Unsexy Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise was sacked by his film studio amid allegations he is no longer a sex symbol.The 'Top Gun' star was dropped by Paramount Pictures earlier this year and Sumner Redstone, the chief of Viacom - the company which owns Paramount - has now revealed why they made the decision.Redstone claims he made the decision not to renew the Hollywood star's multi-million dollar contract because his wife Paula started to dislike Cruise. He said in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine: "Paula, like women everywhere, had come to hate him. The truth of the matter is I did listen to her."His behaviour was entirely unacceptable to Paula and to the rest of the world. He just didn't turn one woman off. He turned off all women, and a lot of men."Redstone also cited Cruise's erratic behaviour, including the infamous 'couch-jumping' incident on Oprah Winfrey's chat show and his bizarre Scientology beliefs, as another reason.He added: "He was embarrassing the studio. And he was costing us a lot of money.

"When did I decide to fire him? I don't know. When he was on the 'Today' show? When he was jumping on a couch on 'Oprah'? He changed his handler, you know, to his sister - not a good idea.

"His behaviour cost us $100 million, $150 million on 'Mission: Impossible III'. It was the best picture of the three, and it did the worst.

"The explosion of publicly ending his contract was good. It sent a message to the rest of the world that the time of the big star getting all this money is over. And it is! I would like to think that what I did, or what we did, has had a salutary effect on the rest of the industry."