Diana author names Tom Cruise as 'World Number Two in Scientology'
- World Exclusive: Contents of Andrew Morton's biography of Cruise revealed...
- and the star's fury over shocking claims
- By
JAMES TAPPER - More
by this author
- Last updated at 23:09
pm on 5th
January 2008
- Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
Star's fury over claims by Diana author Andrew Morton:
• Daughter by Katie Holmes "conceived like Rosemary's Baby"
• Nicole Kidman "feared blackmail" over sex tapes made with Scientologists
• Scientologists "planted meadown of flowers for Tom and Nicole to run
through"
• Cruise's next mission is to recruit David Beckham
Tom Cruise has become the de-facto second in command of the Church of
Scientology, according to a new biography - which makes an extraordinary attack
on the star by comparing his 20-month-old daughter Suri to the Devil's child in
the film Rosemary's Baby.
Andrew Morton's unauthorised biography claims Scientology has taken over the
45-year-old actor's life, with its officials selecting many of the staff at his
Hollywood mansion.
Cruise with Katie and Suri
The biographer of Princess Diana alleges Cruise is consulted by Scientology
leader David Miscavige on "every aspect of planning and policy" and is tailoring
his career to fit the aims of Scientology. Miscavige is said in the book to have gone to extraordinary lengths to charm
Cruise, even ordering his staff to plant a field full of wild flowers at a
Scientology base in California after Cruise had told him of his fantasy to run
through a wildflower meadow with his then newlywed wife Nicole Kidman. The relationship between the two men is so close that, according to Morton's
book, Miscavige even joined him on honeymoon in the Maldives after his wedding
to Katie Holmes in 2006. Cruise denies each of the claims vehemently, and Scientology lawyers are
believed to be drawing up a lawsuit seeking £50million in compensation from
Morton's publishers, St Martin's Press. Cruise's lawyer and close confidante Bert Fields gave a rare interview to The
Mail on Sunday to pour scorn on Morton's book, titled Tom Cruise: An
Unauthorised Biography.
He criticised a passage in which Morton claims some "fanatical"
Scientologists believed Suri Cruise was actually the result of a sperm donation
by Scientology's dead founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
Morton writes that Ms Holmes may feel she was in "the horror movie Rosemary's
Baby, in which an unsuspecting young woman is impregnated with the Devil's
child".
Mr Fields said: "It's not being published in England. The American publishers
criticised the libel laws in Britain because they require an author to tell the
truth. Well, thank God for the British libel laws."
ROYALTY: Cruise with second wife Nicole Kidman in 1992 meeting Princess
Diana, another of Morton's subjects
Cruise will not be reading the book when it is published in the United States
on January 15, Mr Fields said. "He has no intention of reading it. He's very,
very busy with a lot of things right now. "He has been told about it and naturally he knows there are a bunch of lies
about him. You can imagine what it must be like to have someone compare your
baby girl to Rosemary's Baby. Morton should be ashamed of himself.
"It's a boring, poorly researched book by a man who never talked to anyone
involved in Tom Cruise's life or anyone close to him. "There's no real independent research. He hasn't spoken to his mother, his
sister, me, Paula Wagner [Cruise's film producing partner], his agent, his
wives, David Beckham, Will Smith, Jennifer Lopez or any of the famous directors
he's worked with. Instead you've got this long, boring reference to people he
knew 30 years ago."
Morton's book paints a picture of a talented actor who tasted enormous
success at a young age and then gradually became consumed by Scientology.
He recounts how the actor was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in 1962 and
moved around North America with his parents, living in Ottawa, Canada, until the
age of 12, when his mother Mary Lee left his abusive father. Cruise excelled as a wrestler at school but took up acting seriously in his
final years in high school when he was cast in a lead role for his school's
musical Guys And Dolls. By the age of 21, he had starred in his breakthrough movie, Risky Business,
and was in the Hollywood Brat Pack, hanging out with Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe
and Sean Penn.
Cruise with Scientology leader David Miscavige in 2004
Three years later he had become a major star in Top Gun, and went on to star
in Rain Man, Born On The Fourth Of July, Mission: Impossible, Jerry Maguire and
Eyes Wide Shut. His involvement in Scientology began in 1986 when he was recruited by his
first wife Mimi Rogers, a Scientologist who gave him some literature on the
subject.
L. Ron Hubbard, a science-fiction writer, created Scientology in 1954. Its
followers have fought hard to have the system of beliefs recognised as a
religion, and its central teaching is that life's problems can be solved through
a system of oneonone counselling called "auditing", measured by an "E-meter". Courses can cost thousands, and critics make much of the doctrine of
"Thetans" - alien spirits inhabiting human bodies who have to be flushed out. Scientologists have also attracted criticism for the practice of
"disconnect", where followers are encouraged to cut off friends and family
members who do not follow Scientology. Morton claims Scientologists pursued Cruise as part of a campaign to recruit
celebrities.
