How Tom Cruise's cult 'controlled his love life'... and, claims a book on his links to Scientology, humiliated a British beauty who didn't make the grade as a future wife
- Claims emerged in controversial new book about the Church of Scientology by Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. writer Lawrence Wright
By TOM LEONARD
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Scientology's star: Tom Cruise is seen at the opening of a new Church of Scientology in Madrid in 2004
They grew him a wild flower meadow in the desert where he and Nicole Kidman could frolic hand-in-hand.
They salute him and call him ‘sir’.
And when he needed a new woman in his life, they ‘auditioned’ dozens of actresses for the role.
The extraordinary lengths to which the Church of Scientology has allegedly gone to woo Tom Cruise are detailed in a controversial new book which contrasts his demi-god status in the organisation with the miserable existence of its rank-and-file devotees.
To outsiders, it has always seemed odd that the squeaky-clean Hollywood superstar has lavished praise on the ‘church’ as a force for good in the world, when a growing number of ex-members have portrayed it as a ruthless and exploitative cult that rules its brainwashed flock with a rod of iron.
Now a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer Lawrence Wright — published in the U.S. yesterday — has painted a withering portrait of an organisation which has always seen celebrity endorsement as essential to its mystique.
What better buffer against ridicule of a ‘religion’ based on sci-fi author and founder L. Ron Hubbard’s claims of alien invaders inhabiting our bodies than the approval of a few film stars, the book asks.
In Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood And The Prison Of Belief, Wright claims that Scientology boss David Miscavige succeeded in cultivating Cruise as a spiritual leader of his movement after he became Hollywood’s biggest star with films such as Top Gun and Mission: Impossible.
Cruise, in turn, willingly became the church’s smiling public face, ploughing millions of dollars into its work and even attempting to lobby foreign leaders, including former PM Tony Blair, to advance its dubious cause around the world.
Love life: The book claims Scientology boss David Miscavige went to extreme lengths to keep Cruise and Nicole Kidman happy when the pair were married
Before 50-year-old Cruise, John Travolta was the church’s biggest star name. According to Wright, the Saturday Night Fever actor was terrified that if he broke with the church, it might use against him confessions he made about his sexuality during his Scientology spiritual counselling sessions, called ‘auditing’.
At the height of Travolta’s fame in the late Seventies, church bosses were reportedly ‘desperately concerned their most valuable member would be revealed as gay’.
Marty Rathbun — once Miscavige’s second-in-command but now a leading critic of Scientology — told Wright the church had worked hard to protect Travolta’s reputation and that there were many allegations that he claims the church helped to ‘make go away’.
Allegations: Lawrence Wright's book on the Church of Scientology
The church yesterday dismissed Wright’s book as ‘an error-filled, unsubstantiated, bigoted, anti-Scientology book’, which relied on the accounts of a ‘handful of angry, bitter individuals’ who have left the church, adding that it contained more than 200 mistakes.
Wright relates how a young Cruise was introduced to Scientology by his first wife, actress Mimi Rogers, in 1986. But Rogers’ parents were disaffected Scientologists and, the book claims, Miscavige was determined to keep his famous new recruit away from them.
With Cruise smitten by Australian actress Nicole Kidman, then 21, Rathbun said he was sent to Rogers’ home with divorce papers and simply told her: ‘ “This is the right thing to do for Tom, because he is going to do lots of good for Scientology.” That was the end of Mimi Rogers.’
Miscavige’s determination to please Cruise and Kidman, whom he married in 1990, is said to have run to ludicrous lengths.
Gold Base is the church’s heavily fortified secret HQ in the California desert, where some 800 members of Sea Org — Scientology’s quasi-military ruling order — slave away for room, board and £15 a week. It has been claimed that some haven’t left the base for ten years.
But it was here, inside the razor-wire fences that Miscavige built a special ‘love bungalow’ where the couple stayed during their visits.
A rose garden was planted next to it and a tennis court built. When Miscavige heard the couple fantasised about running through a field of wild flowers, staff were ordered to plant a section of desert.
The meadow never took hold in the parched earth, and when a mudslide ruined the bungalow, Wright claims that Miscavige was so furious he ordered the entire base to work 16-hour days until it was restored to pristine condition.
While everyone else lives in spartan conditions at Gold Base, Cruise would be lavishly entertained in the Miscavige home, which boasts two chefs and where even the lightbulbs are polished once a month.
Not for Cruise and other visiting celebrities the indignity of having to salute Miscavige’s five beagles, as rank-and-file workers were ordered to do, according to Going Clear.
These dogs, claims the book, wear blue vests and shoulder epaulettes denoting they hold the rank of Sea Org Captain, thus out-ranking most human staff.
Gold Base: Scientology's desert base in California is believed to be home to some 800 members of Sea Org
Miscavige once had the entire Gold Base staff line up at the gate and salute Cruise on his arrival, says Wright. Nobody was allowed to speak to him unless spoken to.
