In case you haven't already heard, Tom Cruise and Paramount are severing ties. Actually, that might be putting it too politely. It's more like they're firing him.

Tom has been a Paramount staple for 14-years, and has almost certainly made them literally billions and billions of dollars. Unfortunately, his recent conduct has been to much for even all that money to erase. They're dropping him. Paramount parent company Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone tells The Wall Street Journal, "His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount."

Many have blamed the mediocre performance of some of Cruise's films on his bad public persona. Though there has been a dropoff, most of his recent work has been profitable. The fear for Paramount was probably that things are only going to get worse. With news that Tom Cruise is starting his own independent film company called Cruise/Wagner Productions funded by secret investors (read: Scientology gets its own movie studio) they may be right about that.

If it were anyone but Tom Cruise in this situation, this story wouldn't even be news. He may not be working with Paramount anymore, but it's not like Tom is going to have trouble finding work. Even after all his public embarrassments, he's still the biggest movie star on the planet. Don't expect him to end up standing around in the unemployment office next to me and you.