The author quotes former senior member Karen Pressley as saying: "A senior
Scientology executive would be on the phone telling us that Emilio Estevez was
staying in Malibu and that we had 48 hours to speak to him and get him in for an
auditing session. There was so much heat and pressure on this it was
outrageous."
Cruise's recruitment was a coup for his wife Mimi but when their marriage
began to fail in 1990 the hierarchy sided with him, according to Morton. He quotes a former Scientologist saying: "The impetus was to help Tom Cruise
and within 24 hours they had agreed to split up."
The father of Cruise's then girlfriend Penelope Cruz is claimed to have
feared she could be drawn into a 'cult'
Morton says David Miscavige sought to rebuild Scientology's reputation,
battered by a fraud scandal in 1982.
He invited Cruise to his "desert lair" in 1989, a 500-acre resort in Hemet,
90 miles from Los Angeles, nicknamed "Gold Base". Miscavige lives there with Scientology's most devoted followers called Sea
Organisation or Sea Org.
Morton claims the base was surrounded by security cameras, with "secret plans
to rig the perimeter with homemade explosives in case of attack", as well as a
"man-made eyrie where eagle-eyed guards with high-powered rifles fitted with
telescopic sights scanned sunbaked California scrub for possible intruders".
Cruise with wife Katie and the Beckhams
According to Morton, the followers were not treated well. Miscavige, he says,
was followed everywhere by an entourage "who slavishly tape-recorded his every
utterance". Scientologists say Gold Base is simply home to their film studios and
production facilities where the organisation's literature, videos and E-meters
are made, and object strongly to Morton's characterisation of Miscavige, saying
it is based on testimony disproved in court. When Cruise met Miscavige, the two men hit it off, Morton says. He quotes
former Scientologist Jesse Prince as saying: "They were like glue, two little
people who really enjoyed each other. They laughed the same and acted the same.
They were like glove puppets, he was a big star and he was head of a religion."
After Cruise fell in love with Nicole Kidman on the set of motor-race movie
Days Of Thunder in 1990, Miscavige invited them to Gold Base, Morton says.
Miscavige indulged Cruise's whims, ordering Sea Org workers to build a tennis
court and gym to impress Cruise (facilities Scientologists say already existed). According to Morton
: "When Tom confided to the Scientology leader about the
couple's fantasy of running through a meadow of wild flowers together, his
friend apparently decided to make his dream come true. "A team of 20 Sea Org disciples was set to work digging, hoeing, and planting
wheat grass and wildflower seed near the Cruises' bungalow. "Naturally the work was regularly inspected by David and Shelley Miscavige
[his wife], who would ride over to the site on his motorbike. They were
apparently unhappy with the finished appearance and had the area ploughed over
and reseeded."
Although Scientologists deny the wildflower planting ever happened, Morton
claims to have legal affidavits from several witnesses. Morton says the indulgences came with a price, that Scientology took over the
Cruises' new home in Los Angeles where Tom employed "a plethora of nannies,
chefs, gardeners, housekeepers, and security staff.
"It was said that many were Scientologists who were carefully vetted by
Scientology officials, the procedure often taking months in order to find a
suitable candidate with the right background and attitude to work for
Scientology's poster boy. "Candidates would be interviewed on videotape by a Scientology executive
before being approved. A Scientology executive later dismissed the claim as
'preposterous'."
Scientology executives contributed to the failure of Cruise's marriage to
Kidman, Morton implies.
The author says that Cruise was asked in 1999 to do a "Potential Trouble
Source/Suppressive Person course...designed to anchor an individual's faith
while pinpointing those in his life who create problems".
Morton claims Scientologists were worried that Kidman might be a problem
because her father was a psychologist - "which automatically made her a
Potential Trouble Source" - and she had given an interview emphasising her roots
as a Catholic. "The fear was that a lukewarm Nicole could fatally compromise Tom's
commitment to his faith," Morton writes.
"Somehow Tom had to be inoculated against the virus of doubt.
"The surefire cure for scepticism was the Potential Trouble Source/
Suppressive Person course, which reinforced wavering Scientologists' loyalty
while making them more suspicious of those around them who were not members of
the faith." When Cruise decided to leave Nicole in 2000, she was worried that she might
not be able to see the two children the couple had adopted. Morton quotes a former highranking Scientologist claiming he received a call
from Kidman's lawyer Bill Beslow: "At this point Nicole hated Scientology but
was concerned for the kids. "She did not want to ruin her relationship with them. I told the lawyer if
she wants to stay with the children she will have to be quiet and not speak out
about Scientology."
