Tom Cruise clearly displeased Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone enough to get his ass axed this week, but he evidently also committed one of the biggest cardinal sins for any employee -- pissing off the boss' wife!

According to TMZ.com, Paula Fortunato was incensed over one of Cruise's many rants, telling her honcho husband that the actor is a "putz," and that she intended on boycotting Cruise's projects.

Indeed, the New York Post notes, one of Redstone's justifications for severing ties with the Scientology obsessed star was that his behavior had alienated female fans. One of those fans, evidently, was Fortunato, a former teacher almost 40 years Redstone's junior who married the mogul in 2003.

She was outraged by Cruise's inexplicable digs at Brooke Shields, and told her husband that she would never "see another Tom Cruise movie again!"

Cruise has received some support, however, from what might seem an unlikely source -- Matt Lauer. Despite his personal association with of Tom's famous rants, the Today host came to Cruise's defense this week, saying his views aren't justification for his dismissal.

"You know what, I have to say something. You talk about erratic behavior and things like that affecting the box-office and yes maybe he jumped on a couch, and I was in the middle of one of those episodes here on the Today show and maybe he speaks out about Scientology and some people don't like that," Lauer said. "But what about the stars who are in and out of rehab every week? Is that any worse? And yet you find movie companies still in business with them. So, this is all a strange world we live in."