tom cruise scientology wedding

Leah Remini Spills 8 Shocking Claims About Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' Wedding

Leah Remini is not holding back with her claims about Scientology.

In her new tell-all book, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology , the actress and now ex-Scientologist presents a startling account of the ill-fated wedding of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, including shocking events she says occurred before, during, and after the big day, as well as a particularly disturbing claim regarding the treatment of the couple’s daughter, Suri.

Here are eight of the most shocking allegations from Leah’s book.

WATCH: Leah Remini Tears Up Talking About Katie Holmes Leaving Scientology: 'She Had to Protect Her Daughter'

1. Leah was allowed to meet Tom Cruise after donating $1 million to the International Association of Scientology. “The mere fact that I was fit to be in Tom’s presence was a huge compliment. The actor wasn’t just an A-list movie star but a pillar of the church,” Leah writes of her first encounter with the actor, whose entourage of “heavily contributing, with-the-program Scientologists” she would eventually join. Though, the actress says that neither Kirstie Alley nor John Travolta were a part of that group, because she claims “Tom didn’t like them.”

2. Leah’s first encounter with Katie Holmes was during a salsa dance lesson, which Tom had requested of her and her husband, Angelo. “I didn’t know Katie and Tom were dating, but I quickly got the picture since he couldn’t keep his hands off her,” she says, adding that she was uncomfortable with the way “he was manhandling Katie, dipping her in a forceful way and then making out with her.”

3. Tom liked to host celebrity-filled dinners and play games at his home. “I came to think of him as a big kid with his loud laugh, high energy, and goofy ideas of fun,” Leah writes. “Like when he invited some Scientologists and a few other celebrities like Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, to his house and announced he wanted to play hide-and-seek.” Though, Leah says she did not participate in the games because she was wearing five-inch Jimmy Choos.

4. Leah’s invite to Tom and Katie’s wedding came with a caveat: an invitation to bring Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony along. After revealing to the actress that the couple was planning to get married, Leah claims they asked if she would invite her high-profile friends. According to the King of Queens star, Katie admitted that they didn’t “know them that well” but seemed intent on changing that. While in Italy, Leah writes that TomKat asked Jennifer and Marc to go for a beachside walk with them, claiming that the newlyweds were insistent that they not leave the wedding reception early.

WATCH: Leah Remini Claims Church of Scientology Wanted to Recruit Jennifer Lopez

5. Tom and Katie’s star-studded wedding guest list included Brooke Shields. According to Leah, Brooke was on the same chartered plane as her and Angelo. Of course, Leah says Brooke was surprised by the invite because it came after she and Tom had famously gotten into a media fight over antidepressants.

6. Before the wedding, Suri was found crying on the bathroom floor. In one of the more shocking allegations in the book, Leah says that she came upon three women standing over Tom and Katie’s seven-month-old daughter in a restaurant bathroom. The actress writes that the women “were looking at her like they thought she was L. Ron Hubbard incarnate, and addressing her more like an adult than a baby.” In order to soothe the baby, Leah claims that she “grabbed the bottle from Suri’s diaper bag, went into the kitchen, asked someone to warm it up, which of course was no problem, and returned to the bathroom, where Suri was still on the floor and crying.”

WATCH: Leah Remini Says Scientologists Are Deemed 'Evil' If They're Critical of Tom Cruise

7. Katie kept Tom waiting a long time at the altar. Leah says that after Tom took his place at the front of the chapel, he stood there “for the next twenty minutes (but what seemed like an eternity)” with “that everything-is-great look plastered on his face even as the crowd grew uncomfortable." While Leah offers no explanation as to why Katie was late, she writes that, at one point, J.Lo asked her, "Do you think Katie is coming?"

8. Following the wedding, Leah was written up for poor behavior and forced to apologize to Katie. Leah claims the new bride accused her of “disrupting the party” and setting a “poor example to others." She then writes that to make amends for her supposed digressions, Leah sent expensive gifts to Katie and several of the guests. I spent $2,000 on framing the invitation and other mementos from the Cruise wedding in a picture box for Katie,” writes Leah, who claims she also included a note saying, “I’m so sorry that I destroyed your wedding,” to which Katie allegedly replied, “Just handle it with your MAA.”

WATCH: Katie Holmes Responds to Leah Remini’s Scientology Interview: I Regret Upsetting Her

The Church of Scientology released a statement to ET regarding Remini's recent claims in both her book and her recent interviews. The statement reads: "It comes as no surprise that someone as self-absorbed as Leah Remini with an insatiable craving for attention would exploit her former faith as a publicity stunt by rewriting her history with it, including omitting that she was participating in a program to remain a Scientologist by her own choice, as she was on the verge of being expelled for her ethical lapses."

While Leah has been promoting her book, Katie responded via her representatives last week, “I regret having upset Leah in the past and wish her only the best in the future."

Watch Leah’s emotional reaction to Katie’s response below.

Leah Remini Gets Emotional About Katie Holmes' Apology to Her

How Tom Cruise’s Wedding to Katie Holmes Changed Scientology Forever

The moment that turned the tide.

Marlow Stern

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast

Even by Hollywood standards it was an opulent affair, with millions splashed on a 15th-century castle, crystal-laden Armani dresses, and a performance by crooner Andrea Bocelli ; the guest list, meanwhile, was a paparazzo’s dream, boasting the likes of Will and Jada, Posh and Becks, J. Lo, and scores more. But Tom Cruise’s 2006 Italian wedding to Katie Holmes will be remembered for another reason entirely, according to Mike Rinder.  

“It was a very significant moment in the history of Scientology, because it changed a lot of the media focus about Scientology,” offered Rinder on Scientology and the Aftermath .

Rinder would know. For 25 years, the Aussie served as a senior executive for the Church of Scientology and its fraternal religious order, Sea Organization , as well as the executive director of its Office of Special Affairs (OSA), which oversees the church’s myriad legal tussles, public relations, and internal investigations into members’ behavior . He left the controversial religion in 2007 due to, he says, the abusive practices of leader David Miscavige , and now co-hosts A&E’s Aftermath alongside another ex-Scientologist, Leah Remini.

But back to those star-studded nuptials. While Cruise had already raised plenty of eyebrows with his Matt Lauer mano a mano and couch-jumping on Oprah , the wedding was his big Scientology coming-out party—a traditional Scientology ceremony conducted by minister Norman Starkey, the executor of its late founder L. Ron Hubbard’s estate, with Miscavige serving as best man. And it was there that Remini, who was still a member of the church at the time, began questioning the church’s officials over the whereabouts of Miscavige’s wife Shelly , who was nowhere to be found. Remini is alleged to have received a tongue-lashing at the event from Tommy Davis, a Scientology executive who acted as Cruise’s personal handler.

“I mean, look at that famous quote from Tommy Davis to Leah [Remini] about Shelly at the Cruise wedding, ‘You don’t have the fucking rank to ask about this.’ They believe the world doesn’t have the fucking rank to ask about this; that nobody has the fucking rank to ask about this,” Rinder tells me. “It’s an interesting look at the mindset of Scientologists, and how out of touch with reality they are. They’ve lost touch with the world.”

Remini left Scientology in 2013, and has since become the face of Scientology whistleblowing. Things got worse for Cruise in Jan. 2008, when Gawker published a leaked version of his Scientology indoctrination video where the actor claimed, among other things, that Scientologists are the only ones who can help people who get in car accidents. Then came Going Clear , detailing the church’s alleged efforts to break up Cruise and Nicole Kidman , the Vanity Fair exposé about the church’s wife-auditioning for Cruise prior to arriving at Holmes, Remini’s allegation that Cruise personally punished fellow Scientologists , etc. And still, Cruise has somehow remained an A-list Hollywood star, with his recent blockbuster Mission: Impossible – Fallout grossing nearly $800 million worldwide, and the actor currently shooting a hotly-anticipated sequel to Top Gun . Rinder feels that the press is complicit.

“If you go on a movie press junket with Cruise you are required not to ask about Scientology, and a lot of journalists participate anyway. This is a really sad indictment of the Fourth Estate,” says Rinder.

He adds, “I still think that too many media do treat Scientology with kid gloves, and too many media are operating on the old view of the ‘power’ of Scientology to threaten and intimidate them. To a large extent, the threats and intimidation have increasingly been demonstrated to just be a bunch of hot air. It’s become a part of the routine to expect a legal letter if you do anything about Scientology, but Scientology hasn’t sued the media since TIME magazine back in 1992. And they lost that case.” (Cruise did not respond to requests for comment for this story; the Church of Scientology, through their spokesperson, called Rinder’s claims “false,” branded him a “liar,” and accused me of “religious prejudice and bias.”)

Cruise’s camp would argue that it’s unfair to delve into someone’s religious beliefs—except the actor, Rinder explains, “ used the fact that he was a movie star to promote Scientology for years.”

In addition to the indoctrination video, made in honor of Cruise receiving the Freedom Medal of Valor from Miscavige for being the world’s biggest disseminator of Scientology, there was the time he infamously erected Scientology tents on the set of Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds , attempting to convert cast and crew members to the controversial religion.

