Cruise Control

"It took the public tailspin of Tom Cruise's reputation to put the importance of the celebrity PR pro into the spotlight," reports Julia Hood. "Cruise put his sister in the job vacated by the legendary Pat Kingsley. The impact of subsequent PR gaffes was instantaneous, as Cruise became a laughingstock for jumping on sofas on Oprah and taking Brooke Shields to task for postpartum-depression medicating. ... Cruise has always seemed a bit high-strung and certainly litigious with certain media outlets, but the more extreme aspects of his personality were smoothed out for public consumption under the guidance of Kingsley. Now that Cruise has turned to Rogers & Cowan, he has presumably realized that celebrity PR should be handled by the pros."