The rule was simple — keep the film star happy. As Wright wryly observes: ‘Miscavige showed his understanding of how to cater to the sense of entitlement that comes with great stardom.’
Former Scientologists believe Miscavige was dazzled by Cruise and his Hollywood lifestyle while the actor ‘fell under the spell’ of the short but forceful Miscavige’s commanding personality. The church leader liked to boast Cruise used him as the model for his gutsy naval officer hero in A Few Good Men.
'Suspicious': Wright alleges that Miscavige feared Nicole Kidman was supplanting the church in Cruise's affections
But Wright alleges that Miscavige — who became Cruise’s best friend — grew deeply suspicious of Kidman, according to his deputy, Marty Rathbun. He believed that not only was the Australian actress supplanting the church in Cruise’s affections, encouraging him to neglect it, but that she was a ‘gold digger’ who faked an interest in Scientology to please her husband. If they convinced Cruise that Kidman was a ‘suppressive person’ — church code for a toxic personality — Cruise could be ‘peeled’ away from her, Rathbun told Wright.
When, in 2001, Cruise and Kidman split up, Rathbun says Scientology staff quietly worked to turn their two young adopted children against Kidman, convincing them that she was a ‘sociopath’.
The church and Miscavige have vehemently denied these claims several times in the past.
After their split, Cruise became more committed to Scientology. Whenever Hollywood’s biggest star travelled abroad, he would lobby politicians and diplomats to promote Scientology, says Wright.
After their split, Cruise became more committed to Scientology. Whenever Hollywood’s biggest star travelled abroad, he would lobby politicians and diplomats to promote Scientology, says Wright.
He is said to have repeatedly urged Bill Clinton to enlist Tony Blair’s help in getting the church charitable status in the UK.
Rathbun said he heard one phone call in which Clinton told Cruise he would be better off contacting Cherie Blair as, being a lawyer, she would ‘understand the details’.
Perhaps the oddest — and surely most embarrassing — claim in the book is that of the church’s obsession with finding Cruise a mate.
In 2007, after he ended his three-year relationship with Penelope Cruz (regarded as too independent-minded by church bosses, apparently) the star complained that nobody had been able to find him a new girlfriend.
A grand hunt ensued as staff reportedly auditioned every young actress in Scientology — about 100 in all.
None were told why they were being interviewed, but all were asked what they thought of Cruise.
Split: The actor's three year romance with Spanish starlet Penelope Cruz ended in 2007
An early candidate was Nazanin Boniadi, a strikingly beautiful and well-educated British-Iranian.
According to Wright, when Boniadi refused church demands to give up her Scientologist boyfriend as part of an important ‘human rights’ project, she was shown evidence suggesting he had cheated on her.
After undergoing extensive security checks, she was flown to New York where she and her church handlers ran into Cruise, seemingly by accident. Lavish dates followed in Manhattan and at a Colorado mountain resort.
Striking beauty: British-Iranian actress Nazanin Boniadi
Boniadi said she later moved in with him, but the relationship ended abruptly when, during a dinner party, she couldn’t understand what the fast-talking Miscavige was saying and several times asked him to repeat himself. The next day, Cruise lost his temper with her for showing disrespect to their leader.
Wright says that when Miss Boniadi told a friend about the affair, she was punished by having to dig ditches and even scrub lavatories with a toothbrush — a claim the church denies.
Going Clear alleges that the search for a new Mrs Cruise then went beyond Scientologists — Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan and Scarlett Johansson were all invited to audition for what they believed was a role in the Mission: Impossible films when, in fact, they were being assessed as future wives.
Cruise, of course, eventually married actress Katie Holmes who helpfully had admitted to having a childhood crush on him.
Wright says several sources have confirmed Miss Boniadi’s experiences with Cruise, although the star insists no church executive ever set him up with girlfriends.
By the mid-2000s, Cruise was the most powerful figure in the church after Miscavige, say ex-members. Miscavige ‘convinced Cruise that he and Tom were two of only a handful of truly “big beings” on the planet,’ said Marty Rathbun.
He added that Miscavige even told the actor that L. Ron Hubbard was relying on them to make it to ‘Target 2’ — an unspecified planet far, far away where they would meet up with Hubbard in the afterlife.
Scientology is going through a PR crisis from which critics insist it will never recover. The church claims to have 8 million members worldwide, but a survey suggested there are only 25,000 in the U.S.
Last year, Cruise had to contend with the humiliation of Holmes divorcing him, and reportedly insisting she doesn’t want their daughter brought up as a Scientologist.
