Shock And "Call"

Reaction among industry heavyweights over the recent split between Tom Cruise and Paramount Pictures has proven to be...interesting:

From Friday's World Entertainment News Network column

Spielberg "Stunned" by Paramount's Cruise Decision

Hollywood filmmaker Steven Spielberg insists he had no prior knowledge of Paramount's decision to end their partnership with...Cruise, declaring he was stunned by the news.

Spielberg's Dreamworks company is owned by Paramount Pictures and has directed Cruise in Minority Report and War of the Worlds. Spielberg also owns the talent firm Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which represents Cruise. When Sumner Redstone, the chairman of Viacom - Paramount's parent company - announced the studios would not be renewing Cruise's 14-year production deal due to his "recent conduct," Internet gossips claimed Spielberg was aware of the decision.

However, his spokesman Marvin Levy tells the New York Daily News, "Steven had no advance knowledge of Sumner Redstone's position. The story broke when Steven was on an airplane. He found out when the plane landed." Spielberg's producing partner Kathleen Kennedy has lashed out at reports the director was unhappy with Cruise's behaviour during the War Of The Worlds publicity campaign last year, when he indulged in public displays of affection with fiancee Katie Holmes on red carpets all over the world. Kennedy says, "It's not true. Tom was a consummate professional. He's done nothing wrong."

I believe Speilberg, when he says he had no prior knowledge, of Redstone's decision. As chief of Viacom Redstone doesn't need to report to Speilberg for anything...

Studio Briefing had this:

Were Grazer's Congratulations To Redstone Really In Order?

Producer Brian Grazer is reportedly contradicting statements by...Redstone that he phoned Redstone to congratulate him on decision to break off ties with Cruise's production company.

L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke, citing a Grazer intimate (Grazer, she said, is on vacation and could not be reached), reported Thursday that Grazer had merely phoned Redstone "to ask what's going on."Finke's source added that "anyone would be shocked to see a private phone call ever discussed publicly, much less reported in The New York Times."

Meanwhile, Paramount chief Brad Grey and Viacom CEO Tom Freston remained conspicuously silent on Redstone's critical remarks about Cruise... [Friday's] New York Post quoted an unnamed studio executive as saying that Redstone "chopped his management off at the knees" and "showed no confidence" in either.

Patrick Goldstein of The Los Angeles Times wonders if Grey is Redstone's real target in all of this... After reading the Big Picture Extra--you may begin to think of the canning of Cruise as a small part of a larger plan for the company...?