8/08
@jasonelias: LMAO
DrAftershave
DanLar75
Posted 9:54 AM 29/8/08
"I don't own the concept of being a retarded closet gay, I just run it.."
DanLar75
uncle_wiggly
Posted 9:49 AM 29/8/08
Tom has apparently appropriated Sy Sperling's trademark phrase without accredidation.
uncle_wiggly
Losin_it
Posted 12:03 PM 29/8/08
I think it makes sense. President Bush doesn't run America, he just owns it, right?
Losin_it
jasonelias
Posted 1:57 PM 29/8/08
@DrAftershave: Ha!
jasonelias
SeaPeople
Posted 7:25 AM 30/8/08
When I saw the smaller version of this picture, I totally thought it was one of those old Ken dolls or something. Manfriend is creepy and plasticky.
SeaPeople
Imnotatnbc
Posted 2:10 PM 30/8/08
Ooops...I meant WISH the Nazis would just bump him off already. Great, thanks to a typo now it's not snarky. Damn Scientologists!
Imnotatnbc
Imnotatnbc
Posted 2:09 PM 30/8/08
With the Nazis would just bump him off already.
Imnotatnbc
laura23
Posted 3:06 PM 30/8/08
Poor Tom. He's like the guy you keep avoiding, but he just keeps calling. Tom...the world and I are breaking up with you, and no, we don't want to be friends. Kthxbai.
laura23
Miss d
Posted 3:32 PM 30/8/08
Even the people who voted for the Nazi's don't like the space alien formally known as Tom Cruise...
Miss d
DrMabuse
Posted 6:08 AM 2/9/08
"The moment I read the screenplay I knew it was an important story, and as it's a true tale of heroic resistance to one of the great villains of history, I can't imagine that people won't want to see it." --Tom Cruise
It is an important story, though Klaus Von Stauffenberg was accurately assessed by Hitler as a coward: he should have killed himself and everyone in the conference room with his goddamned briefcase bomb. Instead, the war continued-on for almost another year, with mountains of bodies piling-up.
At least they hung him with piano-wire and filmed it. The Prussian Officer Corps were very much responsible for the rise of Hitler, they got what they deserved. Heroic? Not really, but it might actually work as a film, we'll see. Whenever I've written Cruise off, he comes back and surprises me, as he has with his Harvey Weinstein impression in Tropic Thunder, or the hit man role in Collateral.
Face it: he plays creeps with a touch of genius.
DrMabuse