Cruise vs. Mrs. Redstone

I really need to stop doing this, but today's Page 6 item in the NY Post is just too good. According to an "insider," whoever that may be, Redstone's wife, Paula Fortunato, might have been influential in the mogul's unexpected decision to dump Tom Cruise. Fortunato was apparently "incensed" by Cruise's criticism of Brooke Shields for taking prescription drugs to relieve her postpartum depression. Cruise recommended vitamins instead. To which Mrs. Redstone, according to that "insider," told Sumner: "I never want to see another Tom Cruise movie again!" It sounds a little crazy, although Viacom spokesman Carl Folta gave the Post a response that doesn't really answer the key question. "It is true that Mrs. Redstone disagrees with Tom Cruise's views, but she and Mr. Redstone see every Paramount film." Defamer says that "it adds yet another delicious wrinkle to this high-powered spat when you start to consider the women behind the men."

In case you forgot, Fortunato is Redstone wife No. 2 - and 40 some odd years his junior. In 2000, they went out on a blind date and three years later got married. They became full-fledged Angelenos when he bought Sylvester Stallone's old place for $14.5 million. In 2005, a Fortune article noted that the two are inseparable. "I'm lucky," Redstone says. "I have a wife I love and a business I love. What else could anyone want?" from Fortune:

In some ways Redstone remains a tough old bird. But while people at Viacom say Redstone can be as cranky, impatient, and self-absorbed as ever, they see far less of that behavior than before. They credit Paula. "She makes him happy," says one executive, "and when he's happy, we're happy."