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Ex Scientology Boss Says Tom Cruise Is Church's 'Number One Victim'

Tom Cruise has been branded the "number one victim" of the Church of Scientology by a former senior member of the church.

Cruise is arguably Scientology's most famous member, having joined the church back in the 1980s. Over the years, he has made headlines for being an outspoken advocate for the church, whose members have also included John Travolta and Elisabeth Moss. Deceased celebrities like Kirstie Alley and Isaac Hayes were also avowed Scientologists, and Alley sometimes spoke publicly about her beliefs.

Other celebrities have walked away from the church , including Laura Prepon , Leah Remini and Paul Haggis. Remini and Haggis have been publicly critical of the church since their departures. Actor Danny Masterson, who was last month sentenced to 30 years to life in prison after he was convicted on two of three rape counts , was recently expelled from the church.

The church has previously said that critics such as Remini, who left Scientology in 2013, have a "documented record of malicious lies."

Former Scientologist Mitch Brisker, who previously served as senior director and creative executive of Scientology's Golden Era Studios, has spoken about his time in the church's ranks in a recently published interview with the Daily Mail .

Brisker, who left Scientology last year, alleged in the interview that David Miscavige, the church's leader , was an "absolute control freak."

"There is not a greater control freak ever born in the existence of the human race," Brisker went on. "Everything that happens in Scientology, right down to the soap they're going to use on their luxury cruise liner is submitted to him for approval.

"I mean, he spends hundreds and hundreds of hours, so much of his week, I've been there, I've seen it, getting these CSW (Completed Staff Work) forms that's basically a proposal for approval."

Turning his attention to Miscavige's friendship with Hollywood actor Cruise, Brisker said: "They really are like separated at birth. It was almost cute to see them together. I think for Tom that's a genuine friendship and almost worship."

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However, Brisker said that Cruise stood apart for having "a real streak of goodness" about him, while he was less flattering when it came to Miscavige.

"Tom Cruise is Scientology's number one victim," Brisker said. "I know people will disagree with me about this but it's like he's living in a distorted reality. He's fully in the matrix."

According to the article, Brisker is planning to release his book, The Big Lie: How I Made an Evil Cult Look Good , in November 2024.

Newsweek has contacted representatives of the Church of Scientology and Cruise via email for comment.

Back in September, former Scientologist Remini posted a six-year-old clip in which she discussed why she believes that Cruise remains committed to the church.

In the snippet of her 2017 interview with podcaster Joe Rogan , which was shared on TikTok , Remini dismissed rumors that Cruise hasn't left Scientology because "the church has information on him." Instead, she cited the influence the religion allegedly holds in the entertainment industry and the benefits of being a member.

"It's like nothing you can imagine," she told Rogan at the time. "The amount of power they receive from this church is like nothing in Hollywood. There is no reason for them to leave this environment."

"He has all of these people to take care of his every need?" Rogan asked, which Remini claimed at the time was the case.

"Yes and there's policy on how to talk somebody," she explained. "Like, if you said, 'Go get me a coffee and I want it this temperature,' there's no 'I can't get it.' There'd be none of that kind of talk. You don't talk back, ever."

Remini went on to allege that the people who serve celebrities like Cruise must never share opinions, "make faces or gestures," or "sigh."

"If you step out of line, in any way, you are dealt with by the church," she said.

Remini then stated that while she doesn't begrudge people for having a large staff of employees, in Scientology, these workers allegedly believe they are serving someone "who is singlehandedly saving the planet" and "you deserve that kind of punishment."

"That's something different," she told Rogan. "It's an abuse that is not justified."

Former The Talk co-host Remini previously called the Mission Impossible star "evil" and said criticizing Cruise was akin to attacking the church itself. She spoke out against the Golden Globe winner again in 2022, amidst the success of Top Gun: Maverick .

"Don't let the movie star charm fool you," she posted to Twitter , now X. "Tom Cruise knows exactly what goes on in Scientology."

Remini was a Scientologist for more than 30 years after her mother joined the religion when the Emmy winner was a child. Speaking of her exit from Scientology, Remini said she had been questioning the belief system for a number of years—particularly the church's purported treatment of ex-members and leadership of Miscavige .

In August, Remini filed a lawsuit against the organization, citing "psychological torture, defamation, surveillance, harassment, and intimidation" in the civil suit. In a statement, the Church of Scientology said that Remini was "spreading falsehoods and hate speech" while having "profited handsomely from her fabrications, through the sale of hate books, hate podcasts and paid-for tabloid hate television."

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About the writer

Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on pop culture and entertainment. He has covered film, TV, music, and Hollywood celebrity news, events, and red carpets for more than a decade. He previously led teams on major Hollywood awards shows and events, including the Oscars, Grammys, Golden Globes, MTV VMAs, MTV Movie Awards, ESPYs, BET Awards, and Cannes Film Festival. He has interviewed scores of A-list celebrities and contributed across numerous U.S. TV networks on coverage of Hollywood breaking news stories. Ryan joined Newsweek in 2021 from the Daily Mail and had previously worked at Vogue Italia and OK! magazine. Languages: English. Some knowledge of German and Russian.

You can get in touch with Ryan by emailing [email protected].

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The hollowness of Tom Cruise

How Tom Cruise went from superstar to laughingstock and back again.

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Tom Cruise has spent this year flying high, literally.

At CinemaCon in April, when Mission: Impossible 7 screened its first trailer for theater owners, Cruise sent along a video intro that he’d filmed while standing on top of a biplane flying over a canyon in South Africa. It ended with him launching into a barrel roll. When he arrived at the premiere of Top Gun: Maverick in San Diego in May, he flew there in a helicopter he piloted himself , emblazoned with his own name and the title of his film.

He’s also flying high on a metaphorical level. Cruise turned 60 on July 3, and he shows no signs of slowing down. Top Gun: Maverick has made over $1 billion since it came out in May , the first film of Cruise’s career to do so and just the second film to manage the feat since the pandemic began in 2020. (The first was Spider-Man: No Way Home .)

In the pandemic era, a lot of movies are making only the most cursory appearance in theaters before they hit streaming, if they make it to theaters at all. Not Tom Cruise movies. The idea of Top Gun: Maverick premiering on streaming instead of in theaters? “Never going to happen,” Cruise said at Cannes in May , even though the completed film languished for two years before seeing the light of day. When Paramount told Cruise that Mission: Impossible 7 would play in theaters for only 45 days instead of the three months Cruise was used to, Cruise hired a lawyer .

For his efforts, Cruise is being hailed as the savior of the cinematic experience.

“Can Tom Cruise save the old-fashioned blockbuster?” asked the Telegraph .

Empire magazine described Cruise’s fight as “the battle to save cinema,” with “the biggest movie star in the world” at the vanguard.

“Cruise is here to remind us that the industry will not die on his watch. Not if he can help it,” said the LA Times . “And honestly, who among us won’t be thrilled if Cruise triumphs in life as in the movies?”

It seems clear that Cruise sincerely sees himself as the savior of the big screen, and all the jobs that depend on it. (Or at the very least, he sees himself as the savior of Tom Cruise movies appearing on the big screen.) During the pandemic, he told audiences at Cannes, he called up theater owners to say , “Please, I know what you’re going through. Just know we are making Mission: Impossible , and Top Gun is coming out.” In December 2020, leaked audio footage from the set of Mission: Impossible 7 showed Cruise upbraiding crew members who violated Covid social distancing policies.

“They’re back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us,” Cruise can be heard to shout on the footage . “Because they believe in us and what we’re doing. I’m on the phone with every fucking studio at night, insurance companies, producers, and they’re looking at us and using us to make their movies. We are creating thousands of jobs, you motherfuckers.”

“That’s what I sleep with every night,” Cruise concluded: “the future of this fucking industry!”

By now we should know: Tom Cruise is the hero of a movie that never ends. It’s one where he always, always saves the day.

That wasn’t always the case. Cruise’s stock plummeted in the 2000s after Oprah’s couch and Brooke Shields’ antidepressants . Yet today, Cruise is once again considered a bankable and iconic star. He is no longer a publicity liability for a movie studio.

There’s only one thing that Cruise might not be able to save. That’s the nagging, persistent sense that if the movie were ever to stop, when the lights came up, there would be nothing left of Tom Cruise at all.

“Cruise’s own laugh,” concluded Alex Pappademas in the New Yorker this May, “is the best Tom Cruise impression you’ve ever heard.”

But who says the movie ever has to stop?

Tom Cruise saves chivalry

“I like treating a woman the way that she deserves to be treated.” Tom Cruise to Oprah Winfrey, 2005 .

