Popularity

In 1990, 1991 and 1997, People magazine rated him among the 50 most beautiful people in the world.[2] In 1995, Empire magazine ranked him among the 100 sexiest stars in film history.[2] Two years later, it ranked him among the top 5 movie stars of all time.[2] In 2002 and 2003, he was rated by Premiere among the top 20 in its annual Power 100 list.[2]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise

Management of United Artists

According to an Associated Press report on November 2, 2006, Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner announced that they will be in charge of the United Artists film studio.[22] Cruise will produce and star in films for United Artists, while Wagner will serve as UA's chief executive.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise

Breakup with Paramount

On August 22, 2006, Paramount Pictures announced it was ending its 14-year relationship with Cruise/Wagner Productions. In the Wall Street Journal, chairman of Viacom (Paramount's parent company) Sumner Redstone cited the economic damage to Tom Cruise's value as an actor and producer from his controversial public behavior and views.[16][17] Cruise/Wagner Productions responded that Paramount's announcement was a face-saving move after the production company had successfully sought alternative financing from private equity firms.[18] Industry analysts such as Edward Jay Epstein commented that the real reason for the split was most likely Paramount's discontent over Cruise/Wagner's exceptionally large share of DVD sales from the Mission: Impossible franchise.[19][20] However, Radar has claimed that the "personal conduct" complained of by Redstone was an allegedly Cruise-inspired attempt to intimidate Brad Grey, CEO of Paramount. According to Radar, when Grey was walking to his car one night after tense negotiations with Cruise over Mission: Impossible 3, he was "surrounded by more than a dozen Scientologists, who pressured him to ease up on the actor ... Following a terse exchange, the visitors allowed Grey to get into his car and leave, but the message was clear." Grey reportedly stood his ground and convinced Cruise to accept a lower fee than the actor had initially demanded.[21]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise

Producing career

Cruise partnered with producer Paula Wagner to form Cruise/Wagner Productions which has co-produced several of Cruise's films,[13] the first being Mission: Impossible in 1996 which was also Cruise's first project as a producer. He won a Nova Award (shared with Paula Wagner) for Most Promising Producer in Theatrical Motion Pictures at the PGA Golden Laurel Awards in 1997 for his work as a producer for the film Mission: Impossible.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise

2000s

In 2000, Cruise returned as Ethan Hunt in the second installment of the Mission Impossible films, releasing Mission: Impossible II. The film was directed by Hong Kong director John Woo and branded with his Gun fu Style, but it continued the series' blockbuster success at the box office, taking in US$545,902,562 in worldwide figures, like its predecessor, being the third highest grossing film of the year. The following year Cruise starred in the remake of the 1997 erotic thriller Abre Los Ojos, Vanilla Sky. In 2002, Cruise starred in the dystopian thriller, Minority Report which was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the science fiction novel by Philip Dick; as well as The Last Samurai, which saw Cruise perform some of his own stunts.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise

1990s

Cruise was welcomed with similar success the following year when he received Academy Award nominations for Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July, which was based on the best selling autobiography of Anti-Vietnam War hero Ron Kovic; for the first time the audience knew Tom could play complicated roles other than handsome boys. In 1990, Cruise starred as hot-shot race car driver "Cole Trickle" in Tony Scott's Days of Thunder. While filming Days of Thunder Cruise first met American born and Australian-raised actress Nicole Kidman, who was his co-star. Cruise's next film was Ron Howard's Far and Away where he again was starring with Nicole Kidman. Cruise next starred in the military thriller A Few Good Men with Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore. This film was very well received and earned Cruise Golden Globe and MTV nominations. The following year he starred in Sydney Pollack's The Firm along with Gene Hackman and Ed Harris, which was based on the best selling novel by John Grisham, won Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture at the People's Choice Awards.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise

1980s

Cruise's first acting role came in 1981, when he had a small role in Endless Love, a drama/romance film starring Brooke Shields. Later that same year he had a more substantial role in the film Taps, appearing alongside George C. Scott, Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn. The film about military cadets was moderately successful. In 1983, he was one of many teenaged stars to appear in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders. The cast for this film included Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, and Ralph Macchio, some of which were part of the Brat Pack. That same year Cruise appeared in the teen comedy Losin' It with Shelley Long. Also in 1983, Risky Business was released, widely thought to be the film that propelled Cruise to stardom. One sequence in the film, featuring Cruise lip-syncing Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" in his underwear, has become an iconic moment in film history. The film has been described as "A Generation-X classic, and a career-maker for Tom Cruise".[12] A fourth film that was released in 1983 was the high-school football drama, All the Right Moves.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise

Family and early life

Born in Syracuse, New York,[4] Cruise has German and Colonial English ancestry from his paternal great-grandparents, William Reibert and Charlotte Louise Voelker; and purportedly Welsh ancestry from his paternal great-great-grandfather, Dylan Henry Mapother, who emigrated from Flint, Wales to Louisville, Kentucky in 1850.[5][6] His great-great-grandmother Mary Cruise married twice. Her first husband was Dillon Henry Mapother, by whom she had six children. She remarried after Dillon's death, to Thomas O'Mara. Their son Thomas O'Mara, enumerated as such in the 1880 Census, was later known as "Thomas Cruise Mapother". The reason(s) for him changing his name are not entirely clear. Thus, from his and his wife Anna Stewart Bateman, he has Irish and Colonial English ancestry, respectively. His maternal ancestry is half Irish and half German (including Alsatian).[7] Anna Stewart Bateman's great-grandfather was a third cousin of President George Washington and descended seven times from King Jean de Brienne of Jerusalem, once from King Louis VIII of France, once from King Henry III of England, twice from King Edward I of England and three times from King Edward III of England.[8][9]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise

Celebrity as a mass media phenomenon

In the 1970s, academics began analyzing the phenomenon of celebrity and stardom. According to Sofia Johansson the "canonical texts on stardom" include articles by Boorstin (1971), Alberoni (1972) and Dyer (1979) that examined the "representations of stars and on aspects of the Hollywood star system." Johansson notes that "more recent analyses within media and cultural studies (e.g. Gamson 1994; Marshall 1997; Giles 2000; Turner, Marshall and Bonner 2000; Rojek 2001; Turner 2004) have instead dealt with the idea of a pervasive, contemporary, ‘celebrity culture’." In the analysis of the 'celebrity culture,' "fame and its constituencies are conceived of as a broader social process, connected to widespread economic, political, technological and cultural developments."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity

Celebrity families

An individual can achieve celebrity on the basis of their profession, accomplishments, or notoriety, without necessarily having any family or social connections to aid them. However, there are families where the entire family is considered to have celebrity status. In Europe, all members of royal families are celebrities, especially when they are associated with a real or perceived scandal. As well, in Europe and in the US, there are artistic 'dynasties', where several members of a family are associated with a profession-typically music or acting.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity

Professions that offer celebrity

Some professional activities, by the nature of being high-paid, highly exposed, and difficult to get into, are likely to confer celebrity status. For example, movie stars and television actors with lead roles on prime-time shows are likely to become celebrities, as are popular rock stars. High-ranking politicians, national television reporters, daytime television show hosts, supermodels, astronauts, successful major-league athletes and chart-topping pop musicians are also likely to become celebrities. A few humanitarian leaders such as Mother Teresa have even achieved fame because of their charitable work.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity

Regional or cultural celebrities

Each country has its own independent celebrity system, with a hierarchy of popular film, television, and sports stars. Celebrities who are very popular in one country, such as India, might be unknown abroad, except with culturally-related groups, such as the Indian diaspora. In some cases, a country-level celebrity might command some attention outside their native country, but not to the degree that they can be considered a global celebrity. For example, singer Lara Fabian is widely-known in the French-speaking world, but only had a couple Billboard hits in the U.S., whereas singer Celine Dion is well-known in both communities.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity

Central Celebrites

A small number of celebrities can be considered 'global', in that their fame has spread across the English-speaking world and even into non-English-speaking cultures. These celebrities are often prominent political figures, Hollywood actors, globally successful pop musicians and sports stars. A few examples of internationally-known celebrities include politicians Vaclev Havel, Nelson Mandela and Hugo Chavez; actors Tom Cruise, Ian McKellen, Gérard Depardieu and Will Smith; actresses Drew Barrymore, Meryl Streep, Halle Berry, Emma Watson and Julia Roberts; pop singers Robbie Williams, Britney Spears, Shakira, Michael Jackson and Madonna; and sports stars Yao Ming, David Beckham and Tiger Woods.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity

Paris Hilton - Nothing In This World

Paris Whitney Hilton

Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American celebrity, socialite, actress and recording artist. She is an heiress to a share of the Hilton Hotelreal estate fortune of her father Richard Hilton. fortune, as well as to the

Hilton rose to fame when a home-made sex video of her was leaked onto the Internet in late 2003. The release of the tape, later titled 1 Night in Paris (2004), attracted worldwide publicity and contributed to the success of Hilton's Foxreality series The Simple Life. As an actress, she has appeared in several minor roles, most notably in the horror film House of Wax (2005), and in 2006, she released the self-titled album Paris.

In September 2006, she was arrested for driving under the influence and subsequently sentenced to 36 months probation and had her license suspended. In February 2007, she was stopped again for speeding and charged with violating her probation. Hilton was sentenced to 45 days in jail.