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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?”

In a white room, Cruise hangs upside down in midair, suspended by a harness, and types on a computer.

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 scientologist wikipedia

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.”

Cruise faces a laughing Connelly and holds her hands intimately in his own as photographers look on.

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 kisses Holmes’s cheek as she smiles out at the cameras.

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 scientologist wikipedia

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.

Cruise kisses Kidman’s cheek as she laughs and blushes.

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.

Headline: KATIE DUMPS TOM. And she wants Suri.

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.

A black-and-white-picture shows Tom Cruise, looking suave in sunglasses and a tuxedo, posing in front of a billboard for Top Gun: Maverick.

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.

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

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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Tom Cruise's Scientology Connection

Related npr stories, an ugly, public split for cruise and paramount.

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

Cruise gets a kiss from girlfriend Katie Holmes at the May 2006 Hollywood premiere of Mission Impossible III . Mario Anzuoni/Reuters/Corbis hide caption

Scientology in the Spotlight

The church of scientology and hollywood's elite, scientology vs. 'south park,' take three, hayes quits 'south park' over scientology satire, npr replay: the degrees of kevin bacon, keeping tom cruise on topic, and quiet.

The Tom Cruise story is about box office gross, odd behavior -- and, of course, the mysterious and controversial religion called Scientology. Cruise has been a Scientologist for years, but has only recently gone public with his religion. Last year, he raged against psychiatry and psychiatric drugs in an interview with Today host Matt Lauer. And he incurred the displeasure of Steven Spielberg by focusing on Scientology (and Katie Holmes) in interviews when he was supposed to be talking about War of the Worlds .

NPR's Kim Masters looked into the star's relationship with Scientology for an article that appeared in a 2005 issue of Radar magazine. Masters spoke with host Madeleine Brand about her findings -- read excerpts below:

Not many reporters take on the Church of Scientology. It's known for being quite litigious.

They have been quite hostile to media scrutiny in the past. They have now said that they're trying to be more welcoming to the press. They've taken several reporters on tours of their celebrity center here in Los Angeles. But they made it very clear that they don't like what I did because I interviewed quite a number of fallen-away Scientologists, and they feel that that just taints the journalism in the piece.

Because they had an ax to grind.

Well, they did. They're hostile to the Church of Scientology. No one is arguing that point. The [Church feels] that these fallen-away Scientologists are people who did not live up to the church's ethical standards and that what they're saying is false. Many of them, the [Church alleges], are paid to lie.

Let's go back -- tell us a little about what Scientology is and how it was founded.

Scientology was created by L. Ron Hubbard. It starts out as a self-help kind of thing where you talk about issues that are bothering you. And you are audited with an E-Meter, which is a sort of a lie detector-like device. And the [Church is] looking to remove the issues that are plaguing you. The Church of Scientology has attracted a lot of Hollywood people who are always looking for a way to have an edge and to conquer their insecurities and to clear whatever problems might be impeding them in their career.

We've known for years that [Cruise has] been a Scientologist, but it seems only recently that he's really come out as a Scientologist publicly. Why is that?

The fallen-away Scientologists say that as you move up the ranks of the church you become what they call an "operating thetan." A thetan is a spirit. And the way it works -- it's kind of complicated to explain, but 75 million years ago -- according to the story that is told -- there was an intergalactic warlord named Xenu who was faced with a serious overpopulation problem in the galaxy, and he gathered up these spirits and put them on planet Earth and then nuked them. And they then became these free-floating spirits who were brainwashed to forget what had happened to them. And again, the church disputes this version that is told by the fallen-away Scientologists, but this is their story. And these thetans, these spirits, have attached themselves -- either singularly or in clusters -- to all of us [and] are the source of many of our problems. And it is the mission of Scientology to awaken and release these thetans so that we can move forward with our lives.

And once you attain higher ranks, you have shed yourself of these thetans?

At the level that Tom Cruise said to be at, OT-VII, you are supposed to spend some time every day seeking out, auditing yourself to find these clusters of thetans and get[ting] them to move on. As you do that, your obligations to the church simultaneously are said to have expanded. You are expected to -- according to one of the Scientologists we talked to who had, again, fallen away -- you are expected to report on what you have done to spread the word about Scientology.

And how is Tom Cruise's public embracing of Scientology being received in Hollywood?

A lot of people in Hollywood feel that he has damaged himself. It hasn't been visible yet because War of the Worlds was his biggest opening ever. And many people in Hollywood do feel there's damage there and many people in Hollywood have gone to psychiatrists, have taken medications that are verboten in the Church of Scientology and it makes them quite uncomfortable.

And do you think that this is something that [Cruise] is worried about?

No. One of the things Scientology does, as was explained to us by the people who left, is that they avoid bad news, and it would be the job of people to keep Tom Cruise from taking in a lot of bad news. And that is what caused one of the former Scientologists that we interviewed to talk about this notion that a celebrity like Tom Cruise is living in what he described as The Truman Show , that he has no idea that there's a whole world out there that's different from what he hears. And any criticism they just dismiss, if they even hear it -- I don't know how much of this Tom Cruise has even heard.

Breaking News

Tom Cruise and Scientology

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

In the past seven years, the church has poured at least $45 million into the former Gilman Hot Springs resort. In the foreground is the $18.5-million management building that includes a wing of offices for church leader David Miscavige.

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

A close view of “Bonnie View,” a $9.4-million mansion that ex-members say was constructed for the expected return of late church founder L. Ron Hubbard. Church officials say the mansion is simply a museum to commemorate Hubbard’’s life and house most of his possessions.

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

Receptionist Charlotte Heldt at Golden Era Productions. The artwork behind her depicts Scientology’s “Bridge to Total Freedom,” the church’’s path to enlightenment.

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

Inside Golden Era Productions, staffers produce nearly all the printed materials for the church. Here, a foil is pressed onto a lecture binder cover that will be used for a CD of one of Hubbard’’s speeches that has been translated into German.

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

Hubbard invented the “e-meter” as a device that could measure the spiritual clarity of his followers.

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

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GILMAN HOT SPRINGS, Calif. — Nearly 30 years ago, the Church of Scientology bought a dilapidated and bankrupt resort here and turned the erstwhile haven for Hollywood moguls and starlets into a retreat for L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer who founded the religion.

Today, the out-of-the-way 500-acre compound near Hemet has quietly grown into one of Scientology’s major bases of operation, with thriving video and recording studios, elaborate offices and a multimillion-dollar mansion that former members say was built for the eventual return of “LRH,” who died in 1986.

Like the previous owners, the church also has used the property as a sanctuary for its own stable of stars. It is here, ex-members say, that Hollywood’s most bankable actor, Tom Cruise, was assiduously courted for the cause by Scientology’s most powerful leader, David Miscavige.

Scientology has long recruited Hollywood luminaries. But the close friendship of these two men for nearly 20 years and their mutual devotion to Hubbard help explain Cruise’s transformation from just another celebrity adherent into the public face of the church.

The bond between the star and his spiritual leader was evident last year when the two traded effusive words and crisp salutes at a Scientology gala in England. Calling Cruise “the most dedicated Scientologist I know,” Miscavige presented him with the church’s first Freedom Medal of Valor.

“Thank you for your trust, thank you for your confidence in me,” Cruise replied, according to Scientology’s Impact magazine. “I have never met a more competent, a more intelligent, a more tolerant, a more compassionate being outside of what I have experienced from LRH. And I’ve met the leaders of leaders. I’ve met them all.”

Founded in 1954, Scientology is a religion without a deity. It teaches that “spiritual release and freedom” from life’s problems can be achieved through one-on-one counseling called auditing, during which members’ responses are monitored on an “e-meter,” similar to a polygraph. This process, along with a series of training courses, can cost Scientologists many tens of thousands of dollars.

As Scientology’s highest-ranking figure, Miscavige, 45, has found in Cruise, 43, not just a fervent and famous believer but an effective messenger whose passion the church has harnessed to help fuel its worldwide growth.

“Across 90 nations, 5,000 people hear his word of Scientology — every hour,” International Scientology News proclaimed last year. “Every minute of every hour someone reaches for LRH technology … simply because they know Tom Cruise is a Scientologist.”

Cruise and Miscavige declined requests for interviews.

A Scientology spokesman, Mike Rinder, called them the “best of friends,” men who’ve achieved great success through “their force of personality and their drive to excel.”

At the same time that Cruise’s increasingly vocal advocacy of Scientology has drawn attention to his faith, it has collided with his career. While promoting “War of the Worlds” this year, the film’s director, Steven Spielberg, grew concerned that Cruise was talking too little about the movie and too much about Scientology and his wide-eyed-in-love fiancee, Katie Holmes, who turns 27 today.

Their romance generated even more buzz when Holmes was seen in the nearly constant company of Jessica Rodriguez, who is from a prominent family of Scientologists. Holmes, who said after becoming engaged to Cruise that she was embracing Scientology, described Rodriguez as a close friend, though she was widely seen as a church-appointed companion.

Unlike Holmes’ embrace of the church, Cruise’s is not new. Long before he sprang onto Oprah’s couch, jabbed an accusing finger at “Today” show co-anchor Matt Lauer and blasted Brooke Shields for taking antidepressants, Cruise undertook intensive Scientology study and counseling at the church’s compound, according to current and former Scientologists.

