The barrage of negative publicity that has hounded Tom Cruise this past year has finally gotten to him. He's dropped
his sister, Lee Ann DeVette, as his publicist and hired a pro again. It's not a moment too soon either.
Careful listeners could almost hear Hollywood breathe a sigh of relief as Tom Cruise this week fired his publicist, Lee Anne DeVette, who is also his sister, and replaced her with one of the movie industry's veteran star-wranglers, Paul Bloch.
The move followed a run of the worst publicity in his reign as the world's biggest movie star, with Mr. Cruise, 43, attracting negative reaction last summer to his criticism of psychiatry and antidepression drugs, his over-the-top wooing of the actress Katie Holmes and his open advocacy of Scientology, which some consider a dangerous cult.
In an industry where box office sales are dwindling even as the pool of bankable movie stars seems to be shrinking by the day, a reburnished Mr. Cruise becomes more valuable than ever. He remains one of the very few actors whose name on the marquee can virtually guarantee a successful movie opening, and Paramount Pictures is certainly counting on him to accomplish that in its big-budget sequel "Mission: Impossible 3," which stars Mr. Cruise and is currently in production.
By putting Mr. Bloch and his colleague Arnold Robinson in charge of his public image, Mr. Cruise has opted for seasoned professionals who have longstanding relationships with the entertainment industry over his sister, who had no previous publicity experience before taking charge in March 2004, and is, like her brother, a committed Scientologist.
Is it too late, or can Cruise convince us that he's still the same likeable guy he was before he dumped Nicole Kidman and verbally attacked sweet Brooke Shields? Only Mr. Bloch knows for sure.