Here’s an oddity in the latest spree of killer Tom Cruise publicity: For once, the press is really into the way he’s interacting with women.

Over the course of his Top Gun press tour, Tom Cruise has been handed one positive headline after another for his chivalrous habit of taking charge of all ladies present, from Kate Middleton to his co-stars. If there is a woman in the same space as he is, Cruise will escort her up and down stairs and through doorways, present her to the camera, and make sure she is taken care of. It makes for incredible press. In her coverage of Cannes, gossip maven Elaine Lui remarked on how carefully Cruise looked after Top Gun co-star Jennifer Connelly. “I’m told he was never not attentive,” Lui wrote , “always focused on making sure she was looked after, never not ready with a hand to guide her from one place to another, never missing an opportunity to talk about how spectacular she looked, seemingly enthralled by her so that the cameras would pick up on his eyeline and transfer their focus to her.”

This display of “chivalry,” Lui concluded, was “very Tom Cruise.”

Chivalry is part of the old-fashioned action-hero masculinity Tom Cruise has long represented: the hero with the square jaw and faultless manners, kind and attentive to everyone around him. It’s also been central to Tom Cruise’s personal mythology for a long time, in both good ways and bad.

On the good side, Cruise used to be in the press on a regular basis for rescuing regular people: saving a family from a burning sailboat; getting the victim of a hit-and-run to the hospital and then paying her medical bills. Every actor who’s ever worked with him seems to have a Tom Cruise story about him making them some impossibly thoughtful gesture or gift .

On the bad side, quoth Elaine Lui , “Remember how he used to ‘present’ Katie Holmes?”

Cruise’s 2005 marriage to Katie Holmes was marked by its public displays of affection. Cruise was constantly presenting Holmes to the camera, cuddling up to her in public, proclaiming his love for her in ever more enthusiastic ways. Even before he jumped up and down on Oprah’s couch and sent his career into a precipitous downslide, he told Oprah that he covered a hotel room in rose petals for Holmes, and that he took her on a motorcycle ride on the beach.

“I’m a romantic, okay?” Cruise said at the time. “I like treating a woman the way that she deserves to be treated.”

Romantic or not, that marriage also represented a low point in Cruise’s professional life. In the wake of his couch moment with Oprah, Cruise’s popularity plummeted, his reputation took a hit, and he almost lost the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Then came the enormous and damaging wave of publicity in 2012, when Katie Holmes divorced Cruise. Stories rolled out by the day: that Holmes had planned the divorce for two years in order to make sure she would retain custody of the couple’s daughter, Suri; that she had to orchestrate the whole thing with burner phones and secret laptops and lawyers in multiple states ; that she had done it all — developed this whole two-year master plan — because that was how badly she wanted full custody of Suri . Specifically, the story went, Holmes wanted to save Suri from Scientology.

Cruise has since worked diligently to move past the so-called TomKat years. He’s been so effective that all his gentlemanly gestures on his current press tour tend to read as charming, not creepy. But there’s a clear and strong connection between Cruise’s love of chivalry then and his love of chivalry now. They are part and parcel of what appears to be a driving force behind Tom Cruise’s quest to be a hero, win the girl, and save the world: Scientology.

Tom Cruise saves mankind (from thetans)

“That’s what drives me: is that I know we have an opportunity to really help, for the first time, effectively change people’s lives. And I am dedicated to that. I am absolutely, uncompromisingly dedicated to that.” Tom Cruise, Scientology recruitment video, 2004 .

The controversial Church of Scientology, founded by the science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard in 1953, appeals to the sort of worldview Cruise embodies. The world is under attack from evil forces, Scientology teaches, and all that stops them is one good man who’s not going to let petty rules get in his way.

Scientology is also, despite the number of celebrities it boasts among its ranks, a publicity liability. It’s widely suspected of being a pyramid scheme at best and at worse alleged to be an abusive cult profiting from forced labor and human trafficking , according to lawsuits and reports from former members. Its central cosmology, which teaches that human beings are plagued by immortal alien souls called thetans brought to Earth by the galactic emperor Xenu billions of years ago, is ripe for mockery.

The reporting that exists on Cruise’s connection to the church is both lengthy and damning. In September 2012, Vanity Fair published an exposé by Maureen Orth on the way Cruise outsourced management of his romantic life to the church. Tony Ortega, the closest thing there is to a beat reporter on Scientology, has a dedicated Tom Cruise tab on his website. In 2013, celebrated New Yorker reporter Lawrence Wright expanded his existing Scientology reporting into the book Going Clear , which prominently delved into Cruise’s status in the church. In 2015, Going Clear was adapted into an Emmy-winning HBO documentary by the director Alex Gibney, again featuring plenty of Cruise stories. The story they told is dramatic, and it plays heavily on Cruise’s apparent understanding of himself as a savior figure. (The Church of Scientology has strongly denied all these accounts , describing them as lies from disgruntled former members and journalists with grudges.)

Cruise joined the Church of Scientology during his first marriage to Scientologist Mimi Rogers, after Top Gun had already made him a star. According to now-defected former church officials, allegedly he began to drift away from active practice during the ’90s and his marriage to Nicole Kidman, only to drift back as that marriage foundered in the late ’90s. The clincher came, those former Scientologists say in Going Clear , when Cruise said he wanted to tap Kidman’s phone , and the Church of Scientology obliged.

Keeping Cruise happy apparently became a priority for the Church of Scientology. When Cruise needed a new love interest, the church reportedly recruited a young member for the job , gave her a makeover to Cruise’s specifications, and then broke up with her for him after he tired of her. When the woman told a friend what had happened to her, the church reportedly sentenced her to months of menial labor in punishment.

Around the same time that Cruise was making his grand return to the church, he fired his longtime Hollywood publicist, allegedly because she told him to stop talking about Scientology so much when he was on the publicity trail for The Last Samurai . He brought on his Scientologist sister to manage his image instead.

As Cruise was becoming more and more committed to the church, the tabloid industry was beginning to go rabid . By 2004, Us Weekly had gone from monthly trade magazine to weekly gossip rag, pitting itself against People magazine. In Touch Weekly, Life & Style Weekly, and OK! had all emerged. These magazines thrived on an endless diet of outrageous celebrity soundbites, and as Tom Cruise made the publicity rounds for The War of the Worlds , he kept offering them up, one after another.

“Some people, well, if they don’t like Scientology, well, then, fuck you,” he told Rolling Stone . “Really. Fuck you. Period.”

Citing Scientology’s distrust of psychiatry, Cruise criticized Brooke Shields for taking antidepressants to treat her postpartum depression, and then told Matt Lauer he was being “glib” when Lauer suggested he might have overstepped his bounds.

Cruise’s public behavior became more and more erratic. On the same War of the Worlds publicity tour, Cruise infamously jumped up and down on Oprah’s couch, enthusiastically declaring his love for Katie Holmes.

Holmes seemed to be getting caught up in the Scientology swirl herself. A W magazine profile of Holmes saw her conduct an interview with a “Scientology chaperone,” who prompted Holmes with phrases about how much she adored Cruise when she seemed to fumble for words.

The spree of outré quotes took their toll. In 2006, one report found that between the spring and summer of 2005, Cruise fell from 11th most-liked celebrity in the US to 197th .

Fox News predicted the end of Cruise’s career. “It will be all but impossible now for a new generation of film fans to see past his erratic public behavior, the Oprah couch shenanigans, the decrying of psychiatry and now the rejection of Catholicism for a religion invented by a science-fiction writer,” they opined .

Cruise, seeing the writing on the wall, veered away from talking about his religion during his movie publicity tours. But for the next 10 years, Scientology would continue to haunt his public image.

In 2008, a video leaked to the press that was reportedly a Scientology conversion effort, filmed in 2004 . It featured Cruise glassy-eyed and grinning in a black turtleneck, talking about all the ways Scientology has changed his life. “Being a Scientologist, when you drive past an accident, it’s not like anybody else,” he explains. “You know you have to do something about it.”

“Let me put it this way,” said Gawker, which broke the news of the video : “if Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch was an 8 on the scale of scary, this is a 10.”

In 2012, the Cruise-Holmes divorce cracked open the door of Tom Cruise Scientology stories. A host more came pouring out — and not just in the tabloids, but in legacy print magazines and prestige cable shows: Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, the Village Voice, HBO.

According to former Scientology officials, the Church has continued to manage Cruise’s life. Reportedly, it’s granted him the full benefits of its more unsavory enterprises, including the Church’s alleged use of slave labor .

