The plot thickens, as new characters come into play in the latest chapter of actor Tom Cruise’s latest production. Following reports by his partner, Paula Wagner, that two unnamed hedge funds were ponying up some $100 million to back their standalone company following the breakup with Paramount Pictures, Cruise’s attorney, Bert Fields, said it was “just talk” and he was unaware of such a deal. Well, now there is a deal, but perhaps not what Wagner had in mind. It seems Dan Snyder, owner of football’s Washington Redskins, has formed a hedge fund, called First and Goal, together with NVR Chairman Dwight Schar and Mark Shapiro, president and CEO of Six Flags. According to Reuters, it’s no $100 million baby. First and Goal, says Reuters, will provide the Cruise company with less than $3 million a year for overhead costs (compared with $10 million that Paramount used to dish out in its original deal and close to the $2.5 million the studio was contemplating offering Cruise and company in a new contract). So are people hot on the idea of investing in the sometimes hard-to-predict Cruise? Not very. In online poll by Investment News, asking whether they would invest in hedge funds backing Cruise/Wagner, only 21.8% said yes, while 78.93% said no.
