Cruise: ‘Good guy’

Los Angeles, May 11 (Reuters): In a rare public show of support for a beleaguered star, some of Hollywood’s top executives rallied to Tom Cruise’s side on Wednesday as a new poll suggested his odd behaviour in recent months may have cost him millions of dollars at the box office.

Among the movie industry heavyweights offering personal testimonials to his talent and bankability were Universal Studios president Ron Meyer, veteran producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Paramount Pictures chairman Brad Grey, whose company released Cruise’s latest film Mission: Impossible III.

“Tom Cruise is one of the most important stars ever in the motion picture business,” Ron Meyer, a close friend and former agent, said. “I don’t know anybody who has had the consistent success rate that Tom has. And nobody should be counting him out.”

Added Grey: “He is clearly, on a profit basis as well as a creative basis, one of the biggest stars in the world.”

Bruckheimer, a producer of Cruise movies Top Gun and Days of Thunder, called the three-time Oscar nominee “a very passionate guy”.

“Tom’s really a good guy... and the press and public can turn on people for God knows what reason. But I know what he really is ? a warm-hearted, terrific individual,” Bruckheimer said.