The sinking continues
Poor Tom. First his studio fires him. Now we hear that those “alternative sources of funding” might not be as readily available as his people claim.
Here’s some fun stuff from the strange marriage of hedge funds and the entertainment industry:
During an internal presentation on film financing last year, Merrill Lynch & Co. executives entertained employees with the famous video of actor Tom Cruise manically bouncing on Oprah Winfrey’s couch as he sang the praises of his new girlfriend.
Amid the laughter, recalls someone who was in the room, Michael Blum, Merrill’s head of structured finance, asked: “How does one hedge that risk?”
“If they thought Sumner was a tough boss, wait till they see what they have to put up with to get $100 million out of a fund,” says Hal Vogel, an entertainment industry analyst who runs Vogel Capital Management.
For ongoing coverage of the Cruise-Sumner saga, here’s a handy Defamer link.
Lest you think otherwise, no, I have nothing against Tom Cruise, except that I think he’s insane. This is just a pretty spectacular flameout.