tom cruise church of scientology

The hollowness of Tom Cruise

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

by Constance Grady

Tom Cruise has spent this year flying high, literally.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But who says the movie ever has to stop?

Tom Cruise saves chivalry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tom Cruise saves mankind (from thetans)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can Tom Cruise save Tom Cruise?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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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With Tom Cruise, it’s yet to reach the point where we, as a culture, are devastated, disheveled, distraught, screaming, “He can’t keep getting away with it!” He remains deeply beloved, and not even in an unsettling, upsetting way , like some of our other prominent problematic actors. And it has everything to do with the way Cruise has thrown himself completely into his work over the past 10 years or so — the way he’s effectively replaced Scientology with a different public-facing religion : The Movies.

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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. 

But by that point, Cruise had weathered the worst of the storm he’d largely wrought upon himself. His M.O. was simple: keep quiet and make movies — and the movies he made were good. Thanks to a creative partnership with writer/director Christopher McQuarrie, he revived the Mission: Impossible franchise and also dropped a few fan favorites, like Jack Reacher and Edge of Tomorrow . (The two also worked together on The Mummy , though, so clearly no one’s perfect.)

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? 

Cruise would’ve probably kept chugging along like this, but Covid-19 added a new dimension. When audio leaked in late 2020 of Cruise upbraiding Mission: Impossible crew members for not following pandemic protocols, the overall reaction was less shock, more awe. His dedication to making this movie was absolute, imbued with a clear-eyed understanding of the existential threat Covid-19 posed to the film industry. He backed up those words with the fight to keep Top Gun: Maverick off streaming and ensure it safely landed in theaters. He was handsomely rewarded with box office receipts, rave reviews, and respect from his peers. “You saved Hollywood’s ass,” Steven Spielberg told him at an Oscars luncheon earlier this year, “you might have saved theatrical distribution. Seriously.” 

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.”

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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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Tom Cruise and Scientology

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cruise and Miscavige declined requests for interviews.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Tom Cruise and an Explosive Scientology Book

Mike Rinder, former Church of Scientology executive, talks about leaving the church, ‘Top Gun,’ his new book, and more

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Matt is joined by Mike Rinder , former senior executive of the Church of Scientology. They discuss the moment he decided to leave Scientology, Tom Cruise’s current standing in the church, the impact of Top Gun: Maverick , the internet’s damning influence on the future of Scientology, and more—all detailed in his new book A Billion Years: My Escape from a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology .

Email us comments, questions, or ideas at [email protected]

Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Mike Rinder Producer: Craig Horlbeck Theme Song: Devon Renaldo

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How Scientology Protected Tom Cruise and John Travolta—and Banished Nicole Kidman

In this exclusive excerpt from his riveting memoir “A Billion Years,” former Church of Scientology senior exec Mike Rinder writes about the church’s courting of Hollywood celebs.

Mike Rinder

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty

Mike Rinder served as a senior executive within the Church of Scientology from 1982-2007, both on the board of directors and as head of their Office of Special Affairs, lording over the cult-like religion’s public image. He often acted as the public face of Scientology, speaking to the media and putting out PR fires.

Since leaving Scientology in 2007, he’s become one of the world’s premier Scientology whistleblowers, appearing in the HBO documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief , co-hosting the Emmy-winning A&E docuseries Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath , and currently co-hosting the Scientology podcast Fair Game (also with Remini). His new memoir, A Billion Years: My Escape from a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology , out Sept. 27 from Simon & Schuster, chronicles his time within the shadowy organization, the alleged abuses he witnessed, and his dealings with its leader David Miscavige.

In this exclusive excerpt from A Billion Years , Rinder writes about Scientology’s web of celebrities.

One thing Hubbard wouldn’t have wanted omitted was his brushes with celebrities. He was fascinated by them, and he name-dropped constantly, claiming association and interaction especially with Hollywood figures even during his time as a writer of pulp fiction. This fascination continued into Scientology, where he began to see them as a means of gaining publicity and acceptance. He even had a list of “target” celebrities to be lured into Scientology to help make it popular, and in the early ’70s he created the Celebrity Centre—a Scientology organization dedicated to the recruiting of celebrities in Hollywood. Miscavige also believed in the value of celebrities, and devoted a lot of time and attention to them. What was important to Miscavige became the priority for his underlings. –Mike Rinder

My days were endless, crammed with keeping track of Scientology’s enemies, conducting programs to neutralize them, putting out fires on the internet, and dealing with the constant celebrity issues.