The vast majority of Scientologists train at the church’s better-known facilities, including those in Hollywood and Clearwater, Fla. Cruise also has trained at those locations, but for much of his studies in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he headed to Gilman Hot Springs.

He stayed for weeks at a time, arriving by car or helicopter, according to ex-Scientologists who saw him there on repeated occasions. The former resort, 90 miles east of Los Angeles, was an ideal place for Cruise to get out of the spotlight while focusing on his Scientology training, ex-members say.

Described by ex-members as the church’s international nerve center, the property is largely concealed from outsiders by tall hedges and high walls. The complex’s barbed-wired perimeter and driveways are monitored by video cameras, and motion sensors are placed around the property to detect intruders, ex-members say. Some also remember a perch high in the hills, dubbed “Eagle,” where staffers with telescopes jotted down license plate numbers of any vehicle that lingered too long near the compound.

Behind the compound’s guarded gates, Cruise had a personal supervisor to oversee his studies in a private course room, ex-members say. He was unique among celebrities in the amount of time he spent at the base. Others visited, they said, but only Cruise took up temporary residence.

“I was there for eight years and nobody stayed long at all, except for Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman during that period,” said Bruce Hines, who clashed with Miscavige and left Scientology in 2001 after three decades in the group.

He said he once provided spiritual counseling to the actress before she and Cruise divorced. Kidman, who had taken Scientology courses, has largely remained silent about the group in recent years. While at the complex, Cruise stayed in a renovated bungalow near a golf course on the property.

“It was sort of like an upscale country place,” said Karen Schless Pressley, a former Scientology “image officer,” whose duties included interior design and creating military-style uniforms for Scientology staffers.

While hardly palatial, the guest digs where Cruise stayed were luxurious compared with the drab apartments in Hemet, where Schless Pressley and hundreds of other base staffers lived, with few amenities and almost no privacy.

She said she and her ex-husband shared a two-bedroom unit with another couple and were not allowed to make personal phone calls. Schless Pressley said she left the church because of what she alleged were invasions of members’ privacy and other deprivations — a claim church officials say is unfounded.

At the same time, she and other former members say, Miscavige was seeing to Cruise’s every need, assigning a special staff to prepare his meals, do his laundry and handle a variety of other tasks, some of which required around-the-clock work.

Maureen Bolstad, who was at the base for 17 years and left after a falling-out with the church, recalled a rainy night 15 years ago when a couple of dozen Scientologists scrambled to deal with “an all-hands situation” that kept them working through dawn. The emergency, she said: planting a meadow of wildflowers for Cruise to romp through with his new love, Kidman.

“We were told that we needed to plant a field and that it was to help Tom impress Nicole,” said Bolstad, who said she spent the night pulling up sod so the ground could be seeded in the morning.

The flowers eventually bloomed, Bolstad said, “but for some mysterious reason it wasn’t considered acceptable by Mr. Miscavige. So the project was rejected and they redid it.”

Other ex-members say it wasn’t the only time that Miscavige put them to work to please Cruise.

Miscavige, a firearms enthusiast, introduced Cruise to skeet shooting at the compound, according to an ex-member who said the actor was so grateful that he sent an automated clay-pigeon launcher to replace an older, hand-pulled model. With Cruise due to return in a few days, Miscavige again ordered all hands on deck, this time to renovate the base’s skeet range, the ex-member said.

Dozens worked around the clock for three days “just so Tom Cruise would be impressed,” the ex-member said.

Rinder, head of Scientology International’s Office of Special Affairs, said such accounts were fabricated by “apostates,” members who had abandoned the religion.

He said he knew nothing about the skeet range incident. The wildflower planting never occurred and might be a confused version of repairs done after a 1990 mudslide, he said, adding that he couldn’t account for ex-members’ detailed recollections, including those of Bolstad, whom he specifically described as not credible.

“I don’t know exactly how to explain every one of these bizarro stories that you hear,” he said.

Rinder also disputed the contention by numerous ex-members that Cruise’s stays at the facility were exceptional, saying that many celebrity Scientologists had stayed there.

Cruise has made no extended visits to the complex since the early 1990s and has done 95% of his religious training elsewhere, Rinder said. Miscavige, he said, spends only a fraction of his time there and divides the rest of his time among offices in Los Angeles, Clearwater and Britain. He also stays aboard the Freewinds, Scientology’s 440-foot ship based in Curacao in the Caribbean, Rinder said.

However, voter registration records list the Gilman Hot Springs complex as Miscavige’s residence since the early 1990s and as recently as the 2004 general election. Rinder said the church leader simply had not updated his registration. Miscavige’s wife, father, stepmother and siblings also have resided at the complex, according to voting records and interviews.

The base has changed significantly in the years since Cruise spent long days in intensive training, from which he would occasionally take time out to ride dirt bikes or go sky diving with Miscavige, ex-members said.

For years, the property has been home to Golden Era Productions, where Scientologists work around the clock producing videos, audio recordings and e-meters, to be sold to church members. Rinder said nearly all of the members at Golden Era have signed billion-year contracts to serve the church.

Since 1998, the church has poured at least $45 million into expanding the facility and has bought dozens of nearby homes and vacant lots, public records show. The additions include an $18.5-million, 45,000-square-foot management building with a wing of offices for Miscavige.

The most striking building is a mansion that sits on a hill — uninhabited. Dubbed “Bonnie View,” ex-members say, it was built for the church founder, who died in secrecy on a ranch near San Luis Obispo amid a federal tax investigation that was dropped after his death. The mansion has a lap pool and a movie theater and was completed in 2000 at a cost of nearly $9.4 million, property records show.

“It’s high-end beautiful but not ostentatious,” decorated with Craftsman furniture, and draperies and other items that were designed to be changed with the seasons, Schless Pressley said.

Former members say they were told the mansion was built for Hubbard’s return.

“The whole theory of that house was that before Hubbard died in 1986, David Miscavige told us, Hubbard told him he was going to come back and make himself visible within 13 years,” Schless Pressley said.

The mansion, Rinder said, is merely a museum that contains most of Hubbard’s belongings.

“It’s preserved because the life of L. Ron Hubbard is extremely important to Scientologists,” he said.

Miscavige, who spent his teenage years as one of Hubbard’s cadre of young aides, rose to the head of Scientology after the founder’s death. Little known outside the organization, Miscavige in the early 1990s succeeded in gaining tax-exempt status for the church after he and another Scientology official personally approached the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service to negotiate a settlement.

As chairman of the board of the Religious Technology Center, which holds the lucrative rights to the Scientology and Dianetics trademarks, he is the church’s ultimate authority — and is treated as such.

Miscavige’s living quarters and offices in renovated bungalows were modest compared with Bonnie View but reflected his taste for the best of the best, including state-of-the-art audio and visual equipment, said ex-members who viewed the accommodations.

“He’s about five-seven, and everything was built in proportion to his body size,” Schless Pressley said. “And everything was the best. You know how everybody has a pen cup on his desk? His pen cup had about 20 Montblanc pens in it.”

Shelly Britt, who joined Scientology at 17, said she was at the base for nearly 20 years before leaving the church in 2002. She said she worked directly with Miscavige much of that time. She recalled a Beverly Hills tailor visiting to measure Miscavige for his suits, and said moldings of his feet were taken and sent to London for custom-made shoes.

“His lifestyle so far exceeds anyone else’s. He had his own personal staff to handle his food and his room and his clothes and his ironing and his dogs,” she said. “His uniforms were specially tailored, and he had, like, Egyptian cotton shirts, special pants, special shoes, special everything. And it was all of the highest quality.”

Although Hines, Britt and other ex-members describe Miscavige as extremely demanding of those under his command, they say he treated Cruise “like a king.” Among other things, Britt said, Miscavige and his wife attended the star’s 1990 wedding to Kidman in Colorado and then followed up with frequent gifts.

“They don’t do that for every celebrity,” she said. “I remember one time I had to go pick up one of those big fancy picnic baskets and china and silver and take it out to Burbank to Tom’s pilot. I even took pictures of it so Dave and his wife could see I took it out to the plane.”

Rinder said that Cruise was treated no differently from other members and that his highly public support of Scientology came straight from his heart.

“It’s a reflection of his own decisions and personal conviction,” Rinder said.

The church’s belief in the power of celebrity to promote Scientology dates to its earliest days when, in 1955, the church issued “Project Celebrity,” a call to arms for Scientologists to recruit show business “quarry” such as Walt Disney, Liberace and Greta Garbo to help expand the religion’s reach.

Although the church failed to enlist those famous figures, it has been successful in attracting many others in addition to Cruise, including John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Juliette Lewis, Isaac Hayes, Anne Archer, Jenna Elfman, Beck and Chick Corea.

More than any other celebrity, Cruise has helped fuel the growth of the church, which claims a worldwide membership of 10 million and in the last two years has opened major centers in South Africa, Russia, Britain and Venezuela. Cruise joined Miscavige last year for the opening of a church in Madrid.

In his own spiritual life, Cruise has continued to climb the “Bridge to Total Freedom,” Scientology’s path to enlightenment. International Scientology News, a church magazine, reported last year that the actor had embarked on one of the highest levels of training, “OT VII” — for Operating Thetan VII.

At these higher levels — and at a potential cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars — Scientologists learn Hubbard’s secret theory of human suffering, which he traces to a galactic battle waged 75 million years ago by an evil tyrant named Xenu.