At least the world’s most controversial church still has Cruise as a figurehead. Whether that is a blessing or a liability remains to be seen.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2264859/How-Tom-Cruises-cult-controlled-love-life--claims-book-links-scientology-humiliated-British-beauty-didnt-make-grade-future-wife.html#ixzz2IZGkGu5t
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Tom Cruise's Scientology Story REVEALED! Church Pushed For Nicole Kidman Divorce!
1/10/2013 9:25 AM ET | Filed under: Wacky, Tacky & True • Tom Cruise • Love Line • Nicole Kidman • Bookz
Scientolgy is one erm, interesting, "religion" which seems to attach itself to those with power, charisma, and potential…
Which is probably why Tom Cruise was SO heavily courted by the Church when his acting career began to bloom!
In a new book detailing Scientology and its influence in Hollywood, Pulitzer-prize winning author Lawrence Wright describes how Scientology's leader David Miscavige seemed obsessed with Cruise and explains how he became best buds with Tom who, in turn, grew more involved in the church.
"When it came to Cruise, Miscavige was bedazzled by the glamour surrounding the star, who introduced him to a social set outside of Scientology, a world Miscavige knew little about, having spent most of his life cloistered in the Sea Org. He was thrilled when he visited Cruise on the set of Days of Thunder, and the actor took him skydiving for the first time. Cruise, for his part, fell under the spell of Miscavige's commanding personality. He modeled his determined naval-officer hero in 1992's A Few Good Men on Miscavige, a fact that the Church leader liked to brag about."
AND even though Miscavige ended up believing Tom's then wife Nicole Kidman was a money-hungry bad influence, he still attempted to create a paradise for them at one of Scientology's desert locations!
But, Miscavige did NOT approve of Kidman, and, according to the book, he:
"…blamed [her] and viewed her as a gold digger who was faking Scientology. . . Miscavige was hopeful that if they portrayed Nicole Kidman as a Suppressive Person, Cruise could be peeled away from her."
And we guess his plan worked, seeing as the pair divorced!
The more we read about Scientology, the more questions we have! It's SUCH a secretive religion that works under the guise of complete openness, AND its "auditing" practices and spiritual beliefs are straight outta science fiction…
Like, LITERALLY. Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard was a pulp/science fiction writer!
LOlz!
Tom Cruise: the next POTUS?
Eleven Things We Learned About Tom Cruise and Scientology From The Hollywood Reporter’s Excerpt From Lawrence Wright’s New Book
Tom Cruise: the next POTUS?About two years ago, Lawrence Wright dropped a 26-page journalism bomb about Paul Haggis's departure from the Church of Scientology. It appears that was just the tip of the iceberg, as he has a new book on the religion, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, coming out later this month. The Hollywood Reporter excerpted a portion about Tom Cruise, Scientology leader David Miscavige, and Sea Orgs (the church's "elite clergy"). Here's what we learned:
1. Cruise modeled his A Few Good Men character on Miscavige, "a fact that the Church leader liked to brag about."
2. One time when Cruise audited former Sea Org Marc Headley, Kirstie Alley was there. Headley decribed her as a "celebrity prop" because she mostly just read.
3. Between 2000 and 2004, the food costs for the Miscaviges and his guests would range between $3,000 to as much as $20,000 a week.
4. Miscavige would have his light bulbs polished once a month.
5. "Miscavige keeps a number of dogs, including five beagles. He had blue vests made up for each of them, with four stripes on the shoulder epaulets, indicating the rank of Sea Org Captain. He insists that people salute the dogs as they parade by. The dogs have a treadmill where they work out. A full-time staff member feeds, walks and trains the dogs and enters one of them, Jelly, into contests, where he has attained championship status."
6. In comparison, other Sea Orgs ate for about "75 cents a head" and make $50 a week ("it's not unusual [for Sea Org's] to be paid as little as $13 or $14" after fines for infractions). They are also often shut out from the outside world: "Many Sea Org members have not left the base for a decade."
7. Cruise would consult with President Clinton about how to get Prime Minister Tony Blair to declare the Church of Scientology a tax-deductible charitable organization.
8. Cruise met with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Vice-President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff Scooter Libby over the church's treatment in Germany.
9. Cruise tried to convince President George W. Bush's Secretary of Education Rod Paige to include Hubbard's "study tech" educational methods into No Child Left Behind.
10. Which lead to this interaction between Cruise and Miscavige:
"Bush may be an idiot," Miscavige observed, "but I wouldn't mind his being our Constantine," referring to the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity.Cruise agreed. "If f--ing Arnold can be governor, I could be president."Miscavige responded, "Well, absolutely, Tom."
11. Marty Rathbun, former inspector general of Scientology's Religious Technology Center: "Miscavige convinced Cruise that he and Tom were two of only a handful of truly 'big beings' on the planet. He instructed Cruise that LRH was relying upon them to unite with the few others of their ilk on earth to make it onto 'Target Two' — some unspecified galactic locale where they would meet up with Hubbard in the afterlife."
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