Simon & Schuster

Perhaps the strangest celebrity encounter I had was with Michael Jackson. I became the go-to person in Scientology for Lisa Marie Presley during her marriage to Jacko. Her mother, Priscilla, had become involved in Scientology when Lisa Marie was young, and so she had been raised a Scientologist. She enlisted me in her efforts to convert Michael to Scientology, or at least to convince him to accept it. I gave them both a private tour of the L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition. Throughout the tour, Michael was extremely paranoid. He repeatedly dove to the floor, whimpering that he had seen someone taking photographs of him through the windows, though there was no line of sight to any publicly accessible location. Lisa Marie laughed it off and explained that he was always worried about the paparazzi. He was so soft-spoken I could hardly hear him, and his comments and questions were disjointed and childish. She had told me she thought Michael understood her because he had grown up in the media spotlight and never really had a childhood, similar to her own experience as the daughter of the King. But it was not to last—they divorced in 1996.

In March 1995 I flew to Wichita, Kansas, to attend the grand opening of a special Scientology mission. Miscavige had been pushing hard for celebrities to become more active in promoting Scientology, and Kirstie Alley was the first to take the step of putting money into opening a mission in her hometown. After the 1982 mission holder fiasco, few people had stepped up to open new missions, which had diminished the flow of new recruits into Scientology. Celebrities doing so would popularize the idea again. Alley was a longtime Scientologist who credited Scientology with curing her drug addiction. She had become a star on Cheers and was close friends with John Travolta, who had been at the top of the Scientology celebrity heap before Tom Cruise, though his career was now on a downward trajectory at the time when Cruise’s was heading to the stratosphere.

Travolta in fact piloted us all on his Gulfstream from LA to Wichita. I sat across from his wife, Kelly Preston, and played cards with Isaac Hayes and Lisa Marie Presley in the back (they would subsequently be persuaded to open a mission in Memphis). Kelly stunned me when she told me she had lived in Adelaide during her teen years, just a mile from where I lived, and had attended the sister school of the all-boys school where I had spent many years.

Tom Cruise didn’t attend, as he was shooting Mission: Impossible , but his presence in the Scientology orbit loomed larger than ever before. He was the biggest star in the world, and Miscavige was using this to his advantage. Despite the IRS victory, the German government still refused to recognize Scientology, believing the organization contradicted the country’s values and constitution. The idea of creating a world of supermen (Clears) and replacing wog law and government with Scientology principles cut too close to the bone of the earlier master race and its “Deutschland über alles” thinking for their liking. Miscavige wanted a campaign conducted against Germany, based on the Hubbard dictate of always attacking: in this case, claiming that the German government was persecuting Scientology just like the Nazis had persecuted the Jews. I was instructed by Miscavige to get Hollywood powerhouse lawyer Bert Fields, who was Cruise’s attorney, to help out. With Tom’s blessing, Bert took the cause of the supposed persecution of our religion in Germany personally. In January 1997, he bought a full-page ad in the International Herald Tribune designated “An Open Letter to Helmut Kohl,” signed by many of his clients and friends, including Goldie Hawn, Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Stone, and others, decrying the acts of the German government against Scientology. The country stood its ground, but the attempt did prove the mettle in Tom Cruise’s star power.

Tom Cruise speaks during the inauguration of the Church of Scientology in Madrid, Spain, on Sept. 18, 2004.

Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP/Getty

With Tom as Miscavige’s most important asset, the actor’s concerns became Scientology’s concerns. When Cruise became aware of an unauthorized biography by British author Wensley Clarkson, Miscavige told Cruise, “I will take care of this for you.” I was dispatched to London with Scientology in-house lawyer Bill Drescher to deal with the publisher and make sure nothing negative appeared in the book. Yes, a church lawyer and the head of the Office of Special Affairs were acting on behalf of Tom Cruise, paid for by the Church of Scientology. With a lot of persistence and veiled threats, we persuaded the publisher to allow us to “review and correct” anything related to Scientology in the manuscript. We went to the Blake Publishing offices in West London and collected a copy of the manuscript from the editor. We took it back to our room at the Savoy hotel and spent two days cleansing it of anything negative in return for a promise not to sue. In truth, the book didn’t reveal anything new, but it did contain some of what we considered the usual “inaccuracies” about Scientology—calling the E-Meter a lie detector and saying that Scientologists believe in aliens and that it costs a lot of money. In the overall scheme of things, had we done nothing to the manuscript, it would have made no difference to Scientology or Cruise, but it was another “see what I can do for you” feather in Miscavige’s cap with Cruise.