According to court documents made public by The Times in the 1980s, Hubbard espoused the belief that Xenu captured the souls, or thetans, of enemies and electronically implanted false concepts in them to keep them confused about his dirty work. The goal of these advanced courses is to become aware of the trauma and free of its effects.

At Cruise’s high level of training, ex-members say, devotees also are charged with actively spreading the organization’s less secretive beliefs and advancing its crusades, including Hubbard’s deep disdain for psychiatry, a profession that once dismissed his teachings as quackery.

“When you hear Tom Cruise talking about psychiatrists and drugs,” said one prominent former Scientologist who knows Cruise, “you are hearing from the grave the voice of L. Ron Hubbard speaking.”

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Kim Christensen is a former investigative reporter on the Los Angeles Times’ projects team. He has more than 30 years of experience in newspapers, starting with the Dayton Daily News in his hometown in Ohio. He has shared two Pulitzer Prizes, at the Oregonian in 2001 and at the Orange County Register in 1996, for investigations of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and of fertility fraud at UC Irvine. He joined The Times in 2005 and left in 2022.

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She Escaped Scientology in the Trunk of a Car. Her Nightmare Is Far From Over

By Tony Ortega

Tony Ortega

“I’m literally shaking right now as I’m talking to you,” Valerie Haney says, speaking by phone from Florida.

Her 22 years in Scientology ’s hardcore elite unit, the Sea Organization, has left her with what her therapist has diagnosed as PTSD, she explains. And a court ruling on March 15 had left her trembling as those years of trauma were stirred up again.

“I was like, am I on another planet? Is this really correct? The court is OK with me having to go back to the place where I literally had to escape in the trunk of a car to get out?”

The episode explained that after Haney made it to Los Angeles, Remini hired her as an assistant, and once Scientology found out about it Haney was allegedly subjected to a frightening campaign of surveillance and stalking.

She also began talking to law enforcement.

“I went to the authorities three months after I got out. I went to the FBI. I was thinking, of course we’re going to court, because this is all illegal!”

No charges were filed, but Haney herself filed a lawsuit against Scientology in June 2019 alleging kidnapping, stalking, and libel, which turned into a legal nightmare that now has her facing the prospect of going to the church to submit herself to an internal “religious arbitration” proceeding.

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In her first interview since filing her lawsuit four years ago, Haney says she still can’t believe that a Los Angeles court granted Scientology’s arbitration motion, forcing her to take her case to Scientology itself, and without an attorney, or a court reporter, or even a friend by her side.

“Scientology literally abused me my entire life, I finally escaped, and I’m trying to use the U.S.  judicial system, and now they’re going, oh no, you need to go back and do everything that your abuser says.”

She’s fought back in interesting ways: Since the arbitration requires that she nominate an arbitrator, she’s suggested names like Tom Cruise , Elisabeth Moss , and Jenna Elfman — a total of 19 well-known and less well-known Scientology figures, drawing the ire of the church’s attorneys.

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Valerie Haney was born to Scientologist parents in 1979, and from ages six to 12 was raised in Scientology’s Cadet Org, a version of the Sea Org for children, at its “spiritual mecca,” the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida.

At 10, she alleges in her lawsuit, she was subjected to “bullbaiting,” a common Scientology procedure that requires a subject to sit without flinching while insults are being hurled at them by a “coach.” Some of the things shouted at her were, “I am going to fuck you and your mother,” and “You are going to suck my dick,” she alleges in the suit.

Haney graduated from the Cadet Org to the Sea Org and signed its billion-year contract, promising to serve Scientology lifetime after lifetime, at the age of 15. She caught the eye of Shelly Miscavige , wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige , who then had Haney moved to Gold Base in California in order to serve the couple directly. Before she could qualify for such sensitive work, she was interrogated about her sexual history.

After passing that ordeal, Haney became “steward” to the Miscaviges, working in their quarters and serving their meals. She was with them nearly 24 hours a day for three years.

“I gave [David] his meals. I made his bed. I woke him up in the morning. I knew everything about their private lives,” she explains. She claims their relationship deteriorated in 2004 as David Miscavige and actor Tom Cruise , a prominent Scientologist, grew closer.

In the summer of 2005, Haney and others working with Shelly Miscavige were “busted,” Scientology’s word for demoted, to lower positions as Shelly vanished from the base. (Shelly was seen at the funeral of her father in Los Angeles two years later in the presence of a Scientology handler, and has not been spotted in public since. Scientology claims that Shelly is simply working on a special project and is not “missing.”)

Haney says she endured four months of manual labor, doing maintenance of the base facilities and other menial and physical tasks, before eventually being moved to the “Cine Castle” where Scientology’s video productions were filmed at the base, and she was assigned to the job of casting director.

After emerging from the trunk, Haney immediately went to Burbank Airport and flew to Portland, Oregon, to be reunited with her father. But as a Scientologist, he was unhappy that his daughter had escaped the way she did (called a “blow” in Scientology parlance), and he encouraged her to return to “route out” properly, or following a prescribed set of steps before being allowed to leave.

She refused to go back to Gold Base, where she had escaped, but agreed to go through the routing-out process at Scientology’s headquarters in Los Angeles, which she was told would last three weeks.

Instead, it lasted three months, and she says that she was treated like a prisoner, with a 24-hour guard. She says she was not allowed to go to her grandmother’s funeral during this time.

Finally, she was asked to be videotaped signing an agreement in order to leave. In the video, she denied that she had been treated poorly as a Sea Org worker, and she said that David Miscavige had been an “amazing” boss.

In the Aftermath episode, she explained that she was nearly suicidal at that point, would have said or signed anything in order to be allowed to leave, and that an armed guard was present to make sure she followed directions.

After she took the job with Remini, she underwent what she characterized as a scary campaign of harassment by Scientology. It included statements made about Haney that are still on Scientology-owned websites today, accusing her of “rampant sexual promiscuity” and that she was a “paid liar.”

The Aftermath episode aired on Nov. 27, 2018, and by that time Haney was already talking to attorneys about filing a lawsuit against the church that would not only accuse Scientology of holding her against her will in the Sea Org, but also for libeling her online and stalking her with the use of private investigators after she had left the church.

In 2013, a California couple, Luis and Rocio Garcia, filed a federal fraud lawsuit against Scientology that was forced into religious arbitration, the first the church had ever held in its 60-year history. The Garcias described the proceeding as a farce, saying they were prevented from bringing an attorney or smartphones, that no transcript was created, and 90 percent of their evidence was disallowed. Despite their objections, their judge accepted the result and the Eleventh Circuit upheld that decision on appeal.

Since the Garcia case, the arbitration clause in Scientology’s service contracts has become a major impediment to former Scientologists trying to sue their former church.

Some of Haney’s allegations — the stalking and libel she says she was subjected to for going to work for Leah Remini — took place after she had signed her exit agreement and had left Scientology. But she has been unable to get the judges in her case to take that into consideration, as they’ve ruled that a contract is a contract.

In Tampa, a labor-trafficking lawsuit filed by three former Sea Org workers is awaiting a ruling in federal court about whether they, too, must take their case to religious arbitration because of contracts they signed while in the church.

Scientology leader David Miscavige was found to be evading service of the suit by a federal magistrate judge, who on Feb. 14 declared Miscavige an official defendant in the case. Miscavige is objecting to that ruling, and District Judge Thomas Barber will soon rule on whether Miscavige is still a defendant in the lawsuit, and also whether the lawsuit will be forced into Scientology arbitration.

Even though the Garcias had gone through their arbitration in 2017, Valerie Haney says she still didn’t think the same thing would happen in her case when she filed her lawsuit in 2019.

On Jan. 30, 2020, that’s exactly what did happen when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Burdge ruled that the exit agreement Haney had signed while being videotaped that day at the Scientology headquarters obliged her not to sue Scientology in court, and that she would have to take her allegations to the church’s own internal court for arbitration.

Haney’s attorneys spent the next two years fighting the decision, asking Judge Burdge to reconsider his ruling — to no avail.

Then, the matter was reassigned to Judge Gail Killefer, who told Haney that she needed to get the arbitration process going or risked having her lawsuit thrown out altogether.

The first step in that process would require Haney to nominate a Scientologist in good standing to be an arbitrator.

So she nominated The Handmaid’s Tale actress and lifelong Scientologist Elisabeth Moss .

“I was thinking, OK, they’re trying to circumvent the judicial system and keep it all hush-hush, so I need to keep this in the public eye. Because otherwise they can do what they want and the law doesn’t apply to them,” Haney says.

She hadn’t met Moss in Scientology, but she had seen The Handmaid’s Tale and its portrayal of the dystopian world of Gilead. “It’s very similar to the Sea Org. I thought, OK, maybe she could sympathize with my situation. Maybe she has some decency as a human being and maybe she could see that my human rights were being violated. And she was a person I knew was in good standing.”

Moss had, after all, defended Scientology in a New Yorker profile just a few months before, in April 2022. But Scientology’s “International Justice Chief,” a Sea Org official named Mike Ellis, informed Haney that Moss was unavailable, and instructed her to nominate someone else.

This time she submitted two names, in case one of them was busy: Tom Cruise and Shelly Miscavige.

“I knew Tom was in good standing. He’s done a lot of things to support Scientology, and he spearheaded David Miscavige’s exploits,” Haney says.

“I knew him. He liked me. We were on a first-name basis. I knew Penelope [Cruz], and I knew Katie [Holmes]. I served Tom his meals,” she explains.