Former Scientologist John Brousseau says the church has custom-built luxury vehicles and sound systems for Cruise and provides the staff who manage his many homes. Because this labor is provided by the Church, it’s done through Sea Org, the Scientologist association that’s been accused of human trafficking and forced labor . ( The Church has described these claims as “both scurrilous and ridiculous.”) According to Ortega , Sea Org members who worked on Cruise’s property “were paid only about $50 a week by the church, even though their hours could reach 100 a week.” Cruise has a net worth estimated at $600 million .

The picture painted of Cruise by former members of the church is not flattering. They tend to describe Cruise as a well-meaning man who, fundamentally, is not curious, and who is happy to have beautiful things handed to him without looking at their cost. Scientology is attractive to Cruise, in this account, because it makes his life easier while simultaneously flattering his ego with the belief that he is a hero.

But as damning as those stories are, they have largely faded out of public memory. In the 10 years since his divorce from Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise has been working hard to change the narrative.

Can Tom Cruise save Tom Cruise?

“People can create their own lives. … I decided that I’m going to create, for myself, who I am, not what other people say I should be. I’m entitled to that.” Parade, 2006 .

Cruise is currently experiencing a late-career renaissance. Cannes Film Festival feted him in May , awarding him an honorary Palme d’Or and marking the occasion with a red carpet air show. The press loves him again. Top Gun: Maverick is a major success, and the next slew of Mission: Impossible films are bound to be as well.

He’s even rumored to have a new girlfriend. If, as the tabloids claim, Cruise actually is (or was) dating his Mission: Impossible co-star Hayley Atwell , she would be his first public girlfriend since his divorce from Holmes 10 years ago.

So did he do it? How did Tom Cruise go from America’s 197th favorite celebrity to a bankable superstar once again?

The answer seems to be deceptively simple: He kept working, and he stopped talking — about Scientology, and about almost everything else too.

Cruise’s PR nadir came during a period of oversharing. Since then, he’s become known for his intense desire for privacy. “When was the last time paparazzi captured Tom Cruise on the street or anywhere but a film set or premiere?” wondered the New York Post in May 2022 . He heavily restricts the questions journalists are allowed to ask him before he agrees to an interview, and both his religion and his family life tend to be off-limits.

Meanwhile, Cruise has kept making movies. Tropic Thunder in 2008 and Rock of Ages in 2012 together proved he had a sense of humor. Edge of Tomorrow in 2014, which saw Cruise ceding much of the spotlight to co-star Emily Blunt, proved he knew how to share the screen with another star. And the Mission: Impossible franchise has churned out hit after reliable hit. “I can attest that I am alarmed at the extent to which I suddenly love Tom Cruise,” admitted GQ entertainment editor Ashley Fetters in 2015 , as Cruise publicized Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation .

Cruise has also benefited from the current cultural shame surrounding the tabloid culture of the 2000s. As the world agrees that tabloid targets like Britney Spears were hard done by in the heady, tacky days of Y2K, everything from the era has been painted with the same shade of remorse. Vilifying Tom Cruise for jumping on Oprah’s couch can feel like the same toxic impulse that led to a decade of mocking Spears for having her mental breakdown in public, even though what Cruise has been accused of abetting within the Church of Scientology is far worse than anything Spears has ever been accused of.

In most ways, this strategy has been successful. The tabloid spectacle of Tom Cruise, Scientologist has been covered over by four decades of hard work from Tom Cruise, one of the last great movie stars .

But it’s not clear that Cruise can ever again reach the heights of public adoration he enjoyed in 2003. There’s a persistent strangeness around Tom Cruise’s image that has never quite resolved itself, a sort of falseness that he’s never been entirely able to weed out. It’s a falseness that’s rooted not in his Scientology but in his movie star core. From the beginning, the world has refused to believe Tom Cruise when he breaks out his giant movie star smile. It especially refuses to believe him when he laughs.

In an early pan of 1983’s Risky Business , Cruise’s breakout film, New York magazine took aim at the young star’s mannerisms. “Cruise has a slight, undeveloped voice and a nervous smile, which he relies on whenever the script reveals one of its innumerable holes,” the review ran .

In HBO’s Going Clear , footage of Tom Cruise laughing in his Scientology recruitment video plays while one ex-Scientologist declares, “Scientologists are all full of shit.”

A 2004 Rolling Stone profile devoted paragraph after paragraph to the oddness of “the famous Tom Cruise laugh.”

“It comes on just fine, a regular laugh by any standards. You will be laughing too,” wrote Neil Strauss . “But then, when the humor subsides, you will stop laughing. At this point, however, Cruise’s laugh will just be crescendoing. And he will be making eye contact with you.”

It’s as though there’s a hollowness at the center of Cruise’s image, some sort of vacancy that he is forever restlessly seeking to fill. As though if he can only save enough people, enough industries, enough worlds — maybe then, at last, he can finally be whole. But can anyone, even Tom Cruise, do that much saving?

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(CNN) -- Tom Cruise expounds on his beliefs in Scientology in a 2004 video that made its way onto the Internet this week.

Tom Cruise appears with his wife, Katie Holmes, at a movie premiere earlier this month.

"I think it's a privilege to call yourself a Scientologist, and it's something you have to earn," Cruise says at the beginning of the video.

Cruise says he's "driven ... by the opportunity to really help, for the first time, change people's lives. I'm absolutely, uncompromisingly dedicated to that."

The video was shown at a 2004 Scientology ceremony honoring Cruise for his humanitarian work. Church of Scientology officials said it can be viewed at any of its churches, but it created a stir this week when what the church calls a pirated and edited version appeared on YouTube.

"The Cruise Indoctrination Video Scientology Tried To Suppress" is the title of gawker.com's presentation.

Cruise talks over a repetitive guitar-riff soundtrack, and appears to be answering questions, though an interviewer is not seen or heard.

A second part of the video, made available to CNN by the publisher of a new unauthorized biography of Cruise, shows Cruise accepting Scientology's Freedom Medal of Valor award and exchanging military-like salutes with Scientology chairman David Miscavige to audience applause. The publisher denies leaking other parts of the video to the Web.

In the video by the publisher, Cruise also salutes a portrait of L. Ron Hubbard, cited on the church's Web site as the founder of "the only major religion founded in the 20th century."

• Author defends book on Cruise
• Review: New Cruise biography comes up empty

Hubbard's biography cites his accomplishments as everything from mariner and horticulturalist to author and humanitarian.

In the video, Cruise puts emphasis on the latter role.

A Scientologist "has the ability to create new realities and improve conditions," Cruise says.

On its Web site, the Church of Scientology highlights its humanitarian work, from anti-drug campaigns in places from Minnesota to Taiwan to teacher training in India.

The Web site defines Scientology as "the study of truth." Cruise embraces that in the video.

"If you're a Scientologist, ... you see things the way they are," Cruise says.

He also says he finds peace in the religion.

"The more you know as a Scientologist, you don't become overwhelmed by it," according to Cruise.

The unauthorized biography of Cruise is by author Andrew Morton. A Cruise spokesperson and the Church of Scientology have disputed the book, saying Morton did not seek their comment.

"Accuracy and truth were not on Morton's agenda," according to a church statement.

Morton denies that and says Cruise, who he calls "a towering figure on the international scene," and his faith are worthy of scrutiny.

CNN's Brad Lendon, David Mattingly and Don Lemon contributed to this report.

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Seth Rogen Reveals Tom Cruise Tried to Pitch Him and Judd Apatow on Scientology in Resurfaced Clip

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Seth Rogen is recalling an experience that could have ended up super badly.

The “Fabelmans” star detailed in a newly resurfaced 2021 SiriusXM interview with Howard Stern that Tom Cruise tried to pitch Scientology to him and Judd Apatow in 2006. According to Rogen, Cruise compared the media treatment of Black supremacist, anti-Semitic religious leader Louis Farrakhan to how Scientology is marred in the press.

“A few hours into the meeting, the Scientology stuff comes up,” Rogen recalled of the past discussion with Cruise. “He said, ‘I think the pharmaceutical industry is making me look bad. You should see what they do to my friend Louis Farrakhan.'”

Rogen continued, “I’ll never forget the wording he used: ‘It’s like with Scientology. If you let me just tell you what it was really about, just give me like 20 minutes to, like, really just tell you what it was about. You would say no fucking way. No fucking way.’ I remember being like, the wording was like, is that a good thing to be saying?”

The “Superbad” co-writer added that he and Apatow looked at each other during the “very loaded moment” and hoped they would be able to “come out of this” without repercussions from turning down Scientology.

“I don’t know if I am — I’m generally a weak-willed, weak-minded person — I would assume on the grand scale of people. If they got him, what chance do I have?” Rogen said. “Thank God Judd was like, ‘I think we’re good, let’s just talk about movies and stuff.’ Woof. Dodged that bullet.”

