Viacom boss wants to mend ties with Cruise

Actor Tom Cruise presents the Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 79th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, February 25, 2007. [Reuters]

LOS ANGELES - Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone wants to be friends again with Tom Cruise. The actor's behavior over his romance with Katie Holmes and his aggressive defense of Scientology were reasons cited by Redstone when he broke ties with Cruise last year after a long and lucrative relationship at Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures.

Cruise has since signed a deal with MGM to resurrect the United Artists movie studio.

Although Redstone hasn't talked with Cruise since the falling out, he said this week he hopes the two can resume their friendship.

"He was a great friend," Redstone told People magazine at Thursday's Los Angeles premiere of "Zodiac." "And I look forward to being his friend again."

Redstone said he was surprised that his original comments were as explosive as they were.

"What happened was, I just gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal. In the course of it, they asked me what was going on. I said, 'You know, he would no longer be in the lot,'" Redstone told the magazine. "They treated that like I was firing him. I didn't fire him! I had nothing to do with it. But they treated it explosively. And I didn't like it."