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http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2013/02/tom-cruise-suri-reunited-london/

Tom Cruise Slams Female Employee Against Cabinet for Not Showing Him “Proper Respect”

SHARE: Adjust text size:   The Church of Scientology and Mark “Marty” Rathbun have been worst enemies ever since he walked out on leader David Miscavige in 2004, after being his “top lieutenant” for years. In his new book, “The Scientology Reformation: What Every Scientologist Should Know,” Rathbun blows the cover on many secrets of the cult.  An excerpt from the chapter called “The Gates of Hell” is now available on Rathbun’s official webpage, just to help you get an idea of the kind of things that happen behind closed doors. It tells of how Tom Cruise, the most prominent representative of Scientology, was taught to mimic Miscavige’s behavior to his most aggressive gesture and how, in almost no time, he converted himself into a chosen one meant to bring “degraded beings” back on the right path through aggression. If true, this account paints Tom in a very negative light, which goes against everything he’s done so far in terms of public image. “[Miscavige] began to tell Tom Cruise tales of having to physically beat the degraded beings in his environment to keep them in line. Cruise followed suit, doing the same to his own staff,” Rathbun writes. “Michael Doven, his long-time personal assistant, started receiving regular physical abuse from Tom. Another of Tom’s staff – a woman – was grabbed and slammed up against a file cabinet by Cruise for failing to show him proper respect,” he goes on to say. In everything that Cruise did, he was looking at Miscavige for “inspiration.” “He railed and screamed, like Miscavige, when he discovered a near-microscopic chip in a drinking glass handed to him by one of his staff. He was convinced the degraded beings were steadily sabotaging him, stalking him like the zombies from Night of the Living Dead. Tom even physically abused the one-time international spokesperson for Scientology, one Tommy Davis,” Rathbun claims. He also roughed up Nazanin Boniadi, the woman Scientology chose as his wife (before he met Katie Holmes) after a proper audition-like process. Rathbun confirms Vanity Fair’s story by writing how she fell out of favor with Tom after she “disrespected” Miscavige by daring to ask him to repeat what he’d said – Miscavige reportedly talks in a very small voice and hates when people ask him the same thing twice. “Dave and me, we’re big beings. We are surrounded by DB’s (degraded beings). DBs can’t help but try to destroy big beings. That’s just the way it is in this universe. You have to understand this. This is LRH, man,” he reportedly told her during a very serious talk down. “It’s the plight of the big being getting jumped on by all the degraded beings. You gotta be unreasonable to survive around a big being like me. You can’t be weak. You gotta be strong to protect the big beings from all the degraded beings,” he added, slamming his fist on the table. More from the controversial book here. Scientology hasn’t yet responded to the claims made by Rathbun, but it will certainly do so in no time: rest assured you will find out about it here when they do.

What the Atlantic learned from Scientology: native advertising is harder for news brands

by Jeff John Roberts

 

13 HOURS AGO

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photo: Phuriphat

SUMMARY:

The venerable Atlantic is being made the poster child for what happens when native advertising goes wrong. An ad industry event in New York raised the question of whether the Atlantic deserves this blame when many other sites engage in similar practices.

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You have to feel for the Atlantic. One poor decision has made it a case study in how not to embrace a popular advertising trend — even though many other publications could have gotten away with the same ad.

At an ad industry event in New York on Wednesday, an Atlantic Digital executive explained what the company had learned from a January debacle involving the Church of Scientology. (In case you missed it, the Atlantic pushed the boundaries of so-called “native advertising” by publishing a feel-good “sponsored story”about the religion — or cult, if you prefer — that included only positive reader comments.)

“The biggest mistake in retrospect was that it wasn’t harmonious to our site and it didn’t bring any value to our readers,” said VP and General Manager Kimberly Lau, at the event, which was hosted by native ad shop Sharethrough. “The second mistake was allowing the marketing team to moderate comments in a way that wasn’t transparent.”

Lau’s comments echo the Atlantic’s earlier apologies for the incident which, by all appearances, was a one-off mistake. But her remarks stand out because of where she made them: on a panel with representatives from Gawker, Vice and College Humor — three publications that regularly mix advertising into their editorial process and that expressed sympathy for the Atlantic’s predicament.

“There’s no other way to make money without doing this kind of advertising,” said Vice’s CCO Eddy Moretti, who added that Vice would have run the Scientology story. Meanwhile, Jason Del of Gawker (“a full-service content, event and video shop”) suggested that part of the blowback to the Scientology story came about because the sponsored format was novel to its readers.

So is all this unfair to the Atlantic —  so-called native advertising is a lifeline for publishers, why can’t it cash in like everyone else? The problem, as Lau explained, is:

“It goes back to the difference between entertainment and journalism,” she said. “There’s a higher bar for a brand like the Atlantic.”

This goes to the crux of the matter — sites that cater to comedy, entertainment or celebrity news can inject sponsored fare into their streams with relative safety. Serious news and intellectual publications, however, must take extra care to preserve the integrity of their editorial content.

In the bigger picture, this extra scrutiny of news brands may limit their ability to garner new online income. But the good news, for the Atlantic at least, is that the company has been profitable for several years and, according to Lau, 59 percent of its overall advertising revenue is digital.

Speaking of native advertising, be sure to attend paidContent Live this April where Andrew Sullivan and other leading media figures will discuss their business strategies, including native advertising.