“He had a volunteer ministers’ tent on War of the Worlds . It’s totally crazy,” says Rinder, who was still a high-ranking Scientology exec at the time. “You know, you can’t for years be the biggest proselytizer of Scientology because you’re a movie star, and even do it on the set of movies, and whenever you’re being interviewed about a movie you have to pop in something about L. Ron Hubbard or Scientology, and when it becomes a bit more inconvenient and prickly, and the subject matter isn’t what you want it to be, to go, ‘You’re not allowed to ask anymore,’ is wildly hypocritical.”

On top of all that, Rinder echoes Remini’s claim that Cruise is aware of the alleged abuses within the Church of Scientology, including the Hole .

“He is very aware,” Rinder says. “In fact, David Miscavige used to tell people when he was displeased with people in the Hole—and I was there when he said this—‘If you motherfuckers don’t get your shit together, I’m going to bring Tom down here and I’m going to have him beat you up.’ Tom is an insider . He is privy to all the bullshit that Miscavige has been up to. And many people outside of the Sea Organization are not, but he is because they are like two peas in a pod.”

Cruise, of course, is not the only celebrity who’s a prominent member of the Church of Scientology. There’s John Travolta , Danny Masterson , Elisabeth Moss, Michael Peña, Juliette Lewis, Laura Prepon, Kirstie Alley, Beck, Giovanni Ribisi, Greta Van Susteren, and more. And this is apparently by design.

“Miscavige has always viewed—and so did Hubbard—celebrities as being the most effective way of gaining acceptability for Scientology and encouraging new people to get interested and participate. And of course the larger the celebrity, the greater the impact. For a time, Tom Cruise was the biggest movie star in the world, and the ultimate manifestation of that philosophy,” claims Rinder. “Cruise came along during the Miscavige era, he was his first major accomplishment, and Cruise has a very similar personality type to Miscavige—just over-the-top about everything, so Miscavige saw him as the perfect vehicle to be molded into the perfect representative for Scientology.”

Rinder chuckles. “So, it is very ironic that the Big Fish became the Big Stinking Fish, because that wedding—and the fallout from that wedding—changed everything.”

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Entertainment | joe simitian leads evan low by one vote in the district 16 congressional race, entertainment, entertainment | leah remini forced to make amends to tom cruise after katie holmes wedding: scientology lawsuit, remini said it has long been considered ‘a high crime in scientology’ to “criticize tom cruise in anyway’ and alleges she was ‘punished’ after being accused of upsetting his 2006 wedding to katie holmes.

In a new lawsuit alleging abusive practices by the Church of Scientology, Leah Remini has implicated Tom Cruise in the top rungs of power in the controversial organization, saying he was “essentially second in command” and describing how she was forced to apologize to him and donate money to his favorite Scientology causes after she was accused of upsetting his 2006 wedding to Katie Holmes by asking about the whereabouts of leader David Miscavige’s wife.

Remini also alleged that she had to make amends to Cruise by donating money in honor of his daughter, Suri Cruise. The “King of Queens” actor said it has long been considered “a High Crime in Scientology to criticize (Tom) in any way,” while noting that Miscavige told an audience of Scientologists at a 2004 gala in England that Cruise was “the most dedicated Scientologist I know.”

Remini, who has emerged as one of Scientology’s leading critics since leaving the organization in 2013, filed her 60-page complaint against the Church of Scientology and Miscavige Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. She alleges she suffered years of harassment, intimidation and defamation as part of an organized campaign of retaliation because she has exposed alleged church abuses, starting with her 2015 memoir, “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology” and in her Emmy-winning A&E docuseries, “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.”

“For 17 years, Scientology and David Miscavige have subjected me to what I believe to be psychological torture, defamation, surveillance, harassment, and intimidation, significantly impacting my life and career,” Remini said in a news release she shared on Substack, CNN reported . “I believe I am not the first person targeted by Scientology and its operations, but I intend to be the last.”

In a statement, the Church of Scientology blasted Remini’s lawsuit as “ludicrous” and “frivolous” and said her allegations as “pure lunacy.”

“Remini spreads hate and falsehoods for a decade and is now offended when people exercise their right to free speech, exposing her for what she is — an anti-free speech bigot,” the statement said. The organization also said her “obsession with attacking her former religion, by spreading falsehoods and hate speech, has generated threats of and actual violence against the church and its members.”

“All the while … she has profited handsomely from her fabrications, through the sale of hate books, hate podcasts and paid-for tabloid hate television,” the statement continued.

Remini’s lawsuit contains multiple mentions of Cruise, who has long been one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars but who also has became the most famous public face of Scientology. Remini joined Scientology as a child and also became a prominent celebrity member, but she said her status in the church changed after Cruise’s lavish 2006 wedding to Holmes, his third wife.

The event in an Italian castle was billed as “the wedding of the century,” which is why Remini said in her lawsuit that she was surprised that Miscavige’s wife, Michele “Shelly” Miscavige, was “was nowhere to be found.” Shelly Miscavige was assistant to her husband, the “chairman of the board” and her “job was to constantly record everything” he said “so that a team of secretaries could later transcribe his words and orders for dissemination throughout Scientology.”

“When Ms. Remini asked a group of Scientology executives and Tom Cruise’s personal handlers … ‘Where is Shelly?’ she was immediately admonished by the group, despite the fact that she and Ms. Miscavige were good friends,” the lawsuit said.

Remini said she also witnessed other behavior at the wedding that “set off red flags for her, including unethical contacts between various Scientology executives and others at the wedding which she understood to be forbidden by Scientology teachings,” the lawsuit said. In accordance with Scientology practices, which Remini “had been brainwashed” into following, she shared her concerns in a written “Knowledge Report” that she submitted to the church.

But apparently, church executives didn’t like what she wrote. Remini alleges she was ordered to report to the the church’s “spiritual headquarters” in Clearwater, Florida, where she was confronted with “dozens of internal reports from Scientologists complaining about her behavior at the wedding,” the lawsuit said. It “became clear” to Remini that she was being punished for asking where Shelly Miscavige was and for filing reports on David Miscavige and others.”

Remini alleges she was forced to stay at the headquarters, where she had to “undergo” four months of “ethics” training, which she said cost her hundreds of thousands and dollars and which she described as “one of her life’s worst nightmares.”

Remini ultimately left the left headquarters and returned to Los Angeles, but she said she “was forced to lie to her colleagues, friends, and family about what happened while she was in Florida.”

To regain her standing in the church, Remini said she had to make peace with David and Cruise. But to do that, she said “she was forced to donate money to name a seat in a theater after Suri Cruise and was forced to raise money for donation to Scientology causes led by Tom Cruise,” the lawsuit said.

The Church of Scientology is widely known for its associations with Hollywood celebrities, including Cruise, John Travolta and Elisabeth Moss. But it has faced growing scrutiny in recent years amid allegations of physical, sexual and financial abuse made by former members. Some of those allegations were made in Remini’s docuseries, while others were exposed in HBO’s 2015 documentary, “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” based on a book by Lawrence Wright.

In its statement, the church suggested that Remini is spreading “propaganda” because she can’t work in Hollywood. If she can’t get work, she has “nobody to blame but herself.”

“While Remini was in the church, she had to restrain her antisocial traits,” the statement said. “She said so herself—that Scientology was the only thing keeping her ‘monster’ at bay. The church is not intimidated by Remini’s latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech. If Remini does not believe in free speech, then she should consider emigrating to Russia.”

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Yep, Scientology Weddings Are Just as Out There as You'd Expect Them to Be

• Rachel Torgerson is a New York-based journalist and social media professional.
• Rachel is a Senior Fashion Editor for Cosmopolitan.
• Rachel worked for The Knot as an Assistant Editor and Editorial Assistant.

Did you watch Going Clear , HBO's riveting Scientology documentary, with your mouth open in utter shock and then go down an Internet rabbit hole for hours afterward? We did too.

Once we learned about founder L. Ron Hubbard, the history of the religion and all of the numerous celebrities (like Tom Cruise and John Travolta) who are members -- not to mention Scientology's involvements in their marriages and divorces (we're talking serious conspiracy theories about the church breaking up couples and playing match-maker with new girlfriends) -- we had to wonder what exactly happens in a Scientology wedding ceremony.

We looked into outspoken activist A-lister Cruise's wedding to Katie Holmes (a highly-publicized affair with a Scientology minister in Italy nine years ago) and even into Travolta and Kelly Preston's similar wedding in 1991.

So what's the difference between most wedding ceremonies and a Scientology one?

We present to you 13 of the most incredibly fascinating Scientology wedding facts. (Full disclosure, in case you haven't already guessed -- this article was not formally vetted through any Scientology representatives.)

1. There are five different types of Scientology ceremonies.

Yes, five. They're called Traditional, Informal, Single Ring, Double Ring and Concise Double Ring. Details surrounding these ceremonies are vague, at best.

2. Scientology isn't a recognized religion in all countries.

If a Scientologist wants a destination wedding, they'll have to do some research because not every country will recognize the ceremony. In fact, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had to get married in the U.S. first before their Italian destination wedding. The same goes for John Travolta and Kelly Preston's wedding in France. (They reportedly had to have a second ceremony to validate their marriage, since their first ceremony, which was performed by a French Scientology minister, was in Paris.)

