Tuesday, 29 August 2006

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Tom Cruise finds a new movie partner

After a bitter split with Paramount, the star hooks up with a pro football owner

Fresh from his bitter public split with Paramount Pictures, Tom Cruise has found a new movie partner – on the gridiron.

The Mission: Impossible star has struck a deal with an investment group that includes Daniel M. Snyder, the owner of the Washington Redskins football team, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

Snyder, who's also the chairman of Six Flags Inc., is said to be the lead investor in a two-year agreement with Cruise, 44, and his producing partner, Paula Wagner.

Neither side disclosed how much Cruise and Wagner would receive as part of the new deal.

Paramount Pictures announced the end of its 14-year business relationship with Cruise last week – with Sumner Redstone, chief of Paramount's parent company Viacom, blaming the actor's conduct. "As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal," Redstone told the Wall Street Journal. "His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount."

Wagner jabbed back, telling PEOPLE that the comments from Redstone, 83, were "undignified, outrageous and untrue."