The SiriusXM clip has been making the rounds on social media after 2023 Golden Globes host Jerrod Carmichael joked that the three Golden Globes Cruise returned should be traded in for “the safe return” of Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, who has not been seen publicly for 15 years.

Cruise previously returned his three Golden Globes in 2021 in protest of the lack of diversity in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Globes host Carmichael said during the 2023 show, “Backstage, I found these three Golden Globes awards that Tom Cruise returned. Look, I’m just the host briefly, or whatever, but I have a pitch: Maybe we take these three things and exchange them for the safe return of Shelly Miscavige.”

David Miscavige was the best man in Cruise’s wedding with Katie Holmes. Former Scientology member and current activist Leah Remini filed a missing persons report for Shelly Miscavige in 2013.

“In 2013, after I left Scientology, I filed a missing person’s report with the LAPD on Shelly,” Remini  tweeted in November 2022. “By the time I filed the report, it had been nearly eight years since I had seen or heard from Shelly. Hours after I filed the missing person’s report, the case was closed, and the LAPD announced to the press that they had found Shelly.”

Remini continued, “When I asked where Shelly was, Tommy Davis, Tom Cruise and David Miscavige’s henchman told me, ‘You don’t have the fucking rank to ask about Shelly.’ I was subjected to months of cruel interrogations and reprogramming for the ‘high crime’ of asking where Shelly was.”

Following the Globes, Remini tweeted, “Thank you Jerrod Carmichael ! Where is Shelly??”

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How Tom Cruise Got Us to Forget About His Scientology Ties

By Jon Blistein

Jon Blistein

There are movie stars and then there is Tom Cruise . Forty years a star, enough classics to make listing even a few here pointless, and, now, someone who can stake a legitimate claim to saving Hollywood (or at least jolting some life into that lazy, bloated monstrosity). Last year’s Top Gun: Maverick , with its millions at the box office, helped rescue the movies and movie theaters from the brink of Covid-19 and streaming. This year’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One , the seventh and ostensibly penultimate installment of the secret agent series, should reach similar heights. Tom Cruise is as big as he’s ever been — a feat as staggering as any Ethan Hunt stunt. 

And yet, none of it’s ever really caught up with Cruise, let alone dragged him down. Even Alex Gibney, who directed the damning Scientology doc Going Clear (based on Lawrence Wright’s book of the same name), admitted to Rolling Stone recently that he was “surprised” Cruise had avoided any kind of reckoning.  

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It’s easy to let one’s imagination run wild with known unknowns (just ask Donald Rumsfeld — or don’t, actually); but the thing is, there’s already a lot we do know about Tom Cruise and Scientology. It’s not some nasty secret stashed away. It barely qualifies as dirty laundry at this point. We’ve had years of tell-alls, exposés, memoirs, documentaries, lawsuits, even one unforgettable episode of South Park . At the most recent Oscars and Golden Globes, where Top Gun: Maverick was fêted with multiple nominations (and even won an Academy Award for Best Sound), hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Jerrod Carmichael both joked about it . They weren’t even subtle or winking, like the kind of jokes 30 Rock made about Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein years before the full extent of their alleged transgressions were revealed. Carmichael flat-out said the three Golden Globes Cruise returned in protest of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association should be exchanged for Shelly Miscavige — David’s wife, who hasn’t been seen in public since 2007.

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Shockingly, this didn’t exactly endear Cruise or the Church to the culture at large. A 2008 incident is telling: Hackers obtained and leaked an internal Church video that featured Cruise, full Steve Jobs mode in a black turtleneck, extolling the virtues of Scientology; there was also footage of Cruise accepting the Church’s “Freedom Medal of Valor” and saluting Miscavige. In response , the Church not only tried to wipe the video from the web, but cast doubt on its authenticity, claiming it was “pirated and edited.” By the end of that year, Cruise was apologizing to Lauer for acting “arrogant” and declining to answer interviewer questions about Scientology. 

The first half of the 2010s saw more bad press with the release of Wright’s book and Gibney’s doc, as well as the high-profile defection of Leah Remini . Cruise even endured some self-inflicted wounds after filing a defamation suit against the tabloid Life & Style , which had run a story claiming Cruise had abandoned his daughter, Suri, with ex-wife Katie Holmes. In a 2013 deposition , he was forced to admit that Scientology had played a role in his divorce from Holmes, and that Holmes told him she wanted to protect their daughter from the Church. (The lawsuit ultimately settled out of court.) 

Action flicks have always been a core component of the Cruise oeuvre; but after a versatile first 20 years as an actor, his focus narrowed on them in the 2000s, and since then, that focus seems to have only hardened into a raison d’être . There’s little doubt Cruise loves these kinds of movies and the work that goes into not only doing the stunts, but building the characters and stories to make those set pieces worthwhile. But “Tom Cruise, Action Hero” is also an appealing prospect and PR win: If you’re an organization beset by controversy and accusation, why wouldn’t you want your poster boy constantly saving the world?

But action flicks have suited Cruise similarly well in this era of muted public association with Scientology. Amidst the ceaseless rise of green screen tech and CGI tricks, and the Marvel-ization of blockbuster cinema, Cruise remains one of the crazy, blessed few still willing to throw himself out of a plane in service of the noble causes of storytelling and entertainment. That willingness to fully embody Ethan Hunt or Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is a great way to make people not necessarily forget, but stop worrying so much about L. Ron Hubbard, or Xenu, or Shelly Miscavige. Or from wondering, when was the last time Tom Cruise saw his daughter? 

It certainly helped, too, that whenever Cruise went out to promote one of his new movies, he was never asked about any of that. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation came out just a few months after Gibney’s Going Clear in 2015, and there’s nothing in the press cycle to suggest the doc was ever broached with Cruise on record. (One reporter got a very generic comment from Cruise the following year at the London premiere of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back , the actor calling Scientology a “beautiful religion” and “something that has helped me incredibly in my life.”) Instead, in these heavily moderated interviews and red carpet chats, he mostly talked about The Movies — his current movie, his next movie, his old movies, other people’s movies, and, maybe his favorite topic of all, the process of making movies.

Even at the height of his public association with Scientology, The Movies were like a kind of religion for Cruise. In 2002, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences needed someone to validate the existence and value of film and the film industry after 9/11, it called on Cruise , and he delivered. You can see shades of it as far back as 1984 , two years before his introduction to Scientology, in the way he discusses movies as a vehicle for betterment and serenity: “I’m interested in my personal growth, what’s going to make me happy. Not how much money am I gonna make, not what film is gonna really make me more visible.”

But without the pandemic, Cruise’s embrace of The Movies as his public-facing religion may not have reached such a full expression. What he says about The Movies hasn’t really changed that much, but now it’s shot through with the aura of the savior. With that irrepressible conviction and charisma, he has that preacher’s ability to turn repeated platitudes into mantras or prayers. (Seriously, his reliance on the bit about how, ever since he was four he wanted nothing more than to make movies and travel the world , has arguably surpassed Lady Gaga/ 100-people-in-a-room levels of ridiculousness — and yet it’s still kinda charming). And what other way is there to look at Cruise’s stunt work than the fearless devotions of a man willing to martyr himself for the thing he loves?

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As for the rest of us, we seem to have reached a cordial stalemate with Cruise. We’ve delayed his reckoning — maybe forever, maybe only for now — allowed him to float above the level of a Mark Wahlberg, or worse, a Mel Gibson. And that’s because, as much as Tom Cruise, Action Hero and Savior of the Movies is good PR, it’s also who he is, who he’s always been. Despite everything else he believes, he still believes in The Movies.

There’s a famous tidbit about how Thomas Cruise Mapother IV spent a year in seminary school as a teenager before he started acting. Tom Cruise has always insisted Thomas Mapother was never actually close to becoming a priest, but the episode still encapsulates the zealous streak in his character, an irrepressible yearning for knowledge and understanding, his belief in, or need for, a higher calling or power. And before he found an outlet for all that in Scientology, he found it in acting and making movies. It’s still there. The proof is everywhere, even when he’s just looking a camera dead in the eye, smiling, and saying , “I love my popcorn. Movies, popcorn.” 

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Resurfaced video shows Tom Cruise saluting Scientology's dead founder

He received a standing ovation..

Emma Guinness

Tom Cruise is one of the world's most famous scientologists and now a video has resurfaced of the actor saluting the organisation's dead founder.

The Mission Impossible actor , now 60, can be seen wearing the Freedom Medal of Valor - an honour only he has received for his humanitarian work - as he discusses the group 's place in history.

"These are the times, people," the actor says in his impassioned speech. "These are the times we will all remember. Were you there? What did ya do?"

"I think you know that I am there for you, and I do care so very, very, very much."