3. Brides wear white dresses and the couple can have attendants like bridesmaids, groomsmen and even flower girls.

Yep, nothing different here. "Brides dressed in white are escorted down the aisle by their fathers," Rev. John Carmichael, the president of the Church of Scientology of New York and the spokesman for 12 churches in New York and New Jersey, told the New York Times in 2006. "They may be attended by bridesmaids and flower girls. Music is a matter of individual choice, there is invariably a celebration of some kind, and many of the promises are familiar: to love, honor and be faithful through life's vicissitudes."

4. The ceremony is commonly followed by a celebration, like a reception.

According to the Reverend , "Our view of marriage and the family is a traditional view, so the wedding ceremony is traditional." Noted!

5. You don't have to convert to Scientology in order to marry.

One big caveat to this point: You're allowed to marry someone who hasn't joined Scientology just as long as they're not a "Suppressive Person." That is, someone who actively doesn't agree with Scientology.

There's even evidence to suggest that in Cruise's wedding to Holmes, where, according to reports at the time, some Roman Catholic blessings were read in respect to Holmes's parents.

6. Questions get really personal once you're married.

Scientologists go through a process called "auditing" regularly, in which an auditor (an interviewer) asks a series of personal questions to each person while they hold onto a device called an "E-meter" that is supposed to measure their thoughts.

Once you're married, the questions get more personal and have to do with thoughts of divorce, infidelity and negative images of your spouse.

L. Ron Hubbard, the religion's founder, came up with some of these questions and disseminated them in a memo in 1962. Some include : "Have you ever used sex as punishment?" "Have you ever regretted getting married?" and "Have you ever felt you were too good for your spouse?" The answers to these questions are recorded by your "auditor" and can allegedly be used against you later, if you defect from the church.

7. Once you're married, Scientology teaches that you will enter into the "Second Dynamic" or 2-D.

The "second dynamic" refers to marriage, sex and procreation. Scientology teaches that there are eight dynamics in life, in order: The self (how to survive as an individual), creativity (everything having to do with creating the family unit, including sex and marriage), group survival, species of mankind (humankind as a whole), life forms (including animals and vegetation), the physical universe (matter, energy, space and time), the spiritual and infinity (which can only be reached after you leave your earthly body).

(And most of us were just worried about these postwedding to-dos .)

8. Scientologists don't condone sex before marriage.

There's an elite group within Scientology called the Sea Org. Members of the Sea Org are held to strict moral standards, which includes no sex or suggestive touching before marriage. "The Sea Org is an elite group and therefore have very high and optimal ethical standards," said Hubbard, in one of his memos from 1978.

9. Divorce is frowned upon, unless the Church of Scientology makes the decision that your spouse is 'Suppressive.'

Well, we can't look to founder L. Ron Hubbard for any clarity on this matter, since he was reportedly married three times and one of these marriages happened while he was actually married to someone else.

All the same, like many other religions, dissolving a marriage is "something that's taken up in a legal court," Rev. Ann Pearce, a spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology of Washington State told the Times in 2012.

"That's between two individuals, just like anybody of any religion getting divorced," she said, adding, "There's no ceremony recognizing divorce in the Church of Scientology." But according to former church members, couples are sometimes reportedly pressured to use in-house divorce lawyers.

Also, "Scientologists aren't allowed to sue each other," one former church member, Carmen Llywelyn (who divorced her husband, TV personality Jason Lee from the show My Name is Earl ) said, because of a policy to contain any public disputes.

10. Scientology ceremonies don't sugar-coat the future.

Scientology ceremonies include references to a wife's beauty fading, sickness and other marital problems and they don't put too much of a positive spin on these things. "We do this strictly in the context of being able to do something about [these common marital issues]," Rev. Carmichael told the Times . "Scientology has workable solutions to life's problems. It is designed with tools people can use to help themselves and others."

By the way, you can find some of these tools on the church's website, where you are shown information on marriage solutions, a dramatic video and courses that offer help -- for a fee.

11. Same-sex marriage isn't condoned.

In Going Clear , Oscar-winning producer and director Paul Haggis says that one of the major reasons that he left the Church of Scientology in 2009 was because two of his daughters are gay. Scientologists were highly involved in California's Prop 8 bill -- the one that shut down the right of same-sex couples to marry.

12. The Double Ring Ceremony follows a seemingly traditional vow exchange.

The Double Ring Ceremony -- the only ceremony the church outlines on its official website follows the traditional call-and-response marriage vows of any typical western wedding. You'll recognize phrases that are close to "in sickness and in health" and "until death do us part" but the biggest difference between typical weddings and Scientology weddings is this core belief of "The ARC Triangle" which is an acronym for Affinity, Reality and Communication -- three things that Scientologists deem very important. During the ring exchange, the minister holds up the two wedding rings between his thumb and forefinger, creating a triangle when they overlap, as a symbol of this core belief.

And for your reading pleasure, the full vow exchange portion of the Double Ring Ceremony is right here: Friends: We are gathered here in the presence of these witnesses for the purpose of legally joining in marriage this man and this woman, (names of bride and groom). If there be any among you who know of any reason why this should not be done, let them now speak, or forever remain silent. (Pause)

All being in accord, we shall proceed. (Groom's name), is your reality of the love you have for (bride's name) such as you will be constantly creating through health and sickness; through adversity as well as good fortune? Can you confront and grant forgiveness for shortcomings as readily as you give praise for all her many admirable qualities? (Answer)

And have you communicated your love to (bride's name)? (Answer)

(Bride's name),have you acknowledged (groom's) love? (Answer)

(Bride's name), is your reality of the love you have for (groom's name) such as you will be constantly creating through health and sickness; through adversity as well as good fortune? Can you confront and grant forgiveness for shortcomings as readily as you give praise for all his many sterling qualities? (Answer)

And have you communicated your love to (groom's name)? (Answer)

(Groom's name), have you acknowledged (bride's) love? (Answer)

Then may I say to you both that through your love together with your agreement upon its reality, and by your communication of these two beautiful truths, you have completed the ARC Triangle, and thereby consummated the only true marriage, which is beyond the power of any individual or group of individuals to add to or detract from in the slightest manner.

However, the law and custom of our society requires that this union shall be made a matter of public acclaim and record. It is my honor to have been selected by you to perform the ceremony. The acceptance of an honor carries with it an obligation of comparable magnitude, and I would be remiss in that responsibility if I failed to attempt a contribution, not to what you have already created, which no one can do, but to the permanency of its continued creation on your future time track.

Man has ever employed symbols to impress upon the mind, wise and important truths, that these symbols might prove an ever-present reminder of the necessity of ceaseless creation of our desires. And I am certain that your one joint desire in present time is that the love you have created shall remain a reality throughout your future years.

Best man, have you a ring? (Answer)

May I have it please? (Receives the ring.)

Bridesmaid (or maid of honor), have you a ring? (Answer)

(Holding up a ring between the thumb and forefinger of each hand:)

These rings consist of circles, and the circle has been an emblem of permanency to Man since time immemorial. In fact, it represents time and space — which are without ending. I want you to look upon these two emblems and mock-up the ARC Triangle in the center of each.

Have you done it? (Answer)

As long as these emblems remain with you, I want you to see that triangle in their center as a reminder that the reality of their symbolism of permanency will hold true only so long as that triangle remains unbroken. I should like to see you make a pact between you that you will never close your eyes in sleep on a broken triangle. Heal any breach with the reality of your love through communication. If you will do this, these emblems of your greatest desire in present time will remain a reality throughout your future time track.

Let us proceed. (Groom's name), will you take this ring and with these words, place it upon (bride's name)'s finger.

"With this symbol of my love" (Answer)

"I take thee, (bride's name)," (Answer)

"As my true and lawful wedded wife" (Answer)

"I pledge thee to keep this love" (Answer)

"Ever living, ever real." (Answer)

(Bride's name), will you take this ring and with these words, place it upon (groom's name)'s finger.

"I take thee, (groom's name)," (Answer)

"As my true and lawful wedded husband" (Answer)

And now, in the name of the Church of Scientology and by virtue of the powers vested in me by the state, I declare you, (groom's name), and you, (bride's name), to be truly and legally, husband and wife. I will ask that you seal this ceremony with your lips. (Wait for the kiss)

And I will ask these witnesses present to join me in blessing this ceremony with the postulate that the trust and love of the present shall become ever stronger with each passing year. (Pause)

Did you do it? (Answer)

Thank you. (Be the first to congratulate them both, and the first to address the bride as Mrs.)

--L. Ron Hubbard

13. The 'Traditional' Scientology wedding ceremony is rooted in ancient gender norms from the '50s.

The "Traditional" Scientology wedding ceremony is a little different. For starters, it's heavy on gender stereotypes -- we're talking girls making dinner and guys straying in fidelity -- and some other... odd things.

Let's just say one vow dictates to the groom that he should be prepared to get his wife a cat, if she wants one. Yeah, you read that right -- a cat-vow.

Some reported highlights from the Traditional wedding ceremony, below: Now, (groom's name), girls need clothes and food and tender happiness and frills, a pan, a comb, perhaps a cat. All caprice if you will, but still they need them.

Hear well, sweet (bride's name), for promise binds. Young men are free and may forget. Remind him then that you may have necessities and follies, too.

The groom then promises to "keep" the bride, "well or ill," and is also asked, "And when she's older, do you then keep her still?"

The minister then tells the bride, " Know that life is stark and often somewhat grim, and tiredness and fret and pain and sickness do beget a state of mind where spring romance is far away and dead. "

She is then asked if she is willing to "create still (the groom's) health, his purpose and repose."

