Cruise Not a Popularity Contest Winner

It seems Sumner Redstone is not alone in his distaste for Tom Cruise's couch-jumping conduct.

On the heels of Paramount Pictures' decision not to renew Cruise's production deal comes word that the Mission: Impossible star's popularity ratings are down. Way down.

According to Marketing Evaluations Incorporated, the company that calculates the Q scores which measure a given celebrity's likeability factor, the public's positive perception of Cruise has fallen by 40 percent, while the negative perception of the actor has jumped a whopping 100 percent.

How did this happen? Let's revisit some of Cruise's most memorable moments over the last year and a half.

The birth of TomKat, April 2005: Cruise jets to Italy to pick up a lifetime achievement award; much to the world's collective confusion, Katie Holmes accompanies him and the two engage in plenty of public canoodling.

The passion of TomKat, May 2005: Cruise uses Oprah Winfrey's couch as a platform from which to trumpet his love for Holmes.

The wrath of TomKat, May 2005: Cruise criticizes Brooke Shields for her "irresponsible" use of antidepressants to treat her postpartum depression.

The wrath of TomKat, part 2, June 2005: Cruise calls Matt Lauer "glib" for suggesting that drugs such as Paxil and Ritalin might be beneficial in some cases, and calls the TV host out on his lack of knowledge about psychiatry, a subject in which Cruise claims to be well-versed.

The engagement of TomKat, June 2005: Cruise jets to Paris with Holmes in tow; they scale the Eiffel Tower, where he pops the question; Cruise then announces momentous event at press conference.

The aftermath of the wrath of TomKat, July 2005: Shields rebuts Cruise's remarks by penning an op-ed in the New York Times slamming his "ridiculous rant" against psychiatry.

The reproduction of TomKat, October 2005: The betrothed couple announce that they have conceived an offspring.

The OB/GYN skills of TomKat, November 2005: Cruise tells Barbara Walters he has purchased a sonogram machine to perform at-home ultrasounds on Holmes. The American College of Radiology objects and a California lawmaker is inspired to author a bill banning the use of such machines by anyone except trained professionals.

The birth of TomKitten, April 2006: Cruise and Holmes announce the birth of their daughter, Suri, whose name supposedly means "princess" in Hebrew and "red rose" in Persian. Not to mention "pickpocket" in Japanese.

The box-office effect of TomKat, May 2006: Mission: Impossible III opens below industry expectations, though still going on to gross a respectable $393 million worldwide.

The power of TomKat, June 2006: Forbes magazine touts Cruise as the world's most powerful famous person.

The privacy of TomKat, July 2006: Some four months after her birth, Suri has yet to make her public debut, though an elite few can claim to have laid eyes on her.

The downsizing of TomKat, August 2006: Paramount Pictures decides not to renew its production deal with Cruise and producing partner Paula Wagner. Viacom head honcho Sumner Redstone tells the Wall Street Journal that Cruise's "recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount."

So, what's not to like? Nothing, according to Cruise's attorney, Bert Fields.

"What was his personal conduct?" Fields asked in an interview with the New York Post. "Jumping on a couch on Oprah Winfrey because he's in love with Katie Holmes? That really deserves the death penalty?

"Or speaking out against mood-altering drugs for children? That's a real reason for the [Viacom] shareholders to be deprived of billions of dollars?"

Perhaps not, but it does provide insight into how Cruise could have become less appealing in the eyes of the general public.

Meanwhile, Wagner has also spoken out in defense of her business crony (whom she likes, anyway), calling Redstone's remarks "graceless," "undignified," and "not businesslike."

"I ask, what is his real agenda? What is he trying to do? Is this how you treat artists?" Wagner raged to the Los Angeles Times. "If I were another actor or filmmaker, would I work at a studio that takes one of their greatest assets and publicly does this?"

Cruise has yet to speak up on his own behalf. However, Wagner stated that the producing partners would be just fine without Paramount and had already secured $100 million in independent financing from two hedge funds.

Even so, the question remains of what will happen to the projects Cruise/Wagner Productions had already developed for Paramount.

The producing partners had stockpiled a number of scripts for the studio, many as potential starring vehicles for Cruise. Negotiations over the projects could get tricky, given Paramount's relatively new conditions for pictures put into turn-around, including the requirement that the studio be fully reimbursed and receive coproduction rights.

According to Daily Variety, some of the most promising projects brought to Paramount by C/W include One Shot, a mystery about a homicide investigator; The War Magician, a true-life drama about a British magician who used illusions to mystify the Germans and protect British troops in North Africa; and The Few, a drama about American fighter pilots who fought for the British in World War II.

"We have not discussed what will happen with the projects," a C/W spokesperson told Daily Variety. "They all have separate contracts and agreements, and I'm sure they will be honored."