For Cruise’s 42nd birthday in 2004, Miscavige threw a party for him on Scientology’s cruise ship, the Freewinds , which sails the Caribbean, and Haney remembered seeing chefs being flown in from around the country.

“They probably spent $50,000 on it, minimally. All of it parishioner money. It was like a five-night extravagant private dinner. I was serving it. There was a sushi night, and the chefs came in from Nobu. There was an Italian night, and we had to wear costumes. And there was a French night,” she remembers.

“When Tom was first going out with Katie, Dave brought them to Las Vegas for an acknowledgment or celebration on church money, and he paid for the largest suite in Caesars Palace and had it for him and Shelly and me and Tom and Katie,” she continues. “That was the first time I met Katie. I just remember Tom bringing her in and introducing her to Dave and Shelly and me. I thought, oh my gosh, this is amazing. And then they left to go to dinner and I had to make sure the hotel rooms were spotless.” 

After Scientology told Haney that Elisabeth Moss wasn’t available, she nominated Cruise and Shelly, and not simply as a publicity stunt.

“After Elisabeth Moss, who I didn’t know, I was like, let me nominate people I was intimately connected to. Shelly was my dear friend and Tom was also a friend. And we were on a first-name basis. I was close with them,” she claims.

Again, however, Scientology said the two couldn’t act as arbitrators, and this time they complained to Judge Killefer that Haney was being “obstructionist” by nominating people who were so obviously unavailable.

Haney’s attorney, Graham Berry, responded that there was nothing in Scientology’s arbitration agreement that prevented Haney from nominating famous people.

And then Haney submitted another 15 names of Scientologists, many of them very well-known, others more familiar to the readers of Scientology news stories.

“I left years ago, and all the people I know, I don’t know if they’re in good standing. I don’t know if they’re still there,” she says.

She decided that figures like actors Jenna Elfman, Giovanni Ribisi, and Catherine Bell; designer Rebecca Minkoff; motivational speaker Grant Cardone; and prominent attorney and husband of Greta Van Susteren, John Coale, were more likely to be in the church’s good graces, based on her internet searches. Haney had also gone to school with Minkoff, and she’d had a conversation with Elfman.

Matthew Feshbach, a short-seller, was the first million-dollar donor in Scientology history. Haney says she added his name to the nomination list because she had known him and his son while she was in the Sea Org.

She had also known Matt’s niece Jessica Feshbach, who was known for being Katie Holmes ’’ aggressive media handler while the actress was with Cruise. “I knew Jessica when she was married to [former Scientology spokesman] Tommy Davis. I worked with her. We talked about the ridiculousness of the schedule, and the abuses going on,” Haney says.

Haney added Bob Duggan’s name because she saw him at Scientology events. By his own estimate , the pharmaceuticals investor has contributed more than $300 million to Scientology.

“Dave has a list of all the millionaires in Scientology,” Haney says, and she nominated Duggan and tech entrepreneur Craig Jensen, founder of Diskeeper, because they were both on Miscavige’s list.

She also included the names of Scientology officials who were spokespeople or members of the church’s notorious spy wing, the Office of Special Affairs.

“She was the one who did my retrieval after I escaped,” Haney says of one of the women she put on the list. “She harassed my entire family to have me come back to the cult to get interrogated for three months. She was the one there for my exit interview. She was a part of my abuse . She was doing everything she could to keep me there.”

And then, after Valerie Haney submitted her list of 15 names, Scientology came to court and informed Judge Killefer that one of the 15 had agreed to sit as an arbitrator.

The panel of three arbitrators is set, but Scientology isn’t releasing the names of any of them at this point, even to Haney, she claims.

At the hearing on March 15, Haney’s attorney Graham Berry asked the judge to order Scientology to allow Haney to bring a lawyer with her, a friend, and a court reporter who could also videotape the arbitration.

But Killefer refused. She set a hearing date six months out to consider the result of the arbitration. She admitted that she didn’t know what rules Scientology’s International Justice Chief Ellis had set up for it, but what mattered were “the rules of the arbitral forum.” In other words, Scientology sets all the rules.

It also became obvious that Haney wasn’t receiving notices about the arbitration because she’s now in Florida and Scientology is still mailing notices to a P.O. Box in California.

Judge Killefer told Berry to get Haney’s address to Scientology. “That’s an order,” she said.

“That was disgusting,” Haney says, reading an account of the hearing later and realizing that the judge couldn’t be bothered to make sure Haney had someone with her at the arbitration, but did order that she turn over her home address to the church she had escaped.

“So I sent a mailing address to Graham to give them,” she says.

Now, Valerie Haney is facing the idea of going, alone, into an arbitration set up by the Church of Scientology.

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For now, she awaits word from Scientology’s International Justice Chief about when and where the arbitration will take place.

“It’s the worst thing you could probably have a victim do,” she maintains. “Someone who has been abused her entire life, to go back into the abusive environment with the abusers. It’s appalling. And absolutely disgusting. It’s so crazy.” 

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Actor Tom Cruise is the star of several box-office hits, including Risky Business , A Few Good Men , The Firm , Jerry Maguire , and the Mission: Impossible franchise.

tom cruise

Who Is Tom Cruise?

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, better known as Tom Cruise, was born on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, New York, to Mary and Thomas Mapother. Cruise's mother was an amateur actress and schoolteacher, and his father was an electrical engineer. His family moved around a great deal when Cruise was a child to accommodate his father's career.

Cruise's parents divorced when he was 11, and the children moved with their mother to Louisville, Kentucky, and then to Glen Ridge, New Jersey, after she remarried. Like his mother and three sisters, Cruise suffered from dyslexia, which made academic success difficult for him. He excelled in athletics, however, and considered pursuing a career in professional wrestling until a knee injury sidelined him during high school.

At age 14, Cruise enrolled in a Franciscan seminary with thoughts of becoming a priest, but he left after a year. When he was 16, a teacher encouraged him to participate in the school's production of the musical Guys and Dolls . After Cruise won the lead of Nathan Detroit, he found himself surprisingly at home on the stage, and a career was born.

'Taps,' 'The Outsiders'

Cruise set a 10-year deadline for himself in which to build an acting career. He left school and moved to New York City, struggling through audition after audition before landing an appearance in 1981's Endless Love , starring Brooke Shields. Around this same time, he snagged a small role in the military school drama Taps (1981), co-starring Sean Penn .

His role in Taps was upgraded after director Harold Becker saw Cruise's potential, and his performance caught the attention of a number of critics and filmmakers. In 1983, Cruise appeared in Francis Ford Coppola 's The Outsiders , which also starred Emilio Estevez , Matt Dillon and Rob Lowe —all prominent members of a group of young actors the entertainment press dubbed the "Brat Pack." The film was not well received, but it allowed Cruise to work with an acclaimed director on a high-profile project.

'Risky Business'

His next film, Risky Business (1983), grossed $65 million. It also made Cruise a highly recognizable actor — thanks in no small part to a memorable scene of the young star dancing in his underwear.

In 1986, after a two-year hiatus, the budding actor released the big-budget fantasy film Legend , which did poorly at the box office. That same year, however, Cruise's A-list status was confirmed with the release of Top Gun , which co-starred Kelly McGillis, Anthony Edwards and Meg Ryan . The testosterone-fueled action-romance, set against the backdrop of an elite naval flight school, became the highest-grossing film of 1986.

'The Color of Money,' 'Rain Man' and 'Born on the Fourth of July'

Cruise followed the tremendous success of Top Gun with a string of both critically acclaimed and commercially successful films. He first starred in The Color of Money (1986) with co-star Paul Newman , and then went on to work with Dustin Hoffman on Rain Man (1988). Cruise's next role, as Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic in the biopic Born on the Fourth of July (1989), earned him an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Best Actor.

'A Few Good Men,' 'The Firm' and 'Interview with a Vampire'

In 1992, Cruise proved once more that he could hold his own opposite a screen legend when he co-starred with Jack Nicholson in the military courtroom drama A Few Good Men . The film grossed more than $15 million its first weekend and earned Cruise a Golden Globe nomination. He continued to demonstrate his success as a leading man with The Firm (1993) and Interview with a Vampire (1994), which co-starred Brad Pitt.

'Mission: Impossible,' 'Jerry McGuire'

Next, Cruise hit the big screen with two huge hits—the $64 million blockbuster Mission: Impossible (1996), which the star also produced, and the highly acclaimed Jerry McGuire (1996), directed by Cameron Crowe. For the latter, Cruise earned a second Academy Award nomination and Golden Globe for Best Actor.

'Eyes Wide Shut,' 'Magnolia'

Cruise and then-wife Kidman spent much of 1997 and 1998 in England shooting Eyes Wide Shut , an erotic thriller that would be director Stanley Kubrick 's final film. The movie came out in the summer of 1999 to mixed reviews, but that year Cruise enjoyed greater success with the release of Magnolia . His performance as a self-confident sex guru in the ensemble film earned him another Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

'Vanilla Sky,' 'The Last Samurai'

Cruise then starred in the long-awaited smash hit Mission: Impossible 2 in 2000, alongside Anthony Hopkins , Thandie Newton and Ving Rhames. In 2002, he starred in Vanilla Sky , his second collaboration with Crowe, as well as Steven Spielberg 's Minority Report . The following year, Cruise traveled to Australia to shoot the $100 million war epic The Last Samurai, which earned him another Golden Globe nomination.