The groom is then told that he shouldn't leave his wife in search of solutions, and the minister says, "Take thy own even though they sleep beneath foul straw and eat thin bread and walk on pavement less than kind."

There you have it -- everything we could possibly find on Scientology weddings. Take it all with a grain of salt. The Church of Scientology keeps most of their traditions and ceremonies under lock and key (and purse strings) and plainly states the following on their website : "Marriage is well on the way to becoming a failed institution."

We hope that's not true!

Sources: The Double Ring Ceremony ; What Is the Scientology Wedding Ceremony ; For Scientologists, Divorce Is No Simple Matter ; For Mrs. Cruise, Perhaps a Cat ; Sex and the Scientologist: From the Desk of L. Ron Hubbard ; Paul Haggis Supports Leah Remini After Departure From Scientology

10 Years Later: All the Details From Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' Lavish Italian Wedding

The stars became husband and wife in an elaborate celebration at a castle in bracciano.

"I think every little girl dreams about [her wedding]," Katie Holmes said in an interview with  Seventeen  in 2004. "I used to think I was going to marry Tom Cruise ."

"So let it be written, so let it be done."

As fate would have it, her childhood wishes came true less than a year later when, newly split from fiancé Chris Klein , she accepted the Oscar winner's marriage proposal, subsequently gave birth to the couple's only child, Suri , and went on to marry her girlhood crush in one of the most significant wedding ceremonies in Hollywood history.

As pop culture history goes, the marriage ended in a divorce settlement five and a half years later with primary legal custody of Suri granted to her mother.

Nevertheless, for nostalgia's sake, today marks a different milestone for those vows—their 10-year anniversary. On this day in 2006, the actors became husband and wife inside Bracciano, Italy's 15th-century Odescalchi Castle, a celebration that reportedly cost them upwards of $3 million. 

With a price tag that grand, Tom and Katie's wedding cemented itself in celebrity bridal history. From the cream of the crop Hollywood guest list and double wedding gowns to a dinner serenade by  Andrea Bocelli , it seems no expense was spared on the night Holmes became Mrs.  Tom Cruise . 

"If you get invited to that wedding, you go," Brooke Shields , a guest at the wedding, told Jenny McCarthy  in an interview on her  SiriusXM show  in January.  

Before the wedding could begin, the bride needed a gown—or two. Holmes sported two dresses during the special night, both designed by wedding attendee Giorgio Armani . For the ceremony, the  Ray Donovan  actress donned an off-the-shoulder silk and lace design adorned with Swarovski crystals. The crystals alone took 350 hours to place, as People reported at the time.

Then, she switched into a one-shoulder off-white silk organza number embellished with more Swarovski crystals.

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Katie wasn't the only one to dazzle the crowd in Armani—her groom and the wedding party all wore the label for the special night. 

"Katie wanted a simple, elegant dress," Armani told People  at the time. "I wanted to make it modern but at the same time complement the sweetness and energy she conveys."

As fans would learn years later, Holmes accessorized with "something old" gifted to her by Shields. After being publicly criticized by Cruise for taking prescription medication for her postpartum depression, Shields said the actor came to her home to apologize. Soon after, she got a call from Holmes to invite her to their Italian nuptials. 

"She said, 'It just wouldn't feel right without you there,'" Shields told McCarthy during the interview in January. "And I said 'OK, I'll bring the something old, as long as it's not me!' And she said, 'would you?'"

The former face of Calvin Klein ultimately delivered the bride-to-be an antique enamel compact. 

The supermodel was just one name on the sprawling VIP list of famous attendees, which included  Will Smith  and  Jada Pinkett Smith , fellow Scientologists  John Travolta  and  Kelly Preston , David Beckham and Victoria Beckham , Jenny McCarthy and then-partner  Jim Carrey ,  Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez and former Scientologist Leah Remini . 

Once inside the castle's armory doors, guests were greeted by flag bearers sporting traditional Renaissance attire. With Cruise's older children, Connor and Isabella , Holmes' maid of honor, sister Nancy Blaylock , and Cruise's best man, Scientology leader David Miscavige , present, the couple took part in Scientology's traditional "double ring" ceremony and sealed it with a kiss. 

What followed was a seemingly endless celebration that carried into different halls of the castle, as People  described at the time. After a round of toasts, the bride danced with her father,  Martin Holmes , to  Louis Armstrong 's "What a Wonderful World" and joined Cruise for their first dance to  Fleetwood Mac 's "Songbird."

"It didn't take much time before I realized this Tom guy was a special guy—that he loved Katie, that he cared for her and supported her," Martin said during a toast at their rehearsal dinner at the Villa Aurelia. "Tonight, I am extremely proud and happy to raise my glass to Katie and Tom."

One five-tier wedding cake and fireworks display later, the guests danced the night away with music producer Mark Ronson spinning tunes and Lopez jumping in to perform one of her songs live when it came on. 

A nostalgic moment arrived when Cruise sang  The Righteous Brothers ' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" to his bride—a nod to his iconic performance in  Top Gun . 

Of course, the song now seems like a moment of foreboding as, five and a half years after they wrapped the late-night festivities and boarded a jet to the Maldives for their honeymoon, Holmes filed for divorce . The two have not remarried and Holmes continues to live with her daughter.

While their high-profile relationship was a subject of controversy and speculation since Cruise first jumped on Oprah Winfrey 's couch, the actress recently revealed she wouldn't do it differently. 

"I really enjoy my life," she told Ocean Drive   a year ago. "I don't really regret anything that I've done. I've learned from everything, and everything sort of leads you to the next place. I just keep going."

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New Details: Leah Remini Makes Explosive Claims About Tom Cruise and His Family in Her Scientology Tell-All

Leah Remini writes about Tom Cruise's wedding, his family and Scientology in new revelations from her memoir

Leah Remini claims that Bella Cruise, Tom Cruise ‘s daughter with ex-wife Nicole Kidman, called her mother a “SP” or “Suppressive Person,” according to an advance copy of Remini’s new tell-all obtained by the New York Daily News .

Remini’s book, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology , includes several claims about Cruise’s 2006 wedding to Katie Holmes – including Bella’s comment – according to material quoted by the Daily News .

Remini claims in the book that before the ceremony itself, Cruise waited at the altar for 20 minutes before Holmes arrived, long enough for Remini’s longtime friend Jennifer Lopez to ask her, “Do you think Katie is coming?”

Remini claimed in a 20/20 interview on Friday that Scientology asked her to invite her friend Lopez and her then-husband, Marc Anthony, on “Tom’s behalf,” then tried to separate the friends during the festivities.

“They were trying to extract me,” Remini said of the wedding on 20/20 . “I can only assume because they wanted to make Jennifer a Scientologist. Maybe I was barring that road for them.”

In a statement, the Church of Scientology – which termed all of Remini’s claims about the wedding “not only untrue, but ridiculous and stupid” – responded: “The Church does not single out anyone for its services, while its doors are open to all to make the able more able. The Church has not cared that Ms. Lopez was Ms. Remini s friend. The only dealings the Church had with Ms. Remini with regards to Ms. Lopez was having to listen to her complaints about Ms. Lopez.”

According to the newspaper, Remini also writes that she was concerned about how Suri was treated by her caregivers during the wedding festivities. She also claims in the book that she was snubbed by the newlyweds at the reception line for the wedding and also saw a top Scientology official “humping Brooke Shields on the dance floor,” according to the Daily News .

She claims in the book that after the wedding, she shared a ride with Kidman’s children with Cruise, Bella and Connor, and asked them if they’d had contact with their mom, according to the Daily News .

“Not if I have a choice,” Remini claims in the book that Bella, who was then 13, said, according to the Daily News . “Our mom is a f—ing SP.”

In its statement, the Church of Scientology says: “We have never heard Ms. Remini s claim and do not believe it. The Church and Ms. Kidman have responded in the past to false claims that there was anything wrong with Ms. Cruise s relationship with her mother.”

(Someone can be declared a Suppressive Person “in instances of serious offenses against the Scientology faith and can also occur when an individual is found to be actively working to suppress the well-being of others,” according to the church’s website, which adds that “publicly renouncing the faith” is considered a “Suppressive Act.”)

The fallout from the wedding was extensive, Remini claims in the book, according to the Daily News : She claims she was called to the church’s headquarters to face multiple accusations, including from Holmes – whose report about Remini’s wedding behavior looked like it was “written by a seventh grader.”

Holmes said in a statement provided to PEOPLE by her publicist , “I regret having upset Leah in the past, and wish her only the best in the future.” Reps for Kidman and Lopez declined to comment about Remini’s claims.

The Church of Scientology, which released a response to Remini on its website , stated of her claims about the wedding: “Every claim Ms. Remini has made is not only untrue, but ridiculous and stupid. She is just trying to latch onto a prominent celebrity for her own publicity. As a note, every guest but Ms. Remini respected the couple s privacy by not speaking about it afterward. That in itself describes what kind of person Ms. Remini is: self-absorbed, rude and embarrassing, all traits she displayed as a guest of this event according to parishioners who attended.”

Remini, a former King of Queens star, publicly split with Scientology in 2013.

