Tom Cruise and the shocking documentary that rocked Scientology

This article was originally published in the June 10, 2015 issue, and we’re revisiting it today to see how Vanity has changed over the past 20 years. Here are all the articles that we republish

For example, it was Rathbun who served the divorce letter to Mimi Rogers, who introduced the actor to Scientology in 1986, but who had the disadvantage of being a daughter. squirrelsquirrel, as contemptuously defined church members who, continuing to follow the teachings of Hubbard, decide to leave Scientology. And Rathbun always checked the phones of the actor’s second wife, Nicole Kidman, when it came time to get rid of her, considering her a “source of potential problems” because her father Anthony was a psychologist.. So it’s no coincidence that Tom Cruise then, during a TV interview, lashed out at the psychoanalysts and pharmaceutical companies that have always been Scientology’s worst enemies. According to the doctrine of the organization, a state of mental clarity can only be obtained by following its expensive courses and conducting audits, i.e. responding to orders and questions while holding two electrodes on an e-meter, a modified version of Hubbard’s patented lie detector. And since Rathbun spent hundreds of hours auditing Cruise after his divorce from Nicole Kidman, he is the one I ask the question implied in the HBO documentary: Why doesn’t Tom Cruise leave Scientology? “Because after all these years, Scientology has become a bigger mission than he is,” Rathbun replies. “Some have suggested that celebrities like Cruz and Travolta are staying because Scientology audits have created dossiers full of their deepest secrets.

, But this is not true. I’ll never tell anyone what Cruz told me, but I can tell you that’s not the reason: he’s not leaving because Scientology is his life.” After the release of the documentary, Scientology posted it on its website. freedommag.org a series of videos in which Rathbun and all the other outsiders lie while criticizing the organization. John Travolta said he wouldn’t even watch a documentary in which his Scientologist friend Spanky Taylor accuses him of failing to help her when she was separated from her young daughter and forced to do menial work by her management. But in any case, he also denies it: “I have not experienced anything that is attributed to me.” The only one who didn’t speak up was Tom Cruise, whose spokespersons have already refuted the revelations of Lawrence Wright’s book, which It’s getting clear it’s based. But it will be difficult for the star to remain silent: the fifth is released in the US at the end of July Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation and during the promotional tour, Cruise will likely be forced to explain whether his reluctance represents a clear departure from Scientology, or a confirmation of involvement that so far seems absolute.

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None of the stars who have walked past the Celebrity Scientology Center in Hollywood have the power of Tom Cruise.. Not John Travolta or Kirstie Alley, who after years of militancy remained in the role of students, but Cruz became the organization’s global ambassador, talking about Scientology with Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney, opening offices around the world and trying to recruit celebrities like Spielberg, David and Victoria Beckham, Will and Jada Smith (who later funded the school based on Hubbard’s educational methods). The only Scientologist remotely comparable to Cruz in terms of the amount of money paid into the church coffers is Nancy Cartwright, Bart’s voice in The Simpsons. But only Cruise has developed a symbiotic relationship with David Miscavige, whom the actor confidingly calls “COB”, from the chairman of the board (chairman of the board of directors, his role in the church). “They have an almost unnatural friendship,” explains Mike Rinder, who was a spokesman for Scientology until 2007. “Mickiewicz loves Cruz, Cruz treats Miscavige like God. When I saw them together, they were often dressed alike, at movie premieres they sat next to each other. with each other, and when Miscavige asked his son-in-law to build him a custom Harley-Davidson, Cruise ordered the exact same one.” While he was with Nicole Kidman, leaks claim, Cruz expressed a desire to run with her through a flowering meadow: Miscavige immediately sent dozens of people to work to master the desert near Gold Base, one of the headquarters in California. . And since it didn’t work out very well, I redid it. When Tom expressed admiration for Miscavige’s butlers, the Scientology Patrol decided to perform the same service at the actor’s home in Telluride. A star’s apartment in Beverly Hills? This too will be restructured by the adept team. Cruz left the church for a short time, back in the days Eyes wide shut.

The exiles say that in the offices of Scientology the actor feels protected: parishioners are ordered not to talk to him and not to disturb him.. Perhaps Cruz is not fully aware of the abuses attributed to the organization. For example, Sea Org militants who were Scientologists were “invited” as children to sign contracts promising to serve the organization for a billion years and that they would be paid as little as 40 cents an hour for a grueling work shift. He may not even be aware of the existence of the California prison where, according to the documentary, Mickiewicz locked up rebellious executives: The Hole, a room without chairs or beds, where they eat standing up and sleep among ants on the floor, and where the air conditioner is removed in summer. Mike Rinder says he was locked up there for two years, during which he was released from time to time to come back and publicly defend Scientology. “I think Tom knows enough, although he probably saw very little with his own eyes,” she tells me. “But I think, first of all, that he sincerely believes that he is fighting with Miscavige for the salvation of every person in the galaxy, according to the teachings of Hubbard. And for this he is ready to justify even the most wrong things of Scientology, because they serve a higher purpose. It has often been suggested that Katie Holmes broke up with Cruise to prevent the possibility of their daughter Suri ending up in the Sea Org.. But Aaron Smith-Lewin, co-opted into the organization as a child, explains to me that it’s as if there were two different Scientologies: “The rules that apply to Tom don’t work for others,” he says, and points to that no one would dare to recruit little Suri into the Sea Org, just as no one did with older children adopted by Nicole Kidman, Connor and Isabella. The documentary chronicles alleged “selections” organized by Scientology to find a girlfriend for the star after breaking up with Penélope Cruz, who continued to declare herself a Buddhist despite requests to join the church. According to the reconstruction published in the American edition Vanity Fairdozens of actresses were called, and the choice fell on Nazanin Boniadi, who later became famous as a CIA agent in the series Motherland. The daughter of adherents, she was asked to leave her boyfriend, and when she refused, she was shown the protocols of checks on which he confessed to cheating on her. She was then prepared to meet Cruz. Everything went so well that she stayed with him. But one evening, when her head hurt badly, she made the mistake of asking Miscavige to repeat what she was saying: Cruz, church exiles say, was such a big insult that she was dumped. Thus, even in his sentimental affairs, the star seems to receive preference from Scientologists. Typically, when a partner leaves the church, they are declared a “suppressive person” with whom Scientologists can no longer have any contact. Instead, as Mike Rinder wrote on his blog, it looks like Cruz is not being prevented from seeing his ex-wives.

A completely different choice was forced two years ago on Sarah Goldberg, who was asked to end her relationship with her son Nick, guilty of contacting a friend who, in turn, spoke to a “suppressive”. “When I refused to do this, I myself was declared a suppressive person, and my daughter, who remained in Scientology, cut off all contact with me,” she says. “I haven’t seen her or my granddaughter since.” In her case, the reason for leaving was the policy of separating families. But there are others like director Paul Haggis, father of two lesbian daughters who left in protest of Hubbard’s homophobic doctrine.. “It’s getting clear he exposed a lot of the contradictions of Scientology,” says Rinder. “It was like a dam collapse, followed by new revelations every day. Last published Los Angeles Times, accuses Miscavige of having a private eye follow his own father, who left the church.” I wonder if Tom Cruise read this article? I wonder if he believes Los Angeles Timesor to a timely denial of Scientology.