"So what d'ya say?" Cruise, who appears emotional at this point adds. "Are we gonna clean this place up?"

This prompts the listening crowd to erupt into a roar of 'yeah!'

"Because we're counting on you," the actor says, before gesturing to another man on the scientology stage, who happily nods.

The actor then turns and salutes a portrait of the founder of the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, and the crowd gives him a standing ovation.

He is then embraced by the man on the stage.

As you can imagine, this went far from unnoticed on YouTube, where the video was first posted, and at the time of writing, it has been viewed over 1.5 million times since it was uploaded in 2008.

However, it's recently being doing the rounds on Reddit, and it was posted there just eight hours ago, and in that time it's garnered over 9.6K reactions.

Fans had a lot to say about the passionate speech too.

On Reddit, some compared it to something from one of Tom Cruise's film roles.

"He won the gold medal!" said one viewer. "This is like a Tupperware sales leader award ceremony from the planet Xenon."

Someone else couldn't help but joke: "Scientology teaches you that if you really want to connect with people when making a speech then play an invisible piano."

Since joining the Church of Scientology back in 1990 after he was introduced by his first wife, Mimi Rogers, Cruise has risen through the ranks to become one of its leading members.

Hubbard founded the church back in 1955 and its members believe that it will lead them on a path to true spiritual enlightenment.

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SPIEGEL Interview with Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg Actor Tom Cruise Opens Up about his Beliefs in the Church of Scientology

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Mr. Spielberg, no other film director has done more image-building for aliens than you: in your films "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) and "E.T." (1982) you describe them as loveable creatures. In your latest film, "War of the Worlds," which opens in cinemas on June 29, you have aliens from outer space attacking the world. What's the reason behind your change of heart?

Spielberg: I probably became somewhat...

Cruise: ...more daring, am I right?

Spielberg: Yes, there's something in that. I used to be the goodwill ambassador between the aliens civilizations and our own, and did everything I could to prepare the ground for a peaceful encounter. That bored me. I grew up with the science-fiction films of the 1950s and 60s, in which flying saucers attack Earth and people have to resist the aliens with all their might. So I thought: before I retire I should direct a really mean invasion from outer space.

SPIEGEL: Your film "War of the Worlds" is named after the futuristic novel of the same name by H.G. Wells, written in 1898. At the end of the novel it says that Earth is "no longer a fenced-in and safe place to live." Doesn't this sentence exactly describe the feeling that Americans have had about life since September 11?

Cruise: It describes the feeling about life all over the world. We live in a world in which we are able to communicate very quickly in many different ways, and yet we find communicating more difficult than ever. When in fact we need communication more urgently than ever, because the enemies that threaten us are universal: drugs, illiteracy and crime. We have to fight against them together. The film is a metaphor for that battle.

Spielberg: We wanted to make a film in which people join forces, across all borders and despite all their differences, in order to fight against an enemy who is not of a human nature.

SPIEGEL: But the film is set almost exclusively in the United States. Does it really describe a global catastrophe?

Spielberg: It describes a global catastrophe from a subjective point of view. The audience experiences the war from the perspective of Tom's character, from the point of view of an American docker. But we leave it in no doubt that the entire Earth is threatened.

Cruise: Of course audiences in other parts of the world will see the film through different eyes, because they bring with them other world views and political convictions. But I think the sense of fear and threat will become apparent wherever "War of the Worlds" is shown.

SPIEGEL: Aren't you afraid that audiences in some parts of the world may even applaud when they see Americans lying on the ground?

Spielberg: I wouldn't want to speculate about that. We aren't responsible if people perceive the film differently because of their ideology and their aversion to our country.

Cruise: As film-makers we are specifically working against this narrowing of the view, which can lead to the hatred of an entire country, against this xenophobic paranoia. We are concerned mainly with individuals and their actions. For instance, I think one shouldn't always talk about "the government" but about the people who are in the government. One shouldn't always generalize. But if someone hates us from the bottom of their heart, they will see exactly what they want to see in our film.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Spielberg, your plans to make a film of "War of the Worlds" date back to the early 1990s. Would you have made the film if September 11 had not happened?

Spielberg: Probably not. Wells' novel has been made into a film several times, notably always in times of international crisis: World War II had just begun when Orson Welles terrified millions of Americans with his legendary radio play version, the headlines were dominated by reports on Hitler's invasion of Poland and Hungary. When the first screen version came into the movie theatres in 1953, the Americans were very afraid of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. And our version also comes at a time when Americans feel deeply vulnerable.

SPIEGEL: Won't this film actually heighten that sense of vulnerability?

Spielberg: It probably will. On the other hand, it is hard to image us feeling even more vulnerable than we already do.

SPIEGEL: Is it legitimate for a film maker to not just make use of the real fears of an audience for a film, but actually heighten them too?

Spielberg: First of all you have to use your own fears. When I tackled "Jaws" (1975), I had to face up my own fear of water and sharks. And later that provided and excellent recipe for success again and again; because what terrified me, usually shocked audiences too.

Cruise: That's very true. After seeing the film we feared for our lives, even in the bathtub.

SPIEGEL: With "Jaws" you, Mr. Spielberg, took the fun out of bathing for millions of people. Did you never feel guilty about that?

Spielberg Not at all! On the contrary, I was impishly pleased. The reactions of the public showed me that the film worked and was touching the primeval fears of the audience. The greatest thing a film director can achieve is a film that works on a very fundamental level. Besides, I also increased the pleasure in bathing for many people: after seeing the film, they even organized little competitions on the beaches to see who dared to go furthest.

Cruise: Even my children whistle the theme of the film when they go to their diving lessons. And they haven't even seen the film!

SPIEGEL: When Hollywood's most powerful director and its greatest star get together to shoot one of the most elaborate films of all time, everyone expects a box-office hit. Does that weigh on you?

Cruise: Not at all.

Spielberg: We sleep soundly in spite of that. Ever since "Jaws" I've had to live with this pressure of people's expectations. But if I hadn't been able to stand up to it, I could never have made films like "Schindler's List" (1993), because I would have been too afraid to disappoint my audience. I have moved from the large productions that move the masses to small, personal esoteric projects -- and back again. I would like to continue to swing to and fro between the different worlds of cinema, and challenge myself and my audience afresh again and again.

SPIEGEL: Wouldn't it be a disappointment if "War of the Worlds" grossed less than "Titanic" (1998), the most successful film of all time so far?

Spielberg: It would be an honor.

Cruise: We made this film because we felt like it. Of course it should bring in the money that was put into the production. But we have only a limited influence on how successful "War of the Worlds" is ultimately going to be. Maybe there are certain people in the film business who multiply our two names and think they can calculate the box-office takings from that. But we couldn't care less about people like that.

Spielberg: I make my films first of all for myself - and second of all for those who are not good at math.

SPIEGEL: We visited one of your locations near Los Angeles and were amazed to find a fully staffed tent of the Scientology organization right next to the food tents for the journalists and extras.

Cruise: What were you amazed about?

SPIEGEL: Why do you go so extremely public about your personal convictions?

Cruise: I believe in freedom of speech. I felt honored to have volunteer Scientology ministers on the set. They were helping the crew. When I'm working on a movie, I do anything I can to help the people I'm spending time with. I believe in communication.

SPIEGEL: The tent of a sect at someone's working place still seems somewhat strange to us. Mr. Spielberg, did that tent strike you as unusual?

Spielberg: I saw it as an information tent. No one was compelled to frequent it, but it was available for anybody who had an open mind and was curious about someone else's belief system.

Cruise: The volunteer Scientology ministers were there to help the sick and injured. People on the set appreciated that. I have absolutely nothing against talking about my beliefs. But I do so much more. We live in a world where people are on drugs forever. Where even children get drugged. Where crimes against humanity are so extreme that most people turn away in horror and dismay. Those are the things that I care about. I don't care what someone believes. I don't care what nationality they are. But if someone wants to get off drugs, I can help them. If someone wants to learn how to read, I can help them. If someone doesn't want to be a criminal anymore, I can give them tools that can better their life. You have no idea how many people want to know what Scientology is.

SPIEGEL: Do you see it as your job to recruit new followers for Scientology?

Cruise: I'm a helper. For instance, I myself have helped hundreds of people get off drugs. In Scientology, we have the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. It's called Narconon.

SPIEGEL: That's not correct. Yours is never mentioned among the recognized detox programs. Independent experts warn against it because it is rooted in pseudo science.

Cruise: You don't understand what I am saying. It's a statistically proven fact that there is only one successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. Period.

SPIEGEL: With all due respect, we doubt that. Mr. Cruise, you made studio executives, for example from Paramount, tour Scientology's "Celebrity Center" in Hollywood. Are you trying to extend Scientology's influence in Hollywood?