“The decision to leave is your giving up everything you’ve worked for your whole life,” Remini said on 20/20 . “I feel that people need to understand this has been my whole life.”

RadarOnline also released snippets of Remini’s book, saying that the actress had heard that Cruise did not like fellow high-profile Scientology members John Travolta and Kirstie Alley.

The website also claimed that Remini wrote about seeing Cruise chastise an assistant for serving him a drink in a chipped coffee mug.

“You served me tea in a chipped mug? Do you know who gets served with a mug that’s chipped? F—ing DBs,” Remini claims Cruise said, according to the website. (“DB” stands for the Scientology term “degraded being,” according to RadarOnline.)

Of these claims, the Church of Scientology responded: “The Church declines to comment on Ms. Remini s childish gossip. We keep communications between parishioners and the Church private.We will state that Ms. Remini continues to exaggerate and embellish events while spinning numerous tales that are provably false.”

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

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Leah Remini Details Scientology's Role at Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' Wedding in  20/20 Interview

By Joe Reid

Outspoken ex-Scientologist Leah Remini didn’t mince words in naming Tom Cruise and Scientology chairman David Miscavige as the two biggest reasons for her disillusionment with her old church, but she says one of their biggest problems with her may have had something to do with her good friend Jennifer Lopez . She says that, while attending Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes ’ Italian wedding in 2006, she was kept separate from Lopez and her then-husband Mark Anthony , placed in separate cars and seated at separate tables.  
 “I can only assume because they wanted to make Jennifer a Scientologist,” she told ABC’s Dan Harris. “Maybe I was barring that road for them?”  
 The actress's interview with Harris aired Friday ahead of the Tuesday publication of her memoir,  Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology . Remini was quite upfront about where her problems with the Church of Scientology began. “I now see where the cracks are in our church,” she said of her mindset after the Cruise-Holmes wedding. “It’s David Miscavige, it’s Tom Cruise, they were bringing Scientology down.” 
 Remini, who left Scientology in 2013 and has since been very public about her problems with the church, told ABC that what began as raised eyebrows towards Cruise’s behavior put her in the crosshairs of church officials. After Cruise’s couch-jumping appearance on Oprah in 2005, Remini recalls saying, “What the hell is this guy doing? We need to rein it in, we need to stop all this, and he just need to be an actor, and he needs to just [closed-mouth gesture]. I was immediately dealt with.” 
 Remini has previously credited Lopez with helping her separate from the church. She [told Access Hollywood in July] (http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/6620427/jennifer-lopez-leah-remini-support-leaving-scientology) that Lopez was instrumental in helping her get into the mindset to leave the institution that had shaped her beliefs since childhood. 
 For its part, the Church of Scientology gave a statement to ABC that said Remini’s accusations against the church are “not only untrue but ridiculous and stupid.”

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Inside TomKat's Scientology Ceremony

By Caitlin Johnson

November 17, 2006 / 10:01 AM EST / CBS

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will marry Saturday in a Scientology ceremony — a wedding that is full of mystery for most people.

A Scientology wedding shares many similarities with Christian or Jewish ceremonies that most Americans are familiar with, but it has some important differences.

"Much of it is more traditional that you'd think," Scientology minister Jeffrey Quiros told The Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman . "The bride's family's on one side, the groom's on the other. There's a processional. The bride's father gives the bride away."

Theology professor Dr. Sarah Sumner says the big difference is the way Scientologists look at God.

"In a Christian wedding, the primary witness of the wedding is God himself and in a Scientology wedding, God is recognized as an abstraction," she said. There's not a personal God. So there is no presence of a deity. I think that's the biggest difference."

A basic tenet of Scientology is the ARC triangle which represents affinity, reality and communication.

"The bride and groom are reminded that it's through communication," Quiros said. "You're going to build mutual reality and respect for one another and build your affinity for one another and have a long lasting relationship."

Cruise and Holmes watchers predict the big Italian wedding is just a prelude to even bigger news.

"She's rumored to already be pregnant again," said Meaghan Murphy, a reporter for Star magazine. "She was seen at Barney's just last week and she was sporting a bump."

In the past two weeks, the couple has been seen at their son's football games, looking relaxed and enjoying the spotlight.

"Tom was just totally happy to sign autographs, take pictures with everyone, say hello to all the cheerleaders," Murphy said. "He was just about as friendly as can be."

With a wedding this high-profile, it's not surprising some of the spotlight is shining on the church of Scientology. One Scientology book has a thousand pages of ceremonies and sermons. There are five different types of weddings. Instead of "in sickness and health" the couple vows to share misery and triumph.

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All the Weird Tom Cruise Stories From Leah Remini’s Book About Scientology

Photo by YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images

This article originally appeared in  Vulture .

Leah Remini, the queen of Queens, has written a barn-burner. Her book Troublemaker , which came out Tuesday, is a tell-all from inside the Church of Scientology, an experience that cost her millions of dollars and years of anguish, and eventually resulted in her getting labeled an “SP”—a Suppressive Person—by the Church. As with Alex Gibney’s documentary Going Clear , you cannot talk about Scientology without talking about its most famous member, Tom Cruise. Remini’s book covers a lot of ground about the actor, from the first time she met him and was invited to play hide-and-seek at his house with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, to his high-profile wedding to Katie Holmes in Rome, where she was reprimanded and had to be “reprogrammed.”

Her first interaction with Tom Cruise was “magical.”

Tom Cruise is kind of a big deal in the world, and he’s an even bigger deal in the Church of Scientology. Whenever Cruise entered the Celebrity Centre, the entire building was locked down. Normally, Remini had to wait in the courtyard or waiting room until he was done, but on one particular day, she was told by a handler, “I just want you to know that Mr. Cruise is here, but it’s fine for you to walk through.” They eventually met, and she said that they had a “brief but pleasant conversation,” and that he had a “magical quality” that makes you feel like you’re the only person in the world. This apparently was enough to approve her to become a part of Tom’s entourage, which included EarthLink founder Sky Dayton, Marisol Nichols, Ethan Suplee, and Jenna and Bodhi Elfman. She writes, “Noticeably absent from the chosen few were Kirstie Alley and John Travolta. I had heard that Tom didn’t like them.”

She was invited to play hide-and-seek at his house with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith.

“At first I thought he was joking, but no, he literally wanted to play hide-and-seek with a bunch of grown-ups in what was probably close to a 7,000-square-foot house on almost three full acres of secluded land,” she writes. She told him, sensibly, “I can’t play—I’m wearing Jimmy Choos.” He replied, “Well, good. So you’re It, then,” and then tagged her and ran to hide. She pulled her husband aside and said, “Angelo, you’re going to go ahead and do this, because I’m not doing it. I’m not trying to play a fucking game of hide-and-seek in five-inch stilettos. Okay?”

There was an incident with cookie dough.

Remini writes that people were “terrified of offending Tom.” Once, he wanted to make cookies, and there was a package of prepackaged cookie dough on the counter. He asked, “Guys, where’s the cookie stuff?” The assistants fluttered around but they didn’t point out to him that it was right there on the counter. “Tom seemed like a child who had never been told no,” Remini observes. “Get in the fucking present time, is what you need to do!” he screamed at his assistant. He then gave a rundown of the hierarchy:

Still not noticing the log of pre-made dough on the counter, Tom raised his hand above his head. “LRH [L. Ron Hubbard] is here,” he said, then lowered his hand to his chin and said, “And Dave and I are here.” Then, with his hand down at his waist, he said, “And you are here.”

This painful scene mercifully ended when Remini nonchalantly said, “Oh wait. Tom, is this it?”

Tom and Katie invited her to their wedding and then asked her to invite Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony.

After inviting Leah and her husband to his impending nuptials with Katie Holmes, he then asked her to invite her friends Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. Little did she realize that it would really become all about J.Lo and Marc.

Their Rome wedding was “official church business.”

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’s wedding was constantly being monitored by two Scientology members, Tommy Davis and Jessica Feshbach. The leader of the Scientologists, David Miscavige, acted like Cruise’s best man. And yet, Remini was seeing a lot of behavior that didn’t accord to Scientology rules. Norman Starkey, who officiated, got “handsy” with Brooke Shields, while Jessica and Tommy were flirting, even though she was married.

Someone left Suri Cruise crying on the bathroom floor during the wedding.

During the first dinner, she heard Suri Cruise crying from the direction of the bathroom, and yet, “Katie didn’t seem to notice.” She then went to the bathroom to investigate the situation:

After about five minutes I headed to the bathroom to offer some help. When I opened the door, I found three women, including Tom’s sister and his assistant, standing over the baby, who was lying on the tile floor. I didn’t know if they were changing her diaper or what, but the three women were looking at her like they thought she was L. Ron Hubbard incarnate. Rather than talking to her in a soothing voice, they kept saying, “Suri! Suri!” in a tone that sounded like they were telling an adult to get her shit together.

She told them, “What are you guys doing? She’s a baby. Pick her up!” She then took control of the situation and got Suri’s bottle and asked someone to heat it up in the kitchen. When she returned, though, Suri was still on the floor crying. Finally, they picked her up and gave her the bottle, which stopped the crying. “Then Tom’s sister turned to me and said, ‘Thank you,’ as if I were being dismissed.”

She was put on notice during the wedding for hanging out with Jennifer Lopez.