'War of the Worlds'

Cruise proved he remained a top draw by starring in the Spielberg-directed remake of the science-fiction classic War of the Worlds (2005), which grossed more than $230 million at the box office.

His next effort, Mission: Impossible 3 (2006), also scored well with audiences. However, Cruise was faced with a professional setback in August when Paramount Pictures ended its 14-year relationship with the actor. The company's chairman cited Cruise's erratic behavior and controversial views as the reason for the split, though industry experts noted that Paramount more likely ended the partnership over Cruise's high earnings from the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Cruise quickly rebounded and on November 2, 2006, he announced his new partnership with film executive Paula Wagner and the United Artists film studio. Their first production as a team, the political drama Lions for Lambs (2007), proved a commercial disappointment despite a strong cast that included Meryl Streep and Robert Redford .

'Tropic Thunder'

Taking a break from weighty material, Cruise delighted audiences with his performance in the comedy Tropic Thunder (2008). Despite his relatively small role in a movie that featured Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller , Cruise stood out by obscuring his trademark good looks to play a balding, obese movie studio executive.

'Valkyrie,' 'Rock of Ages'

In December 2008, Cruise released his second project through United Artists. The film, Valkyrie , was a World War II drama about a plot to assassinate German leader Adolf Hitler . Cruise starred as a German army officer who became involved in the conspiracy.

Cruise returned to one of his most popular franchises in 2011 with Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol . Breaking into new territory, he then starred in the 2012 musical Rock of Ages . Although Cruise received some positive reviews for his performance as a rock star, the movie failed to attract much of an audience.

'Jack Reacher,' 'Edge of Tomorrow'

Returning to his mainstream action roots, Cruise starred in the 2012 crime drama Jack Reacher , based on a book by Lee Child. He then headlined a pair of science-fiction adventures, Oblivion (2013) and Edge of Tomorrow (2014). Showing no signs of slowing down, the veteran actor in 2015 delivered his usual high-energy performance for the fifth installment of his blockbuster franchise, Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation .

Latest Movies and Familiar Franchises

In 2016, Cruise reprised the role of Jack Reacher for Never Go Back . He then headlined a reboot of The Mummy (2017), which performed respectably at the box office but was savaged by critics, before earning better reviews later that year for the crime thriller American Made .

2018 brought a return to familiar territory for Cruise, who starred in Mission Impossible —Fallout that summer. Prior to its release, he tweeted a photo to mark day 1 of production on the long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick , scheduled for a June 2020 release.

Scientology and Personal Life

Cruise married actress Mimi Rogers in 1987. It was through Rogers that the actor became a student of Scientology, the religion founded by writer L. Ron Hubbard. Cruise credited the church with curing his dyslexia, and he soon became one of its leading proponents. However, while his spiritual life flourished, his marriage to Rogers ended in 1990. That same year, Cruise made the racecar drama Days of Thunder alongside Kidman. Though the movie was unpopular among critics and fans alike, the two lead actors had real chemistry. On Christmas Eve 1990, after a brief courtship, Cruise and Kidman married in Telluride, Colorado.

Divorce from Kidman

For much of the 1990s, Cruise and Kidman found themselves fiercely defending the happiness and legitimacy of their marriage. They filed two different lawsuits against tabloid publications for stories they considered libelous. In each case, the couple received a published retraction and apology, along with a large monetary settlement which they donated to charity. The couple has two children, Isabella and Connor.

On February 5, 2001, Cruise and Kidman announced their separation after 11 years of marriage. The couple cited the difficulties involved with two acting careers and the amount of time spent apart while working. Following the divorce, Cruise briefly dated his Vanilla Sky co-star Penelope Cruz , followed by a much-publicized relationship with actress Katie Holmes. A month after his ties to Holmes became public, Cruise professed his love for the actress in a now-famous appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, during which he jumped on Winfrey's sofa, shouting "Yes!"

Marriage to Katie Holmes

In June 2005, after a two-month courtship, Cruise proposed to Holmes in a restaurant at the top of the Eiffel tower. In October, they announced that they were expecting their first child together. The hasty proposal and surprise pregnancy quickly became tabloid gossip. But Cruise made even bigger headlines that year as an outspoken advocate for Scientology. He openly criticized former co-star Brooke Shields for using anti-depressants during her recovery from postpartum depression. He also denounced psychiatry and modern medicine, claiming Scientology held the key to true healing. Cruise's statements led to a heated argument with news anchor Matt Lauer on The Today Show in June 2005, for which Cruise later apologized.

In 2006, Cruise and Holmes welcomed daughter Suri into the world. That year, they were married in an Italian castle, with celebrities Will Smith , Jada Pinkett Smith , Jennifer Lopez and Victoria and David Beckham among those in attendance. However, the storybook romance wouldn't last, and in June 2012, the couple announced their separation.

QUICK FACTS

  • Birth Year: 1962
  • Birth date: July 3, 1962
  • Birth State: New York
  • Birth City: Syracuse
  • Birth Country: United States
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Actor Tom Cruise is the star of several box-office hits, including 'Risky Business,' 'A Few Good Men,' 'The Firm,' 'Jerry Maguire' and the 'Mission: Impossible' franchise.
  • Astrological Sign: Cancer

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

  • Article Title: Tom Cruise Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/actors/tom-cruise
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: March 26, 2021
  • Original Published Date: April 3, 2014

Headshot of Biography.com Editors

The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

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Supreme Court rules Donald Trump can remain on Colorado's primary ballot

How the scientologists recruited tom cruise.

Before Tom Cruise , the Church of Scientology targeted up-and-coming stars, promising A-list roles and business connections in exchange for their services.

But back in the '80's, Tom Cruise was one of the biggest superstars in the world and didn't need the church.

Bringing Cruise in required elaborate scheming that included building a tennis court and paying a full-time staffer to counsel him, according to the book Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion by Janet Reitman .

Here are some claims from the book about how the church lured Cruise in:

-Cruise first joined the church through his first wife, actress Mimi Rogers . Her dad was one of the most powerful Scientologists.

-Although Cruise was initially skeptical about the religion, leader David Miscavige was determined to land him, saying "this guy is so famous, he could change the face of Scientology forever."

-They gave Cruise the special treatment, according to Reitman. Before inviting him to a secret compound, they repainted the buildings, landscaped gardens and cleaned every building. Workers were instructed not to talk to or look at the star.

-Miscavige took Cruise out to lunch on a ship founder L. Ron Hubbard had built, rode dirt bikes with him and took him to watch movies in the bases' screening room.

-Finding out that Cruise, the action hero, was afraid of guns, Miscavige took him to target practice until he was comfortable. "Cruise was so grateful, he later sent Miscavige an automated clay-pigeon launcher," Reitman writes. Miscavige had the whole shooting range redone for the next visit.

-Before long, Cruise began flying back and forth to the base by helicopter on the weekends. He was allowed to "audit," or read the thoughts of, a younger boy on the base.

-While Scientologists usually only provided rice and beans for dinner, they pulled out all the stops for cruise. "There was more food in that kitchen than I had seen all year," a former Scientologist told Reitman. "Sandwiches, snacks, drinks, three types of entrees, rice, vegetables, fruit. And this was just snack food."

-When Cruise fell in love with his co-star Nicole Kidman and brought her to base, staffers renovated a VIP condo for Cruise and filled the entire place with balloons. They also spent $200,000 building a tennis court so the couple could pursue their hobby.

-The church then sought out upstanding members to serve as Cruise's housekeeper, cook and nanny, a service they'd perform for free. They were instructed to keep daily reports on his life. Details would include any conversations you heard, anything they watched or who they talked to, Reitman says.

-Seven years after he started studying the religion, leaders promised Cruise they'd share the deepest secrets of Scientology, such as the prophet Xenu. "He freaked out and was like "what the f--- is this science fiction s---?...and took a step back."

-For a time after this, Cruise removed himself from the Church, spending two years in London working on the film "Eyes Wide Shut" and only sending Miscavige Christmas and birthday gifts.

-By 1999, a desperate Miscavige sent charismatic Marty Rathbun , now an anti-Scientology blogger, to "retrieve" Cruise. He was successful and convinced Cruise to continue training. After a couple of years, he had become a full-on zealot.

-Cruise began promoting Scientology in earnest, saying that Hubbard's methods had cured his dyslexia. He fired his publicist and replaced her with someone from the Church of Scientology.

-By 2004, his allegiance was complete. "Scientology was 'the s--- man,' Cruise told Rolling Stone's Neil Strauss in the summer of 2004. 'Some people, well, if they don't like Scientology, well, then f--- you. Really, f--- you. Period."

DON'T MISS: ;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">21 Other Famous Scientologists > More From Business Insider

Here Are 21 Famous Church Of Scientology Members

Read The Panicked Email That Scientologists Are Circulating After The TomKat Breakup

TOMKAT UPDATE: Tom Cruise Heads Back To U.S. As Son Connor Tweets His Support

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Scientology’s Sea Org: An Escape Story for Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise

Astra Woodcraft grew up in the militaristic religious order of Scientology known as the Sea Organization—until she broke free. Her story, as told to Abigail Pesta.

Abigail Pesta

Abigail Pesta

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

I was 7 years old—just a year older than Suri Cruise —when I entered the Orwellian world of rules, rewards, and punishments known as the Church of Scientology.

