Tom Cruise Gets Dumped........

No...not by Katie...but by Paramount Chairman Sumner Redstone.

Paramount has not renewed Tom Cruise's production deal.

Capping his spectacular reversal of fortune from Hollywood cash machine to public relations liability, Tom Cruise was unceremoniously dumped last night by Paramount Pictures after a 14-year business relationship.

Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom, which owns Paramount, told The Wall Street Journalthat the off-screen behaviour of Cruise, who angered many fans with his support of Scientology and criticism of psychiatry, was to blame. That and the disappointing box office opening for M.I.3.

In light of the fact that Cruise has made more money for Paramount than any other actor and that his behavior is no more disturbing than most of Hollywood's other well paid miscreants Nikke Fink, at Deadline Hollywood, ponders whose crazier - Sumner or Cruise?

(...)...it’s absurd for Redstone to make an issue of Cruise’s conduct like he has. My god, Sumner himself was openly shtupping one of his producer girlfriends on the lot for years, and his own son is suing him. And Redstone looked the other way when Les Moonves carried on a long adulterous affair with employee Julie Chen and then married her after dumping his wife in the process. Which are all violations of so many corporate codes of conduct that I don’t think I can count that high. And let’s not forget how the old guy’s studio is still in business with Robert Evans who not only was a hopeless cocaine addict and regular client of Heidi Fleiss’s prostitution call girl ring for years but pled the Fifth Amendment in connection with a murder rap no less. And let's not forget that Redstone didn't blink when Brad Grey's name surfaced in that Anthony Pellicano (the thug P.I.) mess. So lemme get this straight: Cruise’s jumping around on Oprah’s couch is worse?

Chris Ayres, the LA correspondant for the UK Times shares his insight:

Cruise cannot be happy about all of this.

Indeed, the actor's agent, Rick Nicita of Creative Artists Agency, told the Journal that the actor was "offended" by Redstone's comments. "This was done in an incredibly graceless way," he said. Graceless? This coming from a rep for Cruise, the man who went on NBC's Today show last summer to criticise Brooke Shields for using medicine to help her cope with postpartum depression?

Like I wrote in my open letter to Tom Cruise last summer. he better than anyone should understand that even when you've got "All The Right Moves" Hollywood is still a Risky Business.

Sgt Tim Boggs - A STAR IS BORN

Sgt Tim Boggs, Milblogger & Army Reservist in Iraq on his second tour of duty, and now "tv star in the making" was interviewed on Neil Cavuto today discussing his scathing and brutally honest Letter to the NY Times, "in response to their decision to print information concerning a U.S. secret program designed to track financial transactions of suspected terrorists".
The letter was never published nor responded to by the paper.

He was funny, charming, articulate, very relaxed and when he smiled, I could hear the hearts of single women everywhere melt.

Way To Go, Soldier Boy, W A Y T O G O :>)


Here is a link to the interview which someone posted on You Tube

Huntress Hits Hollywood

The flight from Toronto to LAX on Friday seemed like it would never end. It departed at 0645 which meant it had been too early for me to grab my morning Soy Chai Tea Latte before heading out to the Airport. And for some strange reason their is NO Starbucks at Terminal Two ..GRRRRRRRR. So once I deplaned, before picking up my bags, I stopped at the Starbucks in LAX, and ordered a LARGE drink. With that in hand, I waited endlessly for my bags to appear.. ( I have two suitcases - one devoted entirely to shoes and bags - hey its Hollywood and I need options!!) then headed outside to where the Producer who I'm staying with was pulling up. After hugs and kisses - I threw my bags in the trunk, hopped into her car and we headed back to her house in Silverlake. ( One of the Beastie Boys is lives nearby as do many production and costume designers, and assorted other musicians)

Max and I have been friends since her days as a development exec at a feature film company. She hired a cinematographer client of mine to work on a movie she had developed. Today, she informed me, we 'd be having lunch with a director she is partnered with on a book to be turned into a feature film for pay tv project about the man who discovered the clitoris. I kid you not.. and believe me ...it's not pornographic. The film is adapted from a somewhat humourous best sellar book - it's a true story and it's far more about power than sex- albeit the two are related! It's funny, moving, ironic, and somewhat sad.

Lunch was great - The director, Gabriela Tagliavini whose film Ladies Night has received critical acclaim, is vivacious, engaging, and possessed of an exuberant joie de vivre. Our lunch also involved a screenwriter who they would like to have adapt the story for film...after wards we headed to his house to view his art..some of his original vagina and penis art. honestly...was more like an episode of Sex and The City than an xrated film. His wife, and daugher are both fabulous artists, in their own right. He has a art studio behind their beautiful house...and they all work using mixed media. His home is an art gallery onto its own.

Later that day, Tucker Max dropped by to finish a business conversation with Max - that needed to be settled - regarding the tv deal they just received to turn Tuckers uber successful blog into a very funny series. The three of us will be having dinner later this week.
Tucker is better looking in person than his pictures would suggest. He's also a big fan of Mike Yon.

For dinner, I insisted we get Fish Tacos' and Max took offered up several suggestions for places that serve excellent fish tacos. We tried a place near her house...and I have to admit they did serve up excellent fish tacos...the taco comes with fish and refried beans - and fabulous salsa.
If you've never had a fish taco - you're life is not complete!
Fish tacos seem to be a regional speciality of SoCal. The best and the original are found at Wahoo's Fish Taco's in Laguna. Baja Fresh, a mexican fresh food chain, offers mahi mahi fish tacos, an all you can eat salsa bar, and all you can drink refreshments such as ice tea, softs drinks and lemonade. Yesterday, Max is taking me to several other places that serve them up in order to pacify my perpetual Fish Taco cravings!

Saturday was spent doing girly things...I needed to revamp my spray on tan...so a quick trip to a tanning salon on Sunset that offers the Mystic spray on tan was followed by lunch at Baha Fresh ( FISH TACOS!!!) clothes shopping on Melrose, Sunset, and La Brea Blvds and several stops at assorted Starbucks. I love American Rag for a blend of vintage clothing and the latest from hot fashion designers...they also have a small restaurant in the store that serves up tasty food. Very NY!

Max is in a knitting group so we grabbed dinner at her place then headed to a gorgeous house in the Hollywood Hills, where I met several lovely women who form this knitting group. The house belonged to David Cohen a writer for "The Simpsons" and head writer, exec producer for "Futurama". The view of the city from this house was breathtaking.

We returned home around 10:0o - driving down Sunset Blvd on a Sat nite one is inundated with the cacaphony of sounds and a visual feast akin to Times Square at night - made some tea, and munched on late night snacks while watching a film we rented - Hoodwinked!
Its an ingenious take on "Little on Riding Hood" - done Roshoman style....where a crime is committed and you revisit the same story from each of the fours suspects point of view...different but yet intersecting at key moments. Its a smart funny animated feature.
Rent it!

And yes..there have been numerous celeb sightings ...it is Hollywood after all. But I have far more interesting people who I will be having lunch, dinner or drinks with during the upcoming week.and thats who I intend to write about.

*air kisses*

California.... Here I Come

Right back where I started from.
Ten Days in Tinseltown.

Rooming withThe Producer,
Dinner with The Screenwriter,
Drinks with The Documentary Filmmaker,
Lunch with The Milblogger -
And WAHOOS Fish Taco's with The Marine.


Oh yeah.....I 'll have some great stories to share!