Throughout the wedding, the Scientology handlers kept trying to separate Lopez from Remini, who had come as her friend. They wanted them to arrive to the ceremony separately even though they were getting ready together. When it came time for the rehearsal dinner, the church team tried to separate them again, but Lopez said, “She’s with us,” which made them leave her alone. That Jennifer Lopez voucher goes a long way!

Tom Cruise sang “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” to Katie Holmes.

The couple would go on to divorce in 2012.

Bella and Connor Cruise don’t talk to their mom, Nicole Kidman, because she’s “a fucking SP.”

Remini was going back to the airport with Bella and Connor Cruise, the kids Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman adopted when the pair was married. When Remini asked them about their mom, Bella replied, “Not if I have a choice. Our mom is a fucking SP.” An SP, you’ll remember, is a Suppressive Person, which is basically Scientology lingo for scum. She observed: 

Connor just looked out the window. There was something more human about his silence and the sadness I felt in it. My heart broke for him, his sister, and their mother as we rode the rest of the way to the airport without saying another word.

Katie Holmes wrote a “Knowledge Report” saying Remini’s behavior at her wedding “disturbed [her] greatly.”

Get ready for a lot of Scientology jargon ahead. A Knowledge Report is basically an official snitching document. It’s what you write to keep other people in line, if and when you see that what they’re doing isn’t in accordance with Scientology rules. Holmes did so after the wedding, saying that Remini had been “very upsetting” and was a “poor example to others.” A number of other Scientology members submitted such Knowledge Reports against Remini after the wedding.

Afterward, Remini had to then submit to a “Truth Rundown” where an “Ethics Officer” does an “auditing” session with you by examining each Knowledge Report. If you say that you saw someone high-ranking like Tom Cruise being an asshole, you then have to say what “overt” (sin, basically) you committed before Tom committed his, and so on. She writes:

The Truth Rundown worked; I started to crack. I begged [the auditor] to stop, and when that didn’t work, I looked into the camera in the wall of the auditing room and directly at the person watching the sessions. “This is not LRH,” I pleaded. “You are destroying my and your own faith.”

Remini endured weeks and weeks of 12 hours a day in auditing, until she “retracted almost everything.” She said that she was the source of the problems at the wedding, and then had to make up for her wrongdoing with a number of gifts and donations, including a gift basket with a letter of apology to J.J. Abrams, whom she was told was upset by her behavior at the wedding.

For Holmes, she spent $2,000 on framing the invitation and other mementos from the wedding for a picture box with a note that read, “I’m so sorry that I destroyed your wedding.” Katie simply responded with a text: “Just handle it with your MAA.” (A MAA is a Master-at-Arms, who oversees ethics at the church.)

Best wedding ever?

See also: 7 Fun Non-Scientology Stories in Leah Remini’s Book

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Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes exchanged vows Saturday in a lavish, star-studded wedding celebrated in a fairy-tale setting: a glowing 15th-century castle in this medieval lakeside town.

Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez and Jim Carrey were among the more than 150 relatives and friends at the union of “TomKat,” whose relationship has created a media firestorm since the superstar couple announced it little more than a year and a half ago.

Giorgio Armani, who designed the clothes of the entire wedding party, was there too, as was Brooke Shields, who has patched up a very public rift created when Cruise criticized her for using prescription drugs to treat postpartum depression.

Oil-fed torches and tiny candles flickered from the battlements and windows of the Odescalchi castle as the couple and guests gathered for the evening wedding in the town about 27 miles northwest of Rome. The ceremony was performed by a Scientology minister, the couple’s publicists said.

Bride dressed in ivory silk The couple’s baby, Suri, came dressed in white and in her mother’s arms, seven months after her birth created a sensation of its own.

The wedding party included Cruise’s two children, Isabella and Connor, from his previous marriage to Nicole Kidman, the publicists said in a statement. The best man was Cruise’s best friend David Miscavige and the matron of honor was Holmes’ sister Nancy Blaylock.

Holmes wore a black dress and boots before she changed into an off-the-shoulder ivory silk gown designed by Giorgio Armani for the ceremony. Her father, Martin Holmes, walked her down the aisle and she carried a bouquet of flowers made by Armani including calla lilies.

Cruise, who sported dark shades and waved to fans as he rode through the castle gates in a van, wore a single breasted navy blue Armani handmade suit, with an ivory silk French collar shirt of the same fabric as the bride’s gown for the wedding.

Armani told The Associated Press that Cruise, then Holmes, walked down a stone ramp lined with flag bearers in medieval costumes and to the roll of drums.

‘Surprise and awe’ They exchanged vows in a former stable decorated simply with white flowers.

“For the Americans, this was very special because Americans do not have this kind of thing back home, and they dream of such things in our beautiful country, and you can see the surprise and the awe on their faces,” Armani said.

He added that the 20-minute ceremony ended with “a never-ending kiss” that prompted some of the guests to shout “stop, stop!”

Other famous guests included soccer star David Beckham’s pop star wife Victoria, formerly known as Posh Spice of the Spice Girls.

Cruise and Holmes arrived separately to the castle earlier Saturday, with pouring rain forcing Holmes and her daughter to take shelter under large, green umbrellas as they left their limousine. The sun was shining on the castle when Cruise arrived in a van from Rome, where the family had been staying in a luxury hotel near the Spanish Steps, with some fans shouting, “Tom, Tom!”

A watch for the groom When the groom drove up, Holmes watched from a castle window and anxiously gestured with her hand. Holmes was giving Cruise a Vacheron Constantin watch engraved simply, “I Love You,” as a wedding gift, the company said. It said she bought the gift in Los Angeles last week.

As the sun began to set, candles were placed in pots along the road to the castle and in some of the windows. Men wearing tuxedos and women holding up the hems of their long gowns walked up the steep path to the castle.

Security was tight, with Carbinieri paramilitary police patrolling the walls of the castle and all vehicles banned from the center of Bracciano.

The flag of the Odescalchi family, whose ancestors include Benedetto Odescalchi, the 17th century pope Innocent XI, fluttered over the castle’s towers.

Thousands brave rain for a glimpse “When I first walked here, I didn’t know why they chose this place,” said Emily Roeder, 19, of Atchison, Kan., who came to Bracciano for the day from Florence, where she is studying. “Then I saw the castle and the streets all around, and it’s really romantic.”

Hundreds of the town’s 14,000 residents and fans of the stars braved intermittent rain to catch a glimpse of the arrivals.

“I want to see at least one of them — even if it’s not Tom Cruise,” said 15-year-old Erica Bandiera.

“I want to see Beckham’s wife,” said her friend Luca Costanzi, 15, with a huge grin.

Holmes and Cruise became engaged in June 2005, about two months after they went public with their relationship, kissing and posing for photographers in Rome. Their daughter was born April 18.

Roller-coaster year for Cruise Much of the attention given to Cruise since he jumped up and down on Oprah Winfrey’s couch proclaiming his love for Holmes has been negative. He was mocked for that episode, criticized for his comments about Shields and questioned about his embrace of Scientology, the religion founded by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard that holds an opposition to psychiatry and related medication among its tenets.

In August, Paramount Studios severed its 14-year deal with Cruise’s film production company; Sumner Redstone, whose company owns Paramount Pictures, said “his recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount.” Earlier this month it was announced that Cruise and his producing partner, Paula Wagner, are taking over the Hollywood movie studio United Artists.

Scientology ceremonies contain many elements of traditional weddings, including rings and vows. But they also include certain Scientology fundamentals, including vowing never to go to bed without communicating about any differences.

A spokesman for the Church of Scientology for Rome, Fabrizio D’Agostino, said an exchange of vows with a Scientology rite was not legally recognized in Italy, and would have to be preceded or followed by a civil union.

The publicists said Cruise and Holmes had “officialized their marriage in Los Angeles prior to their departure for Italy,” saying that was customary for couples marrying outside the United States. Cruise’s publicist Arnold Robinson did not immediately reply to an e-mailed question about whether that meant they had been married in a civil ceremony.

Cruise, star of the “Mission: Impossible” series and “War of the Worlds,” was divorced from Kidman in 2001, was previously married to Mimi Rogers and had a high-profile romance with Penelope Cruz. Holmes, who starred in TV’s “Dawson’s Creek,” and last year in “Batman Begins,” had been engaged to Chris Klein.

Tom & Katie's Scientology Wedding Ceremony

The Traditional Scientology Wedding Ceremony

The double ring wedding ceremony.

(Holding up a ring between the thumb and forefinger of each hand:)

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Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's 2006 union was the 'wedding of the century.' Their photographer shares what it was like to shoot the event.

Robert evans, who photographed the former couple's nuptials, talks to yahoo entertainment..

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Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes tied the knot in “the wedding of the century,” 17 years ago.

While it’s unclear exactly who officially gave it that title — a term used by the media, including CBS News and Fox News , at the time the pair married at an Italian castle on Nov. 18, 2006 — it continues to be used, for example, most recently in Leah Remini’s recent Scientology lawsuit .

While the union wasn’t forever, the wedding certainly was an extravaganza — costing more than $3 million, according to E! News — with multiple days of events, A-list guests and gawkers hoping to get a glimpse of the famed movie star and his Dawson’s Creek actress bride outside Castello Orsini-Odescalchi in Bracciano. A wedding photo, snapped by photographer Robert Evans , showing the pair cheek to cheek against a vined castle wall confirmed it was official.