Cruise: I just want to help people. I want everyone to do well.

Spielberg: I often get asked similar questions about my Shoa Foundation. I get asked why I am trying to disseminate my deep belief in creating more tolerance through my foundation's teaching the history of the Holocaust in public schools. I believe that you shouldn't be allowed to attend college without having taken a course in tolerance education. That should be an important part of the social studies curriculum.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Spielberg, are you comparing the educational work of the Shoa Foundation with what Scientology does?

Spielberg: No, I'm not. Tom told you what he believes in, and after that I told you what I believe in. This is not a comparison between the Church of Scientology, the Shoa Foundation and the Holocaust. I was only showing you that some of us in Hollywood have set out to do more than just be actors or directors. Some of us have very personal missions. In Tom's case, it's his church, and in my case, it's the Shoa Foundation, where I'm trying to help other people learn about the mortal dangers of pure hatred.

SPIEGEL: How do you set about doing that?

Spielberg: I think that the only way we're going to teach young people not to kill each other is by showing them the reports by the survivors of the Holocaust -- so that they can tell them in their own words man's inhumanity to man. How they were hated. How they were displaced from their homes. How their families were wiped out and how by some miracle they themselves survived all that.

Cruise: How did the Holocaust start? People are not born to be intolerant of others. People are not born bigots and racists. It is educated into them.

Spiegel: Mr. Cruise, as you know, Scientology has been under federal surveillance in Germany. Scientology is not considered a religion there, but rather an exploitative cult with totalitarian tendencies.

Cruise: The surveillance is nothing like as strict anymore. Any you know why? Because the intelligence authorities never found anything. Because there was nothing to find. We've won over 50 court cases in Germany. And it's not true that everyone in Germany supports that line against us. Whenever I go to Germany, I have incredible experiences. I always meet very generous and extraordinary people. A minority wants to hate -- okay.

SPIEGEL: There is a difference between hate and having a critical perspective.

Cruise: For me, it's connected with intolerance.

SPIEGEL: In the past, for example when "Mission: Impossible" (1996) came out, German politicians called for a boycott of your movies. Are you worried that your support for Scientology could hurt your career?

Cruise: Not at all. I've always been very outspoken. I've been a Scientologist for 20 years. If someone is so intolerant that he doesn't want to see a Scientologist in a movie, then he shouldn't go to the movie theater. I don't care. Here in the United States, Scientology is a religion. If some of the politicians in your country don't agree with that, I couldn't care less.

Spiegel: Do you think "War of the Worlds" is a religious movie? H.G. Wells praised the wisdom of the creator for creating even bacteria, because in his story the microbes are the ones who finally finish off the aliens. The 1953 movie version even moved the final showdown inside a church.

Spielberg: I think people will either find their personal beliefs confirmed, or they won't. But in particular, they'll be scared and duck under their seat and say afterwards that it was a great experience. We both consciously decided not to end this movie inside a church, a synagogue or a mosque.

Cruise: It's simply not that kind of story.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Cruise, Mr. Spielberg, thank you very much for this interview.

Cruise lauds Scientology in Web video

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Jerrod Carmichael Mocks Tom Cruise for Returning Golden Globe Trophies: ‘Let’s Exchange Them’ for Shelly Miscavige’s Return

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Jerrod Carmichael roasted Tom Cruise during the Golden Globes , tackling the actor’s decision in 2021 to return his three Golden Globe awards in protest of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Carmichael was introducing presenters Glen Powell and Jay Ellis, Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” co-stars, when he appeared on stage with three trophies in his hands.

“Hey, guys backstage I found these,” Carmichael said. “[It’s the] three Golden Globe awards that Tom Cruise returned. I’m just a host briefly, or whatever, but I have a pitch I think. Maybe we take these three things and exchange them for the safe return of Shelly Miscavige.”

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Cruise’s three Golden Globe wins came for “Jerry Maguire” (actor in a comedy or musical), “Magnolia” (supporting actor), and “Born on the Fourth of July” (actor in a drama). The actor boasts four additional Golden Globe nominations for “The Last Samurai” (actor in a drama), “Tropic Thunder” (supporting actor), “A Few Good Men” (actor in a drama), and “Risky Business” (actor in a comedy or musical).

Watch Carmichael’s takedown in the video below.

#GoldenGlobes host Jerrod Carmichael makes a dig at Scientology: "Backstage, I found these three Golden Globe awards that Tom Cruise returned…I think maybe we take these three things and exchange them for the safe return of Shelly Miscavige." https://t.co/m069JEKekW pic.twitter.com/fw25ng5nU2 — Variety (@Variety) January 11, 2023

Thank you Jerrod Carmichael! Where is Shelly?? #GoldenGlobes2023 #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/Ns81BG7iq0 — Leah Remini (@LeahRemini) January 11, 2023

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Judd apatow mocks tom cruise’s height, scientology relationship in dga awards monologue.

Apatow, who served as host for Saturday's show, said of Cruise, "The only thing he seems to be afraid of is co-parenting and antidepressants."

By Kirsten Chuba

Kirsten Chuba

Events Editor

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Judd Apatow let loose on Tom Cruise during his DGA Awards monologue on Saturday night, roasting the superstar on everything from his height to his commitment to Scientology.

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The director noted how when Cruise jumped up and down on the couch while on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005, everyone thought, “‘What a lunatic.’ Now he drives a motorcycle off a cliff and then BASE jumps, and we’re all like, ‘Tom’s fine.'”

“Tom is not fine, something is wrong right now,” Apatow said. “Someone needs to explain something to him called CGI — you don’t need to do the stunts. They look exactly the same when you do them on the greenscreen.” He jokingly told Cruise that at the end of Thelma and Louise, they didn’t actually drive off a cliff, declaring, “You’re 60, calm down.”

He then shifted to Cruise’s famous relationship with the Church of Scientology, saying, “Every time he does one of these new stunts it does feel like an ad for Scientology, it really does. I mean, is that in Dianetics ? Because there’s nothing about jumping off a cliff in the Torah? The only thing he seems to be afraid of is co-parenting and antidepressants,” to some audience gasps. “Do you think if Tom Cruise took antidepressants he’d be like, ‘I’m not jumping off of a fucking motorcycle on a cliff? Why do I even work? I’m rich!'” Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski (who was nominated for the night’s top prize) and producer Jerry Bruckheimer were present for the monologue, though the star himself did not attend the show after appearing at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon earlier in the week.

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Did Tom Cruise Ditch Scientology? Here's Why We Think He Didn't

W hen it comes to stars involved with Scientology , no one comes to mind quite like Tom Cruise. For that reason, when reports emerged that he may have left the controversial religion, it certainly came as a surprise. However, we doubt an exit ever happened. 

Murmurings of Cruise's departure from the Church of Scientology began back in July 2021, when The Sun revealed that he hadn't been seen at Britain's Scientology headquarters in East Grinstead --- despite his involvement in developing the property, and the fact that he was living in the U.K. At the time, him not visiting the manor was attributed in part to him being stressed over the making of "Mission: Impossible -- Dead Reckoning Part One." However, a source also told The Sun that some felt he may have had a change in his religious beliefs. 

Two years on from The Sun's piece, questions were once again raised as to whether the actor had cut ties with Scientology. This time, sources told the  Daily Mail that he still hadn't been seen at the organization's headquarters. Considering the fact that Cruise is generally seen as the face of Scientology, that was a shock. However, a few months later, he debunked the very idea that he had left. Enter Cruise arriving at HQ in a helicopter, press in tow. 

Read more: Celebs Who Can't Stand Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise Was Photographed Flying Into The Headquarters

A few months after sources spoke to the Daily Mail about Tom Cruise's absence from the East Grinstead property, he made his triumphant return to it -- and not without a little drama. The day he was photographed flying himself (because, yes, Cruise knows how to do that)  into the property was also the day of the International Association of Scientologists' 39th anniversary bash. However, the press didn't show up to document the event. Au contraire, the  Daily Mail arrived to document a protest taking place against the religion. Catching the actor arrive to the sprawling manor in his helicopter was just the cherry on top.

If Cruise was trying to move away from the religion he's been so closely tied to over the years, showing up to such a high-profile event probably wouldn't have been his first port of call. That's only part of what made this particular appearance a clear sign that he's as devoted to Scientology as ever, though. The protest covered by the Daily Mail had been planned well in advance, and even got media attention in the weeks leading up to it. In fact, The Guardian even reported that it was set to be the biggest protest against the religion on British soil. 