Before that, I had led a relatively normal life with my family in London. My parents were Scientologists, but not in a zealous way. Then my mother decided to become more involved with the church, and we moved to Clearwater, Florida, where she joined a religious order called the Sea Organization. She signed a contract commiting herself to the group for a billion years—covering her future lives, as the church believes people are immortal. We settled into a compound with other families. The year was 1986. I remember it as the year I lost my freedom.

I imagine that Katie Holmes is trying to protect her daughter, Suri, from the rigid world of Scientology now, and I applaud Katie for that. I wish my mother had done the same.


tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

Instead, my own mother became a stranger to me, when I needed her most—when I was a scared kid in a strange compound in Florida. But in the Sea Org, as it is known, parents aren’t supposed to pay much attention to their children; kids are a distraction from a higher mission.


Scientology, founded by the late science-fiction novelist L. Ron Hubbard in the 1950s, has its roots in Hubbard’s self-help system known as Dianetics. Hubbard believed that people could be counseled, or “audited,” to recall and cast off negative events that prevent them from reaching their full potential. The Sea Org came along after Scientology, in 1967, initially operating from several ships. The group essentially serves as the managerial arm of the church; its members live together in communal compounds, wear uniforms, work for minimal wages, and supervise church operations. It is run with military precision.


Suri Cruise may be having a different experience with the church than I did as a child. Her parents are celebrities, and are likely treated as such. They would be more like “public” Scientologists, people who live at home and have careers outside the church. But Suri could certainly be going through indoctrination. She could be learning that if something bad happens to her, it’s because she “pulled it in,” or brought it on herself with negative thoughts. If her friends question her religion, she may be labeled a “potential trouble source,” a person with bad influences. She would be taught that wanting to leave the church is deeply shameful—and possibly a result of her misdeeds in a previous life, coming back to haunt her. She would need to be “audited” to bring her back in line.


I was “audited” from an early age, even before we moved to Florida. I remember a Scientology official asking me to answer the same questions over and over, or telling me to touch a wall time and again, until I felt almost dizzy. The repetition in an auditing session, essentially, is designed to help you clear your mind, and make the physical world disappear—to separate you from your body. In Scientology, you go through increasingly advanced sessions over the years, to ensure that your mind remains “clear,” that you shed negative thoughts and reach your potential.


Once, after one of these childhood auditing sessions in London, I fell while running down a hill. I remember my mother telling me this was a good thing; it meant I had left my body. It’s a memory that stayed with me, in vivid detail. I didn’t quite understand what my mother was saying, but I knew it was important.
 
It was an indicator of what was to come.


In the compound in Florida, my mother seemed to change overnight, transforming from a loving, caring parent into a distant, aloof figure, as she dedicated herself to her religion. She had grown up in Scientology; she took her new role in the Sea Org very seriously. I remember a time, soon after we moved to the compound, when I was delirious with fever and desperately wanted her by my side. She came—but only briefly, before disappearing. I felt abandoned.


I saw her only once or twice a week. I wasn’t supposed to call her “Mom” in public, but rather “Sir,” reflecting her rank within the organization. My older brother also signed the billion-year contract, dedicating himself to the Sea Org. My dad reluctantly committed himself to the organization, too. As an architect, he was sent off to renovate a Scientology ship, the Freewinds, where Tom Cruise would later celebrate his birthday. My little sister and I were too young to become full-fledged members of the organization, so we became trainees.


My first two years in Florida, I attended a public school, along with other Scientologist kids. Our group was not terribly popular—we often had head lice, I guess because we were all living together in the compound, sleeping in dorm rooms on sofas and bunk beds. We were dressed in old, sometimes stained and torn clothing. The compound wasn’t the cleanest of places, even though we were all tasked with cleaning chores after school, like sweeping floors and scrubbing toilets.


I made friends within our community, but they didn’t feel like real friends; I couldn’t confide in them that I felt miserable, or they would tell on me for being negative. There were rewards for good behavior—such as a dip in a swimming pool—and punishments for bad behavior—such as extra chores. There was always a looming threat of hard labor for those who seriously misbehaved. At night we drank a beverage we called “CalMag,” a terrible mixture of calcium, magnesium, vinegar, and water. It was supposed to calm us down. I'm 33 years old now and can taste it still when I think of it.


When I was 9, my mother got transferred to Los Angeles. Our family moved into a rundown apartment, and my public-school days were over. Instead I went to Cadet School, a training school for the Sea Org, where I learned the basics of reading, writing, and math, but had no classes in subjects like history or geography. After school, I worked for hours in the basement of the Sea Org offices, filing papers and doing other organizational tasks. I often stayed there overnight with my fellow students, sleeping on cots.


I complained to my father, and he got me into a different school, also run by Scientologists. This school, called Ability Plus, was supposed to be better, but it was about the same. There was no real curriculum; our teacher spent hours reading to us from L. Ron Hubbard's science-fiction book Battlefield Earth . Other than that, I remember a lot of spelling bees and math bees.

At this point, my father had begun to get frustrated with the rules of the Sea Org. He separated from my mother, taking a leave of absence from the Sea Org and becoming a “public” Scientologist. I continued to live with him in the apartment, while my mother moved to a Sea Org compound.


In my early teens, I, too, began to rebel. I envied the public-school kids and their freedoms. I started smoking. But at the same time, I feared the outside world. I had been told that kids in public school are all on psychiatric drugs. And I knew that leaving the church would mean separating, or “disconnecting,” from my family; it would mean I was a flawed, dishonorable person.


So, at age 14, I agreed to commit myself to the Sea Org. I attended a two-week boot camp called the Estates Project Force. There, from morning till night, I memorized Sea Org policy, performed chores such as emptying trash cans and polishing shoes, and eventually, signed the billion-year contract.


People often married young within the Sea Org, as premarital sex was forbidden. I chose a husband at age 15, a 22-year-old named Jason Merrill. I was attracted to him and we had known each other for some time; we married in Las Vegas, with parental consent and a signed order from a judge, as I was underage.

We eventually settled into a small room at a Sea Org compound, and I accepted my fate—for the most part. Sometimes, I would sneak away at from bed at night and visit my father, and remember that outside world. He lived in a comfortable house and had a cat; visiting him felt like heaven.


One of my first jobs as an official member of the Sea Org was in the security department, meaning I had to make sure people obeyed church rules and ethics. It seemed that people were always in some kind of trouble—the place felt ruled by fear. You could get in trouble for random things; for instance, someone might question why there were so many loose papers on your desk. Another thing you could get in trouble for: masturbation. Early on in my new job, I had to sit down with a man in his 40s who had admitted to masturbating, and tell him to cut it out. I was 15 years old.


A turning point came when I was 17. For reasons I do not know—perhaps money-related—members of the Sea Org were suddenly advised not to have children. We were told that a pregnant woman would be turned out of the organization. I felt shocked and betrayed; I had always wanted kids. A wave of depression set in. I felt I had utterly no freedom or control over my life. I worked round the clock; I was not allowed to go to school. I saw a dreary future unfolding.


And then, I had an idea—a way out. I would secretly get pregnant. Maybe it could help me exit the organization without the usual routine: the relentless chastising, ostracizing, and auditing from superiors that often made people feel they should stay. I knew that leaving the Sea Org, or “blowing,” as it was called, meant separating from my family, and the thought of it tortured me, but my mother and sister had been transferred to Florida without me, and it had become increasingly difficult to visit my father. My family was already disjointed. I stopped taking my birth-control pills. I got pregnant.


tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

As I hid my pregnancy and dreamed of escape, I decided not to discuss it with the officials, but just to go. So, one morning in February 1998, I snuck off to my father’s house. My plan was to go from there to the airport, where I would fly to my aunt’s house in England. I didn’t tell my dad my ultimate plan, as I didn’t want to put him in a difficult position. I knew he would help me, but that the church would make my sister “disconnect” from him for doing so.


At the airport, I remember looking around frantically, to see if anyone had followed. Indeed, someone had. I heard my brother, Matt, shout my name as I neared the security line. He was there with a Scientology security guard. I felt a searing pang of fear—and guilt. I didn’t want to get Matt and my mother in trouble for my escape, but I had to go. I ran from him and made it to the plane.


In England, I was free—at least physically. Psychologically, I still felt connected to the church. Conflicting emotions tore me up inside. I didn’t want to be viewed as a negative “suppressive person” who had left the church without following procedure, abandoning my family. So, two months later, I went back to Los Angeles to go through an official “routing out” procedure. Essentially, this meant confessing all my bad deeds over and over again, and eventually signing a document saying I had had a wonderful experience in the Sea Org.

I got ushered out unusually quickly, due to my rebellious pregnancy. I received a bill for $89,000 for the Scientology classes I’d taken over the years. I filed for divorce from my husband, and moved in with my father. In September of 1998, I gave birth to my daughter, Kate.



I remember being amazed in those early days by the most simple of freedoms, like riding my bike around a nearby park. I felt so free. Even a trip to the grocery store made me happy—I could buy whatever food I wanted. I began working with my father in his architecture firm, and he literally saved me, offering his full support and helping me realize what an oppressive environment I had been in. He encouraged me to get my GED, take college classes, and pursue my architecture license. He did the same for my sister, swooping in to whisk her away from the Cadet Org in Florida. 



I started speaking out about my experience in Scientology, talking to publications like The San Francisco Chronicle and Glamour magazine. My mother stopped communicating with me, as did my brother. I started a website with two friends, Ex-Scientology Kids , inviting others to share their stories.