The lead-up

The public had been hyped up about the coupling after the pair went public in April 2005. They were outwardly so in love , as evident by Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch while gushing over “Kate.” For her part, she revealed that Cruise, who was 16 years her senior, was her childhood crush. They cruised into a premiere with her on the back of a motorcycle like a real-life Maverick and Charlie from Top Gun . Not two months after they started dating, he proposed at the Eiffel Tower, which was announced at a press conference .

It all seemed too much to believe — and there was skepticism. Was it a publicity stunt? Had she really auditioned to be his third wife? Holmes fired her agent and publicist and started having Scientology handlers sit in on her interviews . There was the ultrasound machine flap and speculation Holmes would have to have a silent birth . But, more pressing, was she even pregnant at all ? The rumors quickly spun out of control, so much so that they hid away baby Suri for months after she was born in April 2006.

By October 2006, however, the baby had made her world debut in Vanity Fair. And the couple publicly confirmed they had set a date to wed. So by Nov. 18 of that year, when Cruise, who had previously been married twice, and Holmes were ready to say “I do,” the world was eagerly following along. On the guest list were A-listers Jennifer Lopez, David and Victoria Beckham, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy and it was a who’s who of Scientology (church leader David Miscavige was Cruise’s best man), making it a spectacle impossible to look away from or avoid hearing about.

The firsthand account

While the world was watching — and crowds lined the street outside — it was just another day of work for the couple’s wedding photographer, Evans.

Evans recalled to Yahoo Entertainment being asked — along with other wedding photographers with experience capturing celebrity weddings (he shot Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt’s 2000 nuptials ) — to submit his work for consideration. He had never met the bride- or groom-to-be. Cruise ended up being the one to hire him — and was very enthusiastic while doing so.

“When I met him for the first time, he was very excited to meet me,” says the author of The Secrets of Spectacular Wedding Photography . “ It was around the time he was kinda getting the bad press for the couch-jumping thing. But he was super-nice. He was like: ‘I’m so happy to meet you! When I saw your book, I was like: That’s my guy! That’s my guy!’   He was excited about it. I'm meeting Tom Cruise for the first time, this is within the first minute of us meeting, and I was like ... ‘Thank you?’ I'm not great with compliments.”

Evans and another photographer flew to Rome for the festivities, though not by private plane. They stayed next door to the hotel Cruise, Holmes and their guests, approximately 150 total, were in. Evans covered two days of events prior to the wedding, so he was ready for go time on the big day.

“It seemed very real and natural to me,” he said of the vibe between the bride and groom, who both wore Giorgio   Armani and were serenaded by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. “They just seemed like they were having a great time and they were in love. Obviously I’m not thinking about that [while I’m working], but you are observing and you see it. But then the pictures reflect it. I guess they’re actors; they could have been faking it. But I just go there and do my job and shoot what I see.”

As for the celebrity guest list, he says the “wow factor” of being among a star-studded crowd wears off quickly when you’re busy trying to capture a couple’s big day. When we list some of the guests — like Lopez and the Smiths — he says, “It's funny, I was like, I don’t even remember them being there.”

Evans says one thing he’s learned being “on the inside” for famous weddings — including Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton’s 2011 wedding — is that “the stuff that gets reported after is usually not very accurate. People are speculating because they don’t know the truth.” And because of nondisclosure agreements, “obviously, you can’t tell anybody that the flowers were pink or the cake was this, so they all speculate, and a lot of stuff you hear, that's not what happened. It gives a little insight into what it must be like to be a celebrity and having no privacy. Yes, I realize that’s the job that they chose, but that’s the con that goes with the pro.”

As for the wedding photos that get released, Evans says they’re never ones he’d pick himself from his batch of approximately 3,000 to 5,000 photos snapped at an event like that.

“If it were up to me, although I liked that photo of them, I would choose different images,” he says. “I mean that it’s kind of true with every celebrity that I’ve ever [shot].”

That’s because the magazines that buy the pictures — which People magazine did back in the day for this wedding — “want certain things: the traditional walk down the aisle, the cake photo.” Today, there aren’t the same bidding wars over celebrity wedding photos because publications are selling fewer magazines. And social media has made it so that stars share their own first pic directly with fans.

It’s also not lost on him that when a celebrity couple splits, the wedding photos are “the same images that get flashed all over again” in the press and online, “and it kind of tears it all apart.” So sometimes Evans is not that sad that the world doesn’t get to see some of the more beautiful and intimate moments he captures.

The uncoupling

In 2012, Holmes filed for divorce from Cruise after nearly six years of marriage in what was called “a calculated breakup .” Eleven days later, it was ironed out in a shockingly quick divorce settlement. Holmes got primary legal   custody of their now-teen daughter. Mother and daughter moved to New York City full-time; Cruise — who also has two children with actress Nicole Kidman — hasn’t been spotted publicly with Suri in years.

The exes have said very little about one another since, but in a lawsuit deposition in 2012, when Cruise sued over a report that claimed he “abandoned” Suri, he said yes when asked if Holmes told him one of the reasons she was leaving him was to protect their daughter from Scientology . He also said that Holmes left the Church of Scientology and that Suri was not a member. Meanwhile, Holmes told Ocean Drive in 2015, “I don’t really regret anything that I’ve done. I’ve learned from everything, and everything sort of leads you to the next place. I just keep going.”

It’s unclear who Cruise may or may not be in a relationship with. ( There are always rumors .) Holmes was in a longtime relationship with actor Jamie Foxx and later dated NYC restaurateur Emilio Vitolo and musician Bobby Wooten III.

The aftermath

The TomKat wedding was back in the news this year amid Remini’s lawsuit against Scientology.

The King of Queens actress, who left the organization in 2013 and has become a vocal critic, claimed she had been “stalked, surveilled, harassed, threatened, intimidated” since she left. Within the lawsuit were multiple mentions of Cruise, because she claimed her life as a Scientologist changed after his “wedding of the century.” The church has called her lawsuit “ludicrous” and “frivolous.”

Among Remini’s claims was that she asked where best man Miscavige’s wife, Shelly , was and it caused drama. She also claimed she witnessed other behavior at the wedding “that set off red flags,” including unethical contacts between various Scientology executives and others at the wedding, and when she spoke up about it, she was admonished. As a result, she claimed she was held at a Scientology facility for four months after the wedding. She also claimed she had to make amends to the newlyweds by donating money to name a seat in a theater after Suri.

Remini previously claimed, in 2015, that her invitation to the wedding came with a request to get her high-profile friends to attend , including her BFF Lopez and Lopez’s then-husband Marc Anthony. She said the church wanted to recruit them. (Lopez has denied being a Scientologist but said her father is .) She also claimed baby Suri was at one point crying on a bathroom floor and that nobody picked her up. Remini said at the time that Holmes accused her of “disrupting the party” and submitted a report to the church about her.

While the church has denied Remini’s claims, Holmes said at the time, “I regret having upset Leah in the past and wish her only the best in the future.”

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How Tom Cruise Got Us to Forget About His Scientology Ties

By Jon Blistein

Jon Blistein

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Mission accomplished: Cruise, Holmes on honeymoon after tying the knot

Social sharing.

Actors Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have flown to the Maldives for theirhoneymoon afterexchanging vows at their wedding in a 15th-century castle north of Rome on Saturday.

Holmes wore a fitted Giorgio Armani off-the-shoulder bridal gown with a train of ivory silk, lace and beaded crystal embroidery. Cruise wore a handmade Armani tuxedo at the ceremony presided over by a Scientology minister.

Cruise's best friend, David Miscavige, was best man, and Holmes's sister, Nancy Blaylock, was the matron of honour.

The couple, who have a baby daughter, Suri,landed in Italy earlier this week ahead of their wedding at Odescalchi Castle in the town of Bracciano,43 kilometres north of Rome.

The sun was shining as Cruise arrived wearing sunglasses. Fans shouted "Tom, Tom!" as he waved from the back seat of a van.

Some 6,000 candles lined the entrance to the castle, its towers and windows. The wedding and reception reportedly cost $2.5 million US.

Celebrities on the guest list included actors Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, soccer star David Beckham and his wife, Victoria, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Mission Impossible: III director J.J. Abrams, director Steven Spielberg and actors John Travolta, Richard Gere, Russell Crowe, Kirstie Alley, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Jim Carrey.

Notably, actress Brooke Shields was also invited. Shields and Cruise had a public spat overher use of anti-depressants for postpartum depression. The two made up earlier this year.

The castle, which can host up to 1,400 guests, is adorned with six towers, gardens and a nearby chapel.The medieval structure also has a library with a frescoed ceiling and a loggia looking out on the lake.It was also the location of the 1998 wedding between CNN foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour and James Rubin, then the spokesman for the U.S. StateDepartment.

Hundreds of photographers as well as residents and fans crowded in front of the town's square outside the castle.

Police were seen patrolling the walls of the castle and all vehicles werebanned from the centre of town.

Bracciano residents celebrate nuptials

One café had a sign which read: "Wishing you love and happiness."

A restaurant in the town was offering a "Tom e Kat" —a basket of parmesan cheese with truffles and mushrooms.

Scientology weddings include traditional elements such as rings and vows as well as a pledge never to go to bed without talking about any differences or problems.

