Tom Cruise - unpopular but profitable. The only star like this?

he stays away from politics so he has been smart from that point of view

He is very obviously Suri's biological father. Katie's lawyer father was able to arrange a deal in which Tom would stay out of their daughter's life and she would keep quiet about him and Scientology.

Mark Wahlberg.

I don't give Tom Cruise none of my money. When I see his name, i'm already looking for something else to watch. I especially avoided The Mummy, Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe together? Hells no way jose. I did notice that Tom Cruise started making lots more movies after having his legs lengthened.

I think Sean Penn and Mel Gibson are much like Cruise...very entertaining in the business, they sell tickets but both seem like pretty odd, uncomfortable people to be around

Is he really unpopular? I don't think so. Look, he may well belong to some religion but I haven't heard him ram it down our throats. Apart from that has he done anything really bad. Not sure.

If he was then most of his movies would fail. You can argue that MI franchise would work without Tom and you could well be right. But what about his movies? They did well. I for one enjoy his movies.

To my mind, Johnny Depp comes up as unpopular right now. Not someone you would go to watch cinemas automatically.

Anyway, that is my two pence worth.

I wouldn't describe TC as unpopular or disliked -- with a qualifier.

Personally, I admire him and his work ethic as an actor. In interviews, he comes across as easy-going and personable -- as long as the conversation stays fixed on his movies and acting. He seems committed to entertaining people... he's got more money than God and could retire to a private island somewhere forever, if he wanted.

You have to admire his commitment to his action movies. He's effectively a stuntman/actor.

I don't give much thought to his personal life because there isn't much of it on display.

He made some big PR gaffes years ago -- Oprah, that Scientology 'commercial', spats with Brooke Shields. Since then though he seems to have made a deliberate and successful effort to keep his private life out of sight.

I can't speak to his private life, but, as an actor, he's the most successful actor in history. By that I mean, his longevity is phenomenal and, consequently, he has pulled in the most money of any Hollywood actor ever.

Many of his movies/roles are iconic. As an actor, he's versatile, moving easily from humour to drama to action... maybe less successful at comedy. He's focused on action for the last decade or so which isn't a bad strategy. He's very fit for his age, but even he will succumb to age, at which point he can segue back to drama.

I think I'm like most people... we like Tom Cruise, the actor, and don't know much, or could care less about Tom Cruise, the private man. He's probably happy with that too.