For that reason, we'll go ahead and say Cruise knew there was a chance he'd be spotted entering the event, and that it would quiet anyone who thought he was planning on leaving the organization. No ex-Scientologists here!

Tom Cruise Seems To Speak Less About Scientology

While we have no doubts that Tom Cruise is still very much part of the Church of Scientology, it is worth noting that he has stopped speaking about it quite as much. In fact, a number of outlets have pointed out that while he was once known for his outspoken support of the organization, he barely acknowledges it in public these days. 

Back in the early 2000s, Cruise was so enamored with his religion that he did a Rolling Stone interview from the Scientology Celebrity Center in Hollywood. He also wasn't shy speaking about it with other stars. Case in point: in his 2021 memoir, "Yearbook," Seth Rogen recounted the time Cruise attempted to recruit him and Judd Apatow while they were at a business meeting. So, what changed? Back in 2015, a source revealed to The Wrap that his press team had started demanding that his religion not be brought up in interviews. The revelation came around the same time as the anti-Scientology documentary, "Going Clear" was released, so it's not surprising that the actor and his camp wanted to avoid bad press. However, in the years since, it seems that no-go demand has remained in place. 

So, has Cruise left Scientology? It certainly doesn't seem like it. If anything, it seems he just wants to distance himself from the controversy that comes with the church. 

Read the original article on Nicki Swift

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Judd Apatow mocks Tom Cruise’s height and Scientology in awards speech

“Every time he does one of these new stunts, it does feel like an ad for Scientology”

Judd Apatow roasted Tom Cruise over his height during a monologue at the Directors Guild Of America Awards.

The comedian and producer hosted the ceremony on Saturday (February 18), where he praised Top Gun: Maverick for concealing Cruise’s 5 foot 7 height.

• READ MORE:  30 massive movies you need to see in 2023

“The visual effects in [ Top Gun:] Maverick were so top-notch I couldn’t even see the stack of phone books Tom Cruise sat on to reach the flight controls,” Apatow said.

“That’s why he’s always jumping out of tall buildings because you can’t tell how short he is when he’s in a 100-storey building. That’s why when he’s standing on a wing of an airplane he’s always alone, he doesn’t want anyone there next to him for scale.”

@byclaytondavis Judd Apatow kills as host at the DGAAwards. No one was off limits including the Daniels and most notably, Tom Cruise. ♬ original sound – Clayton Davis

The comedian also took aim at Cruise’s incident on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005, where he famously jumped up and down on the couch.

“Remember when Tom Cruise jumped up and down on a couch and we all thought, ‘what a lunatic’. And now he rides a motorcycle off a cliff and BASE jumps and we’re all like, ‘Tom’s fine!’ Tom is not fine. Something is wrong with him. Someone needs to explain to him something called CGI.”

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Apatow added: “But every time he does one of these new stunts, it does feel like an ad for Scientology. I mean, is that in Dianetics? Because there’s nothing about jumping off a cliff in the Torah.”

Referring to the actor’s personal life, Apatow said: “The only thing he seems to be afraid of is co-parenting and antidepressants. I doubled my Prozac today just for this. I doubled it! Do you think if Tom Cruise took antidepressants, he’d be like, ‘I’m not jumping out of a fucking cliff. I’m rich.’”

While Cruise wasn’t present at the ceremony, Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski was seen unamused by Apatow’s jokes (via Variety ).

Last month, Golden Globes 2023 host Jerrod Carmichael similarly mocked Cruise over his involvement in Scientology.

At the DGA Awards, directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert were awarded the top prize for Everything Everywhere All At Once , beating Top Gun: Maverick , The Banshees Of Inisherin , The Fabelmans and Tár .

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'Anonymous' Wages Attack on Scientologists

Kim Masters

For the past several weeks, a video of Tom Cruise defending Scientology has been circulating on the Internet. When the Scientologists tried to get it taken down, an Internet group calling itself "Anonymous" said the organization was trying to limit free speech.

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Hackers target scientology web sites.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

An Internet group which calls itself Anonymous is planning a worldwide protest against the Church of Scientology this weekend. It's accusing the organization of trying to limit free speech.

NPR's Kim Masters has more.

KIM MASTERS: The fight began a few weeks ago after someone posted a video of celebrity Scientologist Tom Cruise on the Internet.

(Soundbite of Internet video)

Mr. TOM CRUISE (Actor): Being a Scientologist, when you drive past an accident it's not like anyone else. As you drive past you know you have to do something about it, because you know you're the only one that can really help.

MASTERS: The Church of Scientology said the interview was taped for its members and was copyrighted. It asked YouTube and other Web sites to take it down. Members of Anonymous saw that as an attack on freedom of speech and responded with this video posted on January 28.

Unidentified Man: We are at war with the Church of Scientology. Our sole target is the church as a corporate entity. We vow to avoid any collateral damage to any member.

MASTERS: Anonymous is a shadowy group whose members seem to see themselves either as Internet pranksters or as masked avengers. They kicked off the fight with cyber attacks that swamped some Scientology Web sites. Their next move will be lobbying for the revocation of Scientology's tax-exempt status.

Sean Cook is a member of Anonymous and regional organizer for Southern California.

Mr. SEAN COOK (Regional organizer, Anonymous): This is something new to Anonymous. This is like hard-core political activists.

MASTERS: Last week, a suspicious white powder was mailed to more than a dozen church locations, leading to evacuations and a police investigation. The powder turned out to be harmless. Cook says Anonymous didn't do it.

Mr. COOK: We have a campaign. I mean, it doesn't include this kind of tactic. I mean, some freelancer might've done it.

MASTERS: Mark Bunker is an outspoken critic of Scientology who has unwittingly become a revered voice to many members of anonymous. They call him Wise Beard Man.

In a YouTube video, Bunker warned Anonymous members to avoid destructive tactics.

(Soundbite of YouTube video)

Mr. MARK BUNKER: These are just wrong, morally and legally. And it's going to tar the entire group of you if you push for these type of things.

MASTERS: Tory Christman was a Scientologist from 1969 until 2000. When she left the church, she became a critic. And while she, too, disapproves of illegal tactics, she says the support of a computer savvy group like Anonymous is heartening to those who have left Scientology.

Ms. TORY CHRISTMAN (Former member of Church of Scientology): It feels like we've been out in this desert fighting this group one on one by ourselves. And all of a sudden this huge army came up with not only tons of people, thousands of people, but better tools. Right? And we didn't even ask them.

MASTERS: Several member of Anonymous say they had no previous connection to Scientology, but thanks to the skirmish over the Cruise video, they have studied up on the group. They object to other church positions, such as requiring members to drop contact with anyone, including family members, who the church regards as hostile. And they point out that Scientology has long been accused of playing hardball with its adversaries.

Bob Adams, vice president of the church, says Anonymous is a group of cyber criminals.

Mr. BOB ADAMS (Vice president, Church of Scientology): It's very reminiscent of days gone by and current days with the KKK, wearing masks, hiding, having secret meetings on the Internet.

MASTERS: But members of Anonymous say this feels like a turning point. One says he never expected the group to focus this seriously on any issue. Now he believes the group is on the side of the angels.

Kim Masters, NPR News.

Copyright © 2008 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Tom Cruise's Daughter Suri Is Reportedly 'Free To Talk' About Scientology As She Turns 18

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Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes ' daughter, Suri Cruise , has lived a sheltered life away from her father's Scientology beliefs and public scrutiny. However, as she turns 18, she faces the decision to either embrace fame or remain private.

According to a Scientology journalist, Suri becoming an adult in New York will also allow her the freedom to speak about her father and the church of Scientology.

Katie Holmes Has 'Safeguarded' Suri Cruise From Public Scrutiny And Scientology

Suri has enjoyed a predominantly sheltered upbringing in Manhattan, shielded from the limelight by her devoted and fiercely protective mother, Holmes.

The teenager has been mostly kept away from her father, Cruise, and his religious organization, the Church of Scientology. According to a source who spoke to Page Six , the "Mission: Impossible" star hasn't seen his daughter since 2012.

"Katie has safeguarded Suri and she's a devoted mom," the source said. "This is a girl who is a private citizen. She hasn't lived her life in public."

With Suri's eighteenth birthday around the corner, questions arise on whether she plans to return to the spotlight or maintain her private life.

At the time of Holmes and Cruise's divorce, the actress was rumored to have signed various non-disclosure agreements, potentially restricting her from discussing her marriage to Cruise and her experiences within the Church of Scientology.

However, Suri, who will attain legal adulthood in New York State as she turns 18, has the freedom to speak openly about her father and his beliefs as she was too young to sign any NDAs during her parent's divorce.

