The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

1. Redstone Sees Red

The pleasure cruise is over at Viacom (VIA Quote).

This week the New York media giant parted ways with movie star Tom Cruise. Chairman Sumner Redstone says he fired the "Top Gun" star. Cruise contends he quit to spend time with his hedge fund backers.

Redstone blames changes in Cruise's public persona for his declining box-office appeal. The once-cuddly Cruise has more publicly embraced Scientology of late and jumped on Oprah Winfrey's couch. Last year he chided "Today" anchor Matt Lauer, "You don't even know what Ritalin is."

Though "Mission: Impossible III" sold nearly $400 million in tickets worldwide, CEO Tom Freston said two weeks ago on an earnings conference call that the action thriller "didn't quite perform as well as we hoped it would."

Of course, the same might be said of Viacom. The stock has been dead in the water for five years and is down 9% for 2006, despite a big buyback.

Redstone hasn't helped. His National Amusements investment vehicle has sold some $184 million worth of Viacom stock this year, The New York Times reported. Redstone says he's selling to keep his Viacom ownership steady as the buyback shrinks the float. "Those of you who know me know I hate selling stock," he protested on the Aug. 9 call, according to the seekingalpha.com transcript.

In any case, some media types are now grumbling that Redstone has undermined the brass at Viacom's Paramount studios with his very public dismissal of Cruise. But don't hold your breath for another departure.

"Retire is not in my dictionary," the octogenarian control freak told the San Francisco Chronicle five years ago. "You gotta remember, resurrection doesn't appeal to me."

Dumb-o-Meter score: 95. Apparently "commit" isn't in Redstone's dictionary either. That must be why he called Cruise someone who, um, "effectuates" creative suicide.

To view Colin Barr's interview about the Five Dumbest this week, please click here.