In particular, Morton claims she was worried about her "audit" tapes, which
contained details of her sex life and which she feared might be leaked if she
spoke out. Morton recounts allegations that "auditing" focuses on the subject's sex
life.
He quotes Hubbard's son, Ronald De Wolf, who fell out with his father, giving
a Playboy interview: "You have complete control of someone if you have every
detail of his sex life and fantasy life on record. In Scientology the focus is
on sex. Sex, sex, sex. "The first thing we wanted to know about someone we were auditing was his
sexual deviations. All you've got to do is find a person's kinks, whatever they
might be.
"Their dreams and their fantasies. Then you can fit a ring through their
noses and take them anywhere. You promise to fulfil their fantasies or you
threaten to expose them." Morton says Karen Pressley was at Gold Base one evening when John Travolta's
sexuality was openly discussed.
He writes: "'It made my head spin,' she recalls, 'and made me realise that
the idea of confidentiality was a chimera.' As another Scientology executive
admitted bluntly, 'These files come in handy if they want to blackmail you'."
Cruise's attempts at new relationships, with actresses Penelope Cruz and
Sofia Vergara, did not work out.
Morton claims Cruz's father Eduardo "was concerned that his famous daughter
could be drawn into what he considered a cult - and, like so many others, be
lost to him and his family for ever.
"Eventually he emailed an organisation devoted to helping cult members and
their families. It was only after a long exchange of correspondence that
officials realised they were dealing with Penelope Cruz's father."
Cruise's shorter-lived relationship with Vergara included a visit to the
Scientologists' Celebrity Centre in California.
Morton claims: "It was on this trip that Sofia realised Tom was never alone.
Everywhere he went, he was surrounded by Scientologists. They were at his home,
they were in his car, they were at the restaurant. They were never short of
smiles, but she found them 'powerful and authoritarian'.
"One friend told me, 'She met his children, there is no doubt he was
auditioning her for the part of his wife.' Sofia told friends she had been
deliberately targeted not only as a possible bride for Tom, but as a
high-profile Scientology recruit who would be an alluring figurehead for a
future recruitment drive in Latin America."
Cruise's lawyer Bert Fields described the allegation as "ridiculous".
Morton claims that as Cruise has moved higher up the echelons of the Church
of Scientology he has made more and more decisions about his life and career to
simply promote his religion. The author says Germany's population of 80million made it a perfect "new
market" for Scientology, although the church is not recognised officially as a
religion there. "David Miscavige and his lieutenants were in Scientology's war room at Hemet,
planning the invasion of Germany. From time to time they were joined in their
desert bunker by Tom, who these days is the organisation's second-in-command in
all but name, involved in every aspect of planning and policy."
Morton says Cruise's current mission is to recruit David and Victoria
Beckham. The actor invited Miscavige to a Real Madrid game back in 2004 and held
a celebrity party for the couple when they moved to Los Angeles. Of the bizarre beliefs Morton ascribes to some Scientologists about Cruise's
third wife, Katie Holmes, whom the actor married in a whirlwind romance, the
author says, incredibly: "Some Sea Org fanatics even wondered if the actress had
been impregnated with Hubbard's frozen sperm.
"In her more reflective moments, Katie might have felt as if she were in the
middle of a real-life version of the horror movie Rosemary's Baby, in which an
unsuspecting young woman is impregnated with the Devil's child."
Mr Fields described the passage as "sick and bizarre".
"It's a pack of lies," he said. "The book suggests Scientologists somehow run
his career. I've represented him for over 20 years and I've never discussed his
business with David Miscavige. It's poorly researched and badly written, and
it's not really even about Tom Cruise - it's an attack on Scientology."
The Church of Scientology is incensed about a series of allegations Morton
makes about Miscavige, who took over from the religion's founder L. Ron Hubbard
at the age of 26. Elliot Abelson, general counsel for the Church of Scientology, said of
Morton: "We tried to contact him to co-operate, to give him the truth, to give
him a tour. I received nothing. "This was a pre-ordained mission to trash Tom Cruise. He didn't ask to speak
to David Miscavige and wrote some horrible things about him which are totally
untrue. No one has ever made complaints of that kind."
Mr Abelson denied the actor was "second in command".
"He is a parishioner, a well respected parishioner, but that's what he is.
The only person who runs the Church and makes policy decisions is David
Miscavige."
Mr Abelson said no decision had been taken about legal action but he added
that Scientologists may sue in Britain if the book is distributed here. "It isn't too late for St Martin's Press to pull this book," he said. |