In 1997, cracks started to show in the relationship between Cruise and Miscavige during the filming of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut . Costars Tom and Nicole were effectively cut off from the world for a year as the notorious perfectionist Kubrick demanded reshoot after reshoot on the highly secretive closed set in London. Losing the day-to-day interaction with Miscavige and spending his time with Nicole had an effect on Tom. He was not checking in with Dave or even returning his calls. Miscavige, fretting that Nicole was pulling Tom out of Scientology, sent me to London to meet with Tom’s sister Lee Anne at the Dorchester hotel to try to find out what was going on. Lee Anne, a dedicated Scientologist following in the footsteps of her brother (he got his three sisters and mother in), claimed everything was fine and they were just busy, but Miscavige didn’t buy it.

Kelly Preston, John Travolta, and Priscilla Presley attend the Church of Scientology Celebrity Center 42nd anniversary gala held at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Center on Aug. 6, 2011, in Hollywood, California.

Ray Kachatorian/Getty

Not one to give up, Miscavige tasked Marty Rathbun with getting Cruise back in the fold. Rathbun began auditing Cruise under the direct supervision of Miscavige. As Cruise was gradually drawn back into the world of Scientology, he rededicated himself to the cause. This created a distance between him and Nicole. Rathbun worked with Bert Fields to hire infamous PI Anthony Pellicano to spy on Nicole and tap her phones. Rathbun also turned their two adopted children, Isabella and Connor, against Nicole by indoctrinating them into the Hubbard teachings of Suppressive Persons. When Tom and Nicole divorced, Miscavige was happy that the “negative influence” of Nicole was no longer dragging Tom away. Cruise thereafter became more fervent in his vocal public support of Scientology—and Miscavige.

While Marty was dealing with Cruise, I was tasked with the job of helping John Travolta with some public relations issues. Since the beginning of the ’90s, Travolta had been hounded by stories from various alleged male lovers, including one of his former pilots as well as a porn star. I met with John and his attorney, Jay Lavely, to help navigate these land mines. The National Enquirer reached out to Travolta and the church for responses. Realizing the potential PR damage a story of gay sex would have on the perfect Scientology couple of John and Kelly, we dug up dirt on the sources of the stories and threatened the media with lawsuits. The stories were shut down, and I became a trusted person in John’s life. Similar claims have continued to pop up over the years and they have been denied by Travolta or shut down. Gay allegations are land mines for Scientology. Scientology publicly claims it is not anti-gay (despite Hubbard’s writings to the contrary), yet the threat of a story describing a Scientologist as gay would cause panic internally because for a Scientologist, not being “cured” of homosexuality would indicate that the tech doesn’t work.

When convenient, our public statements were “We do not get involved in commenting on the personal lives of our parishioners, celebrity or otherwise.” In truth, we were very much involved in all aspects of their private lives. This was not reserved exclusively for the two big headliners, Cruise and Travolta. Kirstie Alley and her actor husband, Parker Stevenson, were brought to the Int Base to “resolve their marriage,” though Miscavige was not so interested in them personally—Kirstie was past her peak in Hollywood. I was the couple’s designated companion while they got their “marriage counseling.” I joined them for meals each day for the week or so they were there and engaged them in small talk. They ate in the tiny bar/café in the building that had been converted, theme-park style, to look like an old four-masted clipper ship, next to the large swimming pool reserved for Miscavige and his guests. Despite the circumstances, Kirstie was an entertaining mealtime companion—outrageous, funny, and sometimes inappropriately gross. Parker was an extremely pleasant man whose only apparent flaw was his lack of interest in Scientology. We didn’t talk about their marriage at all; that was off-limits. But I could tell Kirstie had decided there was no future for her with Parker and so the result was inevitable: divorce. Parker was “not into” Scientology. And to the organization, that was all that mattered.

Excerpted from A BILLION YEARS by Mike Rinder. Copyright © 2022 by Michael Rinder. Reprinted by permission of Gallery Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Entertainment | to be a superstar again, tom cruise downplayed scientology as his ‘driving force,’ report says, in recent years, being associated with the controversial church of scientology has become a liability for stars such as cruise and john travolta, who used to talk openly about their dedication to the organization.

But to accomplish this feat, Cruise didn’t just line up the right director, insist on the use of “practical effects” for the thrilling aerial sequences or demand that the film only open in theaters. Cruise also had to downplay what a new report says has long been the actor’s “driving force” to be a Hollywood hero: His devotion to the controversial Church of Scientology.

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

As Vox and other outlets have reported, being associated with Scientology has become a P.R. liability for stars such as Cruise and John Travolta, who used to talk openly about their dedication to the celebrity-friendly organization. Scientology has been accused of being “a pyramid scheme at best and at worst, alleged to be an abusive cult profiting from forced labor and human trafficking,” Vox said, citing lawsuits and reports from former members.

