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Some eight months after welcoming Brad Grey into the family and issuing a State of the Studio memo to his employees declaring that everything was super great at the New Paramount, relentlessly upbeat Viacom co-president stood in front of a Merrill Lynch investor conference and officially upgraded his movie-making fiefdom to "the most exciting studio in town":

"Paramount is the most exciting studio in town," Freston told attendees of the Merrill Lynch investor conference, detailing how the post-split Viacom will operate. "I could not be happier."

Freston praised Grey — who took over for Sherry Lansing as studio chairman early this year — on several fronts, including making new producing deals with talent such as Brad Pitt and John Singleton. "We want Paramount to be a place where talent wants to do its best work," he said.

Freston followed this trademark bout of exuberance with an uncharacteristically darker note, continuing, "And I guess we're going to have to let Tom Cruise continue to hang around the lot. I know we're supposed to be all talent-friendly now, but that dude really creeps me out, you know?"