Redskins Owner to Back Tom Cruise; Team Still Overrated
August 31st, 2006 by Michael Stephens
The Church of Scientology was apparently prepared to show its best-known ambassador, Tom Cruise, the money after the actor got the ax from Paramount last week, but Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder (right) came to the rescue instead.
The marketing mogul has reached a two-year deal in which he will finance the 44-year-old’s movies, a spokeswoman for Cruise’s production company confirms.
The deal between Cruise/Wagner Productions and newly-formed First & Goal LLC (Fourth & 23 might have been more accurate) will cover overhead and development for Cruise and his producing partner, Paula Wagner. Their company will sign and produce films, which will likely star Cruise, whose growing insanity helped him wear out his welcome at Paramount.
Financial terms were not disclosed for the pact, which has an option to renew for a longer term.
Snyder, who also heads an investment partnership that controls amusement park operator Six Flags Inc., among other companies, will join with ESPN executive Mark Shapiro, who heads Six Flags, in overseeing the investment in Cruise/Wagner.
“This gives us the opportunity to work with all the studios and broadens our base,” Wagner said.
The actor was equally insane excited.
“Dan Snyder and Mark Shapiro are proven winners. Paula and I look forward to many mutual successes,” Cruise said.
Apparently, Scientology must not permit Tom to watch NFL games. A proven winner? Sure, Snyder’s marketing company, Snyder Communications Inc., was massively successful. But business genius does not football — or movie — success make.
Since May 1999, when Snyder purchased the team and their stadium for $800 million following the death of the legendary owner Jack Kent Cooke in what was the most expensive transaction in sporting history, the Skins have won less than half of their games. They’re 54-58, to be exact, with only two postseason berths.
Expect the wildly overrated Redskins and the couch-jumping lunatic to tank this autumn and beyond. Snyder’s bankrolling of Cruise merely attests to the exec’s propensity for pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into losers. **Fist Pump**