Today, it has been 14 years since my escape. I live in L.A. and have my architecture license. I continue to work with my dad, designing buildings. My sister has graduated from Berkeley with honors. My daughter just finished middle school; I can’t believe her classes—biology, Spanish, geometry. I’d never had such classes myself; I’d never gone to middle school. My former husband has not kept in touch with either one of us.


I saw my mother two years ago, for the first time in a decade. Her sister, my aunt, had arranged the meeting, in the hopes that we could work things out. I can only describe seeing my mother after all those years as a strange and sad experience. She said she wanted to have a relationship with me, but that I needed to respect her beliefs. I said I could do that. I also said I wouldn’t stop talking publicly about my experience within the church. I have not heard from her since.



I never did pay that $89,000 Scientology bill. I received several follow-up letters about it in the years after my exit from the church. It took me a long time to gain my confidence, to feel like I was a part of normal society. It saddens me deeply that I have no relationship with my mother; I feel that she chose Scientology over her daughters.

At the same time, I’m proud to be where I am today. I had the courage to leave and to choose my own future. I appreciate my freedom in a way that some people might not be able to imagine. I hope Suri Cruise gets to appreciate hers.

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Tom Cruise Denies He’s Leaving Scientology As He Takes Private Helicopter To Headquarters Despite Protest

  • Tom Cruise shuts down rumors of leaving the Church of Scientology, arriving at the headquarters via a black helicopter amidst protests.
  • Protesters criticize the religion's controversial practices and question Tom's control over his own life.
  • Speculation about Tom's strained relationship with his daughter and previous divorces fueled rumors of his departure, but his recent appearance suggests he remains committed to Scientology.

There’s been speculation for years that Tom Cruise is leaving the Church of Scientology, but it appears the actor is officially shutting down the rumors, as he was recently spotted arriving at Scientology Headquarters despite protests from ex-members.

According to a report by Daily Mail , Tom was spotted arriving at the Church of Scientology Continental Liaison Office & Commodore's Messenger Organisation in East Grinstead, Sussex via a black helicopter, which seemed like a scene out of one of his Mission: Impossible movies.

RELATED: 'Mission Impossible': The Cast Ranked From Richest To Poorest

Tom Denied Reports He’s Leaving Scientology With A Dramatic Appearance

Below the helicopter, protesters stood outside of the headquarters critiquing the religion’s controversial (and mysterious) techniques. Some protestors held signs calling out Scientology’s alleged isolation practices.

“When was the last time you saw your family? They love you and so do we,” some signs read. “Who is really at cause over your life?” other signs read.

Daily Mail reports that Tom was still present at the headquarter when protestors dispersed around 6:30 pm.

Tom’s high-profile appearance at the headquarters seems to be in direct response to a report released by The Mirror earlier this year, which suggested the actor is distancing himself from the church, as he hadn’t been pictured at key Scientology locations in years.

The Mirror’s allegation came several years after a 2021 report claimed Tom was becoming disillusioned with the church, alleging that he was experiencing a “religious crisis.”

RELATED: Suri Cruise Is 17: Everything We Know About Tom And Katie's Daughter

There’s been speculation that Tom’s strained relationship with his teen daughter Suri, 18, may have prompted him to distance himself from Scientology . The religion apparently fuelled his divorce with Suri’s mother, Katie Holmes, who’s been raising their daughter catholic since their 2012 divorce.

Not only was their divorce finalized in weeks, with Tom agreeing to a big pay out to Katie (including $40,000 in monthly child support), but he handed over full custody. He’s allegedly not had any contact with their daughter in recent years, though part of their divorce settlement stipulates he’ll continue paying for Suri’s expenses when she attends University.

Tom’s Oldest Kids Are Still Active Scientologists

Scientology also apparently contributed to Tom’s earlier divorce from Nicole Kidman, whom he was married to from 1990 to 2001. Then exes share two adult children, who went to live with Tom primarily after their split. Isabella and Connor Cruise are known to be practicing Scientologists, like their famous dad. Isabella eve revealed in 2019 during a rare life update that she’d been promoted to the role of an auditor within the church.

“It’s a few meltdowns and running to the bathroom to have a mini episode, but it is worth everything because you will get through,” Isabella said in a video endorsing the church. “This is a gift to yourself and so many others. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t going to be an auditor or aren’t going to join staff. If you are going to make it as a being for the long run you NEED this. That’s the truth… so stop messing around and get going.”

Given Tom’s recent appearance at Scientology headquarters, it appears the actor isn’t distancing himself from the mysterious religion at all.

Tom Cruise Denies He’s Leaving Scientology As He Takes Private Helicopter To Headquarters Despite Protest

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11 Celebrities Who Left Scientology, And 11 Who Are Still In It

Leah Remini isn't the only celeb who got outta there.

Andy Golder

BuzzFeed Staff

1. Left: Jerry Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld doing stand-up

Seinfeld was never officially a member of the organization, but he did explain on the WTF With Marc Maron podcast that he took a course way back in the day. "I did do a course in Scientology in, like, '75," Seinfeld said . While he didn't pursue things further, he did say that he "found it very interesting" and got some positives out of the class, like communication skills.

Jerry and George at a diner in "Seinfeld"

2. In it: Michael Peña

Michael Pena smiles

Peña — who has a long list of credits including End of Watch and Ant-Man — says he first joined Scientology because he feared he was drinking too much, and there was a program called Purification Rundown that helped him quit drinking. He also says that one of their other programs made him "a better actor" by helping with his "understanding of scripts." When asked by the Guardian about the organization's many controversies, Peña replied, "I don't read that stuff."

Peña as Luis in Ant-Man

3. Left: Laura Prepon

Laura Prepon at an event

Prepon joined Scientology around 1999, and was still in the organization when she joined the cast of Orange Is the New Black . However, she revealed in a 2021 interview with People that she is "no longer practicing Scientology," and hadn't been for about five years, meaning she quit sometime around 2016. Previously she had been vocal about praising the organization, but after leaving she spoke about it very little, which upset fellow former Scientologist Leah Remini , who has been very outspoken about the organization's alleged abuses.

Laura Prepon acting in "Orange Is the New Black"

4. In it: Elisabeth Moss

Elisabeth Moss smiles at an event

Moss — perhaps most famous for her role in The Handmaid's Tale — has been a Scientologist since before she was even a teenager. However, she doesn't speak about it much publicly. In an interview with the New Yorker , she opened up a bit, talking about the ways she feels Scientology is "misunderstood" or wrongly perceived. "It’s not really a closed-off religion," Moss said. "It’s a place that is very open to, like, welcoming in somebody who wants to learn more about it."

Elisabeth Moss sitting in a chair in "The Handmaid's Tale"

5. Left: Katie Holmes

Katie Holmes looks straight at the camera

Holmes famously filed for divorce from Scientology's poster boy, Tom Cruise, back in 2012. Holmes reportedly used burner cellphones and laptops in order to leave Cruise along with their daughter, Suri, without alerting Cruise or anyone else in the organization before the fact. It's unclear how involved Holmes was in Scientology during her marriage to Cruise, but simply by association, it's likely she was somewhat embedded.

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise smile in a wedding photo

6. In it: Juliette Lewis

Juliette Lewis smiles at an event

In 2010, Lewis spoke with Vanity Fair about Scientology and said that she was a practicing Scientologist. Her father, Geoffrey Lewis, was also a Scientologist, so she was born into the religion. She appears to still be affiliated with the organization today.

Juliette Lewis and Brad Pitt at a red carpet event in the '90s

(By the way, there are unconfirmed rumors that Brad Pitt went through some Scientology initiation and/or classes when he was dating Lewis but later decided not to continue, but since all of that is unconfirmed, Pitt won't be in this post.)

7. Left: Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman smiles at an event

Like Katie Holmes, Kidman was affiliated with Scientology because of her marriage to Tom Cruise. Journalist Tony Ortega claimed that he spoke with Bruce Hines, Kidman's "auditor" in the church, and that Hines said Kidman took many classes and quickly ascended the ranks of the organization's spiritual ladder. But when Kidman split with Cruise, she stopped practicing Scientology, while her and Cruise's children, Connor and Bella, continued to.

Kidman and Cruise sit together

8. In it: Kirstie Alley

Kirstie Alley smiles at an event

Alley is one of the more outspoken celebrity Scientologists, frequently using Twitter and interviews to feud with Leah Remini over the organization and defend fellow Scientologists. For example, when former Scientologist Paul Haggis was facing sexual assault allegations, she tweeted , "Another one bites the dust...karma is a bitch," but took a different approach when Scientologist Danny Masterson was accused of sexual assault, saying she believes in "innocent until proven guilty."

Actor Kirstie Alley arrives at the Grand Opening of the Lillie's Learning Center September 21, 2001 in Beverly Hills, California

9. Left: Jason Lee

A closeup of Jason Lee smiling

The My Name Is Earl star had been a practicing Scientologist since the '90s, and his ex-wife Carmen Llywelyn even claimed that the religion was a major cause of their split. However, in a 2016 interview with a local paper in Denton, Texas (where Lee and his family moved), he revealed that he wasn't a practicing Scientologist anymore. "Being that we don’t practice Scientology, and that we aren’t particularly interested in opening religious centers in general, we have no plans to open a Scientology center," he said, when asked if he planned on starting a business in Denton.