Steps were taken to make marriage legal

The ceremony also stresses a tenet known as ARC: A for affinity, R for reality and C for communication.

The Scientology rite is not legally recognized in Italy and would have to be preceded or followed by a civil union. Cruise's publicist said "the required steps were taken for the marriage to be legal."

Cruise was once married to Nicole Kidman, withwhom he adopted two children — they were among the 150 people attending the wedding. The Australian actress sent her ex-husband andHolmes an expensive vase, wishing them a "lifetime of happiness."

Kidman married country crooner Keith Urban in a lavish event in Sydney, Australia, in March.Urban recently entered alcohol rehabilitation.

With files from the Associated Press

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Isabella "Bella" Cruise's relationship with Scientology is completely separate from her father's controversial involvement in the church.

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• Isabella had a secret Scientology wedding with non-Scientologist husband Max Parker, indicating her continued involvement with the controversial institution.

Tom Cruise was recently rumored to be leaving Scientology . But before that, Isabella Cruise, his adopted daughter with Nicole Kidman , shared how the controversial institution saved her via an email newsletter.

Isabella, who goes by Bella, has been estranged from her mother due to her commitment to the church. Here's how her Scientologist duties made her go from thinking it "wasn't right" for her to knowing "without any doubt that it does."

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Isabella cruise was saved by scientology training.

On March 19, 2010, members of the Church of Scientology received a promotional email from Cruise, talking about her "success story" in her "internship." She started off by claiming: "WE ALL NEED TO DO THIS. Wow. What an accomplishment. I've written this success many, many times over in my head. I want to get it just right. But now that it's time and I've forgotten many of my mentally penned notes, here comes the real one."

She then admitted that she wasn't interested in the training at first. "This journey started with my training, and even that was a bullbait. I knew I needed it but every fibre of my being fought me on it. Said I was the PC [preclear], that if I did it I'd get nothing from it and many more delightful little criticisms. I was overwhelmed before I started."

Finally, when she got into it, there was still something "missing" from it. "Finally I got through that and what a ride. It was incredible but I was BIs at the end," she wrote. "I had gotten SO much out of it but there was something missing and it really was messing with me. Hard. I couldn't figure out what it was."

Ironically, the internship that she was dreading after the training, would become the cure to her doubts. "The next thing was internship and lord knows I was not into it," she continued. "I tried to get into it but it was even worse than the training. I had so many reasons and excuses as to why I didn't need to do it and how it just wasn’t right for me. It turned out it was exactly what I needed."

Bella Cruise is a London-based artist whose paintings were featured at the 2021 exhibition in honor of the 30-year anniversary of Pretty On The Inside, the debut studio album of Courtney Love's band, Hole.

Soon, she was "that annoying girl in the org who would just talk endlessly about how incredible training is and how phenomenal the internship is." Talking about her journey as an auditor, she recalled: "I dragged out the testing and correction, just made it through the drilling and then finally began my auditing adventure, and wow, I wasn't prepared. This IS what I had been searching for. The missing piece. Suddenly everything began to make sense. My metering… Wow. It became clear I actually knew my metering."

She added: "Even to the point of having any slight doubt on a read. I know it wasn't a read. Beautiful thing about drilling, of course. The tech that I felt was wavering and on the verge of disappearing from my mind became part of me. I know it. Like really know it to the point that it’s just there man. I never thought I could know something like that."

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Isabella cruise chose to be a scientologist.

Despite a tough time in her fruitful Scientology training, Isabella made a choice as an adult to join the church , contrary to assumptions that her father forced her into it. Speaking to The Sun in 2019, Nicole said: "Motherhood is about the journey. There are going to be incredible peaks and valleys, whether you are an adopting mother or a birth mother."

She continued: "What a child needs is love. They have made choices to be Scientologists. It's our job as a parent to always offer unconditional love." Despite their strained relationship, Bella's Instagram name is Bella Kidman Cruise, which fans think is a hint that she and the Birth actress may be working on their bond.

Nicole and Tom's custody agreement was never made public after their 2001 divorce. Until now, they also refuse to talk about their marriage to the press . But it seems like Bella and her brother Connor Cruise have sided with their father since they were kids. Here's a timeline of the ex-couple adopting their eldest kids to them not talking to their mother.

Tom Cruise Baffled His Co-Stars With An Odd Habit

Isabella cruise had a secret scientology wedding.

In 2015, Bella married Max Parker, who's not a Scientologist. Still, they had a secret Scientology wedding, which Nicole didn't attend while Tom was banned despite paying for the ceremony . The eldest Cruise offspring clarified that she was on speaking terms with both her parents . She and Max just didn't want all that media attention. "Of course [we talk], they're my parents. Anyone who says otherwise is full of s**t," she told The Daily Mail in March 2016.

Even Max's parents weren't at the wedding. His mom, Beverly Parker said: "We didn't go but we knew all about it. We stayed away, we didn't want the media circus. The pair of them are lovely, I'm very pleased for them both and they're very happy." She also weighed in on Bella's distant relationship from her parents, saying that she's "getting away from" Hollywood by residing in England with Max.

EXPOSING Tom Cruise: Next LEADER of The SCIENTOLOGY CULT (BRAINWASHED, TORTURED, and ABUSED‪)‬ Let's Get Into It - Hosted by Sloan

• Society & Culture

Tom Cruise's involvement with Scientology has been a subject of much controversy over the years. Cruise, one of the most prominent members of the Church of Scientology, has publicly endorsed its teachings and practices. His close ties to the organization have often been scrutinized, with allegations of preferential treatment and influence within the church. Cruise's unwavering dedication to Scientology has been a defining aspect of his public image, shaping both his personal and professional life. Despite criticism and controversy surrounding Scientology, Cruise remains a staunch supporter and advocate for the organization. So, let's ge Tinto it. Please support the Let’s Get Into It Thank you to this episode's sponsor! Shopify: Go to https://shopify.com/sloan now to grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Podcast: http://bit.ly/LetsGetIntoIt  Apple:http://bit.ly/LetsGetIntoItApple  Spotify http://bit.ly/LetsGetIntoItSpotify  Google: http://bit.ly/LetsGetIntoItGoogle  All other creator credit: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1p1_EC5ZJrP8zPkhQ0DL1cT1fCjomcR2ouI1pB0G4_Zc/edit?usp=drive_link Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I t can be hard to squash a celebrity dating rumor when it spreads like wildfire -- just ask Elisabeth Moss. The "Mad Men" star was linked to fellow ScientologistTom Cruise at one point, with some people even thinking that Cruise and Moss dating were engaged . According to Moss, however, she and Cruise were never a couple. 

While doing press for their film "The Invisible Man" in 2020, the film's stars, Moss and Aldis Hodge, visited Andy Cohen for "Watch What Happens Live." During the "After Show," a caller broached the subject of dating rumors and asked Moss, "What was your reaction when you read those gossip stories that you were getting married to Tom Cruise?" Moss immediately burst out laughing and said, "How did you miss that?" when host Andy Cohen asked about said speculation.

"I actually was confused and also mainly, mainly got texts from people being like, 'I didn't know! Why didn't you tell me?'" Moss said. "And just confusion from my friends. But mainly poking fun at it, because obviously they knew that it wasn't true."

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Elisabeth Moss Cited A Hairstyle As To Why A Tabloid Picture Identified Her Incorrectly

While on the "Watch What Happens Live" After Show, Elisabeth Moss described seeing a magazine cover where she was believed to be standing next to Cruise, seen from the back. Moss said: "And then I saw it on the cover of one of the gossip magazines and I was like, 'I've never had that haircut.' Like it was supposed to be a picture of the two of us and I was like, 'I've never styled my hair like that. That's clearly not me.'"

The cover Moss referred to seems to be from OK! Magazine's February 2019 issue, which claimed the actors were dating. ""Elisabeth has known Tom forever because they both belong to the Church of Scientology," a source claimed (via Magzter ). "But early last year, she told a friend a shocking secret: She's always had a crush on him. She had no idea word would get back to Tom and it would bring them together." The woman reported to be Moss on the cover had curly blonde hair that seemed to rest on her shoulders, and her face wasn't visible, but  Moss' stunning transformation never included that specific hairdo. 

The Things reported the woman in the picture was actually Cruise's "Mission: Impossible — Fallout" co-star Vanessa Kirby. Although it's unconfirmed, that seems to be true based on a similar photo shared by Entertainment Tonight , which was snapped while Kirby and Cruise were acting.

Elisabeth Moss Doesn't Talk About Her Relationships Anymore

Elisabeth Moss is not the first woman Tom Cruise was falsely believed to be in a relationship with and she probably won't be the last. His "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One" co-star Hayley Atwell said the rumors she was dating Cruise made her feel "dirty." In 2023, Cruise was in a rumored relationship with Elsina Khayrova .

As for Moss, the "Handmaid's Tale" actor has been tight-lipped about her romantic life. After a tumultuous and short marriage to Fred Armisen, she did divulge that she had a boyfriend to Marie Claire in 2019 but didn't identify him. Moss told the outlet: "I learned you just don't talk about it. Who really gives a s*** whether or not I'm dating anyone? I hate to put that importance on it. I cringe a little." While Moss announced in 2024 on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" that she was pregnant, she has not identified a co-parent. Privacy is probably best, or else more speculation will fly.

Read the original article on The List .