Suri Cruise Is 'Free To Talk' About Scientology If She Wants

Speaking to the news outlet, Tony Ortega , a seasoned Scientology journalist, shared: "Suri would have been too young to sign any agreement, but she will now be free to talk if she wants to and it's going to be really interesting if she has something to say."

As Cruise is one of Scientology's prominent members, possibly second only to its leader, David Miscavige, Ortega raised questions about potential repercussions that Holmes and Suri could face.

"Regular members who quit are declared 'suppressive persons (SP),' and those who stay in Scientology are told to completely cut them off," he noted. "We don't know for sure if Katie was ever declared an SP."

Ortega added, "If you are a regular church member you could be told to disconnect from your wife and daughter, but because Tom is a celebrity — he's the top celebrity — he gets to ignore all this stuff. Your average member would be kicked out, but David Miscavige can't do that with Tom."

Former Scientologists Mike Rinder and Jeff Augustine echo Ortega's concerns about Scientology's influence on familial relationships and speculate on the treatment of Holmes and Suri within the church.

Augustine told the outlet, "The situation with Suri is a larger story about Scientology and the subject of how they make people no longer useful to them or threats to them non-persons. It's like they cease to exist and that's what happened to Suri."

Rinder particularly emphasized Suri's autonomy, asserting: "Suri is not a Scientologist and never will be…she deserves love and sympathy."

Tom Cruise Admits Katie Holmes Filed For Divorce To 'Protect Suri From Scientology'

According to Page Six , during a deposition in a legal battle against tabloid magazines in November 2013, Cruise disclosed that Holmes had filed for divorce "to protect Suri from Scientology."

However, despite their estrangement, Cruise, with an estimated fortune of $600 million, committed to providing financial support to Holmes and Suri as per their divorce settlement.

He reportedly agreed to an annual payment of $400,000 until Suri reaches 18, alongside covering various expenses, including "medical, dental, insurance, education, college and other extracurricular costs."

Holmes also secured sole custody of their daughter, while Cruise retained "meaningful" visitation rights. Yet, public sightings of Cruise with his daughter have dwindled over the years, with sources suggesting Cruise has a diminishing role in Suri's life despite legal arrangements.

Tom Cruise And Katie Holmes' Marriage Was Strained Because Of Scientology

Cruise first famously professed his love for Holmes in May 2005, leaping on Oprah Winfrey's couch and yelling, "I'm in love!"

The former lovebirds reportedly tied the knot in a lavish Scientologist ceremony in Italy in 2006.

However, as time passed, insiders revealed that the "Batman Begins" actress was feeling increasingly stifled by Cruise's ties to the church of Scientology, which caused a strain in their relationship.

Six years after they tied the knot, Holmes initiated divorce proceedings, aided by her father, Martin Holmes, a powerful divorce attorney.

Employing covert tactics, including the use of burner phones, Holmes allegedly "blindsided" Cruise with the divorce filing while he filmed "Oblivion" in Iceland in June 2012.

Tom Cruise Says He 'Always Wanted To Be A Father' And 'Be There' For His Children

Growing up as the only daughter of a devoted single parent presents a stark contrast from the beginnings of Suri's life.

Born on  April 18, 2006, the teenager was initially thrust into the limelight as America's most famous baby and was even captured by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz.

In the same year of Suri's birth, Cruise confessed to Vanity Fair  that he "always wanted to be a father."

He added, "I always said to myself that my children would be able to depend on me and I would always be there for them and love them — that I'd never make a promise to my kids that I couldn't keep."

"I'm not one of those people who believe you can spoil a child with too much love. You can never give a child too much love. There's just no way," he added.

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Insiders claim tom cruise’s ‘list of conditions for his romantic partners’ has caused quite a few issues.

by Delilah Gray

Delilah Gray

Trending News Editor

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“Tom has a list of conditions for his romantic partners. One of them is they can’t have chatty friends or relatives who might go to the media,” he said, with many remembering how Khayrova’s ex-husband allegedly wasn’t afraid to air out their dirty laundry to the media.

So, summed up, he wants someone who doesn’t care about media attention, will join Scientology, be adamant about marriage, and be preferably under Cruise’s height, which is 5’7.”

The insider added that “at this point, he could be undateable” because of this tall order list.

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Brooke Shields says she's glad Tom Cruise publicly criticized her antidepressant use — he accidentally brought awareness to under-discussed mental health struggles

• In 2005, Tom Cruise criticized Brooke Shields' use of antidepressants for postpartum depression.
• At the 2024 PHM HealthFront, Brooke Shields said his comments "backfired."
• She said the controversy brought more mainstream awareness around postpartum and mental health.

In one of the most controversial moments of Tom Cruise's career , the actor criticized Brooke Shields for talking about her use of antidepressants to treat postpartum depression.

Almost 20 years later, Shields says Cruise accidentally raised awareness around the issue and drove people to fight for better treatment.

In 2005, Shields had just published her memoir "Down Came the Rain," in which she described taking Paxil, an SSRI, after the birth of her first daughter, Rowan . "I was deadened, and it terrified me because I wanted to have a baby so badly," Shields, 58, said on Wednesday at the 2024 PHM HealthFront, a two-day event for healthcare marketers and health media. "I went through IVF seven times, and so the journey was such a fraught one."

Cruise initially called Brooke Shields "irresponsible" for using antidepressants in a 2005 "Access Hollywood" interview . When he was asked to elaborate on these comments in a 2005 interview on "The Today Show," Cruise told Matt Lauer that "psychiatry is a pseudo-science" and that "drugs aren't the answer."

Promoting Scientology, Cruise opposed taking any "mind-altering antipsychotic drugs," as it goes against the religion .

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He slammed Shields for spreading "misinformation" and said "she doesn't understand the history of psychiatry" when it came to using medication.

Shields said Cruise's comments angered a lot of women

Looking back on the incident, Shields said that Cruise's comments ended up helping the cause.

"You gave women in particular — they were so angry — you gave them a reason to fight for something they didn't even know they wanted to fight for," Shields said at PHM, noting that women weren't just sticking up for her but also for themselves.

"So it actually, ironically, helped the platform because everybody was talking about it," Shields said. "It sort of backfired. Way to put it into pop culture."

Cruise later apologized to Shields

A year after his comments, Shields said, Cruise delivered a "heartfelt" apology to Shields at her house and even mailed her an annual Christmas cake for many years.

Nearly 20 years later, the conversations around postpartum and depression treatments have changed dramatically. Shields is far from the only celebrity to be open about her PPD , though she played a crucial role in advocating for more awareness around the condition.

In 2007, she testified in Congress for a bill that would require postpartum pre-screening for new mothers.

"I'm not an expert," Shields said at PHM. "I'm just a woman who's gone through that and wanted to help other women get the help that they deserve."

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Suri Cruise chats with friends in NYC days before her 18th birthday

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Suri Cruise was all smiles while out and about in New York City with friends ahead of her 18th birthday.

Crusie looked the spitting image of mom Katie Holmes while spending Sunday alongside a gaggle of her girlfriends in Soho.

The teenager, whose birthday is April 18, dressed casually cool in a red sweater with white vertical stripes, a white silk skirt and brown sandals.

She kept her dark brown hair down in loose waves, pinning her front pieces back with two hair clips.

The group seemingly stopped at a couple of shops and cafes as they embraced one of NYC’s first sunny spring days.

While it’s unclear how the teen will be spending her big birthday, it likely won’t be with her famous father, Tom Cruise.

Page Six revealed last year that Suri has been estranged  from the “Mission Impossible” star for years.

While a source told us at the time that Tom has played “no part” in his daughter’s life, another Hollywood insider told us this week that the father-daughter duo haven’t seen each other since 2012.

“Katie has safeguarded Suri and she’s a devoted mom,” the source said. “This is a girl who is a private citizen. She hasn’t lived her life in public.”

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Want celebrity news as it breaks? Hooked on Housewives?

Suri has lived a low-key lifestyle with her mother in New York ever since the “Dawson’s Creek” alum filed for divorce from Tom in 2012 — allegedly due to his involvement with Scientology.

Despite being raised in the public eye — even appearing on Vanity Fair as an infant — Holmes has since shielded her daughter from the spotlight.

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“I’m very grateful to be a parent, to be her parent. She’s an incredible person. She’s my heart,” Holmes told  Glamour  magazine in 2023.

The mother of one explained that feels the need to “protect” Suri from the limelight “because she was so visible at a young age.”

Although the teen has distanced herself from her dad, she is seemingly getting into the family business.

Page Six revealed in December 2023 that Suri inherited her parents’ acting chops, starring as the lead in her high school play.

“She was amazing,” one impressed audience member said of her portrayal of Morticia Addams in “The Addams Family: A New Musical.” 

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