It's pretty rare that I wake up, start reading the paper and come across something that actually makes my day feel a whole lot better. In fact, I think reading about Sumner Redstone canning Tom Cruise today is the only time that has ever happened.
I'm one of those people that Redstone has finally realized exist across the U.S. I won't go to movies with Tom Cruise in it. This started way before his nutty talk show behavior. In fact, it goes back to Interview with a Vampire and culiminates with that time I spent three hours trying not to fall asleep during Magnolia when I realized that I could no longer handle another movie where Tom Cruise plays a cocky SOB who may or may not learn his lesson at the end. God, he sucks!
Are we watching the slow demise of media-sponsored celebrity worship? If so, I hope it means that the following things, aside from Tom Cruise's overhyped movie career, will cease to exist:
-- Fashion magazines with Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover accompanied by 5000+ word spreads about how boring, um, I mean, "ladylike," she is.
-- Best dressed lists featuring a slew of actors and actresses who pay people to get them designer clothes for free.
-- Award shows that force nearly all of Hollywood to shut down to make room for the red carpet, thus causing a major pain in the ass for those of us who have to go down to Hollywood at night for work.
-- The club columns in both LA Times and LA Weekly, which focus almost exclusively on clubs the vast majority of either's readership cannot enter.
-- DJ gigs where a really famous person gets someone else to cue the records and then takes credit for it.
-- Paris Hilton's new record.