Jason Lee standing by a car

10. In it: Giovanni Ribisi

Giovanni Ribisi waves and smiles

Ribisi was raised by Scientologist parents, so he's been a Scientologist all his life. When asked about it, he told the Jim and Sam Show , "It's a personal thing; it's something that works for me, and I think it's that simple."

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

11. Left: Christopher Reeve

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

The late Superman actor revealed in his memoir that he did some "auditing" and took some Scientology courses when he was younger. However, he said that one class "completely devalued" his faith in the process. The class was supposed to bring up memories of his past lives, but Reeve basically re-told a story from Greek mythology and passed it off as his own past life experience, and, in his words, "got away with a blatant fabrication."

Reeves as Superman

12. In it: Jenna Elfman

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

In an interview with Us Weekly , Elfman called the controversy around Scientology — recently intensified by Leah Remini's book and the HBO documentary Going Clear — "boring." Elfman told the magazine, "I know what I know, and how much it helps me ... I think that anything that works tends to get attacked."

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

13. Left: Mimi Rogers

A closeup of Mimi Rogers smiling

Rogers' father was a friend of L. Ron Hubbard's, so she joined Scientology at an early age. Tom Cruise joined the organization after marrying Rogers, so it seems as though she was the reason he became a Scientologist in the first place. However, after her split with Cruise, Rogers left Scientology .

Mimi Rogers and Tom Cruise waving

14. In it: Ethan Suplee

A headshot of Ethan Suplee

Suplee is married to Juliette Lewis's sister, Brandy Lewis, and was one of several people involved in My Name Is Earl who were involved with Scientology. Suplee is very quiet about his religion, so it's hard to tell just how devoted he is (or if he is still a Scientologist today), but he was reported to be in the organization back in the Earl days.

Ethan Suplee and Jason Lee sit at a desk in "My Name Is Earl"

By the way, I used those older photos so that you'd recognize who he is. Here's what Suplee looks like today:

View this photo on Instagram

15. Left: Beck

Beck plays guitar onstage

Beck's relationship with Scientology is a bit contradictory if you go by what he's said in the past. His father was a Scientologist , and in the early 2000s, Beck married Giovanni Ribisi's twin sister, Marissa Ribisi, who is an active member of the church. During that time, Beck claimed that he was also a Scientologist. However, after his divorce from Ribisi about four years ago, Beck said, "I think there’s a misconception that I am a Scientologist. I’m not a Scientologist. I don’t have any connection or affiliation with it." It would appear that Beck either never was a Scientologist but was keeping up appearances since his wife was one, or was a Scientologist while he was married but left the religion sometime around his divorce.

Beck sitting in an armchair, talking

16. In it: John Travolta

John Travolta smiles at an event

Although there were reports back in 2009 that Travolta might be leaving Scientology, he remains one of the most famous celebrities in the church today. Travolta was introduced to Scientology back in 1975 by one of his co-stars on The Devil's Rain , and told Kevin Hart on Hart's podcast, "At that moment it worked for me, and it still works for me."

Travolta stands with two women at an event

17. Left: Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman in a tux, pointing

While it seems like Gaiman himself never actively practiced Scientology, he did grow up in a very Scientologist household. The Good Omens author's father was the British spokesperson for the organization, and it's been reported — but not confirmed — that his ex-wife and sisters are members. However, Gaiman has outright denied that he is a Scientologist, so it may be that he never practiced, but just grew up surrounded by it. In any case, it's probably fair to say that Gaiman "escaped" Scientology, as many who grow up with parents in the church tend to be involved themselves.

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

18. In it: Nancy Cartwright

Nancy Cartwright poses with a life-size cutout of Bart Simpson

Cartwright — the longtime voice of Bart Simpson — has been an avid Scientologist for decades. She recently spoke to the Associated Press about the organization after the Going Clear book was published, saying, "I don't know what to tell you... It's called prejudice."

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

19. Left: William S. Burroughs

William S Burroughs looks straight at the camera

I don't know if we'd call Burroughs — author of Naked Lunch and member of the Beat Generation — a "celebrity" in the sense that other people on this list are, but the story of his involvement with Scientology is an interesting one. He joined the church all the way back in the 1960s, only about a decade after L. Ron Hubbard published Dianetics , but later grew disillusioned and even published his own book in 1971 called Ali's Smile: Naked Scientology . The book — and Burroughs' own public comments — accused Scientology of using authoritarian tactics to control its members, and even compared it to the CIA in terms of its secrecy.

Burroughs stands at a train station in a trench coat and hat

20. In it: Danny Masterson

tom cruise scientologist wikipedia

Masterson has been a Scientologist for many years, and remains an active member today. The organization has been closely tied to the ongoing sexual assault case against Masterson, as he is facing both civil and criminal complaints from women who were also members of the church of Scientology. Earlier this year, a judge ruled that the case would proceed to a jury trial and would not be resolved through the church's mediation process.

Danny Masterson as Hyden in "That '70s Show"

21. Left: Leah Remini

Leah Remini smiles at an event

Remini may be the most outspoken former Scientologist, as she has published a book and made an Emmy-winning docuseries about her escape from the church, which she — in no uncertain terms — calls a "cult." Remini has been pushing for the organization to lose its tax-exempt status, and for some high-level members to face prison time. "There are lawsuits and I think they’re going to lose in the courts. They’ll have to pay for their sins," she told THR . "I believe that with every piece of me."

Leah Remini speaks at an awards show

22. In it: Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise smiles at an event

I mean, you probably know the deal here. Tom Cruise is one of the highest-ranking members of the organization and in many ways may be the lynchpin of Scientology's pull in Hollywood. He has defended the church many times in past interviews, even calling psychiatry a "pseudoscience" in one of them. Seth Rogen, in his memoir, Yearbook , recounted a story when he and Judd Apatow met with Cruise about a project, and Cruise attempted to talk them into joining the religion. At this point, Cruise's name is practically synonymous with Scientology.

Tom Cruise speaking at a podium

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COMMENTS

  1. Tom Cruise

    Tom Cruise. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962) is an American actor and producer. Regarded as a Hollywood icon, [1] [2] [3] he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards. His films have grossed over $4 billion in North America and ...

  2. Being Tom Cruise

    Being Tom Cruise. " The Church of Scientology Presents: Being Tom Cruise, Why Scientology Isn't In Any Way Mental " is a satirical spoof documentary from the series Star Stories, parodying the life of Tom Cruise and his relationship with the Church of Scientology. It is episode 2 of the second series of Star Stories, and first aired on Channel ...

  3. List of Scientologists

    Stated in a 2019 interview that he is not a Scientologist and that he doesn't "have any connection or affiliation with it". Marc Headley: 1974- 2005 Whistleblower and critic of the church. Katie Holmes: 1978- 2012 Actress and formerly married to Scientologist Tom Cruise. Jim Humble: 1933- 1981

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  10. She Escaped Scientology in the Trunk of a Car. Or So She Thought

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  13. Tom Cruise's Dark, Twisted Journey to Scientology's Top Gun

    As audiences take in Cruise's latest hit, "Top Gun: Maverick," top Scientology reporter Tony Ortega looks back on how the star became the Church of Scientology's Maverick.

  14. How The Scientologists Recruited Tom Cruise

    Before Tom Cruise, the Church of Scientology targeted up-and-coming stars, promising A-list roles and business connections in exchange for their services.. But back in the '80's, Tom Cruise was one of the biggest superstars in the world and didn't need the church. Bringing Cruise in required elaborate scheming that included building a tennis court and paying a full-time staffer to counsel him ...

  15. Tom Cruise and Scientology: Separating Fact From Fiction

    The actress, Mimi Rogers, introduced Tom Cruise to the religion when they started dating in 1986, and the two eventually married. Mimi's father was a friend of Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and helped build the church in the 1950s. Mimi was born into the religion and grow up with its practices.

  16. Scientology's Sea Org: An Escape Story for Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise

    Scientology, founded by the late science-fiction novelist L. Ron Hubbard in the 1950s, has its roots in Hubbard's self-help system known as Dianetics. Hubbard believed that people could be ...

  17. Scientology

    Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by the American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement.It is variously defined as a cult, a business, a religion, a scam, or a new religious movement. Hubbard initially developed a set of ideas that he called Dianetics, which he represented as a form of therapy.An organization that he established in 1950 to promote it went ...

  18. Remini Says in Court Papers Tom Cruise is Scientology's `Second ...

    Story by Contributing Editor • 1w. Leah Remini, a former Church of Scientology member who is suing the church for defamation, says in new court papers that church member Tom Cruise holds special ...

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  20. Project Chanology

    Project Chanology (also called Operation Chanology) was a protest movement against the practices of the Church of Scientology by members of Anonymous, a leaderless Internet-based group."Chanology" is a combination of "4chan" and "Scientology".The project was started in response to the Church of Scientology's attempts to remove material from a highly publicized interview with Scientologist Tom ...

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  23. Nazanin Boniadi

    Nazanin Boniadi (/ ˈ n ɑː z ə n iː n ˈ b oʊ n j ɑː d i /; Persian: نازنین بنیادی [nɑːzæˈniːn bonjɑːˈdiː]; born 1980) is a British actress and activist.Born in Tehran and raised in London, she went to university in the United States, where she landed her first major acting role as Leyla Mir in the medical drama General Hospital (2007-2009) and its spin-off ...