Just hours after I posted that Sumner Redstone was trashing Tom Cruise’s reputation to disguise a plain old cost-cutting maneuver at Paramount, it turns out that Redstone had more than one reason to try to discredit Cruise: because he’s going to be a competitor.

Paula Wagner, Cruise’s production partner,  is the new CEO of United Artists; and both Wagner and Cruise will have part-ownership stakes in the studio. UA is scheduled to produce four films a year, and he will still have the opportunity to work with other studios.

Hmm…sounds like a pretty sweet deal for both Cruise and Wagner, and Redstone is left looking like a very bitter, poor loser. Deals this big don’t happen overnight, and there’s no doubt that Redstone got a whiff of it some time ago. So this whole charade he has been playing since August has just been a pathetic attempt to save face when his major star jumped ship.

Sorry Sumner, we see through your game…

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