Over the years, the church has repeatedly and strongly denied accusations that it has financially exploited its members or engaged in other forms of abuse. It says these allegations have been concocted by disgruntled former members and that its critics are engaging in a form of religious bigotry.

Nonetheless, Cruise’s popularity plummeted in the mid-2000s after he indulged in some high-profile oversharing about Scientology and his personal life, according to Vox and other outlets. He jumped on Oprah Winfrey’s couch to declare his love for third wife Katie Holmes and publicly railed against Brooke Shield’s use of anti-depressants to alleviate her postpartum depression. In 2008, Cruise appeared manic and laughing in a leaked Scientology recruitment video, talking about how the church inspired him to become a savior figure in everyday situations.

By 2011, Wired declared that Scientology is one reason “no one takes Tom Cruise seriously anymore.” More negative publicity for Cruise and Scientology came the following year after Holmes suddenly filed for divorce. Stories emerged about how Holmes was eager to retain full custody of their daughter, Suri, and save her from Scientology’s influence. It’s also been reported that Cruise has since had little contact with his daughter because she and her mother didn’t become Scientologists.

Scientology is trending… It's a REMINDER that Tom Cruise chose this religion over his daughter pic.twitter.com/63CXhWeTDf — Neo Jane (@Neo_Jane8) July 22, 2022

The divorce opened up the floodgates for more “damning” reporting on Cruise’s connections to Scientology and his close friendship with leader David Miscavige, Vox said. A 2012 Vanity Fair exposé looked at the way Cruise allegedly relied on the church to find his next girlfriend after his split from Nicole Kidman, while Lawrence Wright’s 2013 book, “Going Clear,” reported that Cruise benefitted from Scientology ordering its members to fix up his homes or vehicles.”

In the 10 years since his split from Holmes, Cruise has worked “hard to change the narrative,” Vox writer Constance O’Grady has said. He has stopped his oversharing and almost turned himself into “a blank,” IndieWire reported . He rarely gives interviews and only talks to journalists if they agree to not ask him questions about his religion and family, Vox said.

One notable exception was in 2016 when a reporter for ITV managed to catch Cruise at the premiere of his film, “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” and ask him about Scientology, The Guardian reported. 

Cruise replied in general terms, saying, “It’s something that has helped me incredibly in my life. I’ve been a Scientologist for over 30 years. It’s something that is, you know … without it, I wouldn’t be where I am. So, it’s a beautiful religion. I’m incredibly proud.”

As more information about the organization’s alleged abuses has become public, through such vehicles as Leah Remini’s A&E show, “Scientology and the Aftermath,” “no Scientologist wants to be put in a position having to respond to questions about it,” Remini’s co-host, Mike Rinder, said to the Bay Area News Group in May.

Indeed, it’s hard to see Cruise these days letting himself be put in the same position as Elisabeth Moss. The star of “The Handmaids Tale” was pressed to explain her dedication to Scientology while sitting for an otherwise glowing New Yorker profile that was published in April.

For the publicity blitz for “Top Gun,” Cruise has avoided these kinds of one-on-one situations with reporters, while still generating enthusiastic headlines by landing a helicopter on an aircraft carrier at the film’s San Diego premiere, or gallantly escorting Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, into a theater in London.

Cruise’s effort to change the narrative has mostly been successful. He’s enjoying a late-career renaissance, with “Top Gun: Maverick” raking in both money and accolades. Writers also have hailed Cruise as the “biggest movie star in the world,” while serious talk has emerged that his performance in “Top Gun” could put him in contention for an Academy Award for the first time in more than 20 years, according to Vanity Fair.

“Maverick is not Cruise’s best performance, sure,” said Vanity Fair’s Katey Rich. “But as a distillation of everything that has made Cruise a generation-defining star, Maverick is pretty much perfect. If the Academy wants to finally award Cruise a statue, it’s not likely there will be a better opportunity to do so.”

Then again, Rich points out why a modern Oscars campaign could be challenging for an actor who has long “been protected by his tower of mega-fame and Scientology.” He’d need to “to embark on some kind of authenticity tour,” Rich said.

For megastars, that usually means addressing past scandals and personal demons in at least one major interview that’s guaranteed to go viral and shape the conversation about them. When Brad Pitt was in contention for a best supporting actor Oscar for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” he generated a lot of public good will by opening up to the New York Times and other outlets about his  struggles to overcome alcohol abuse, toxic masculinity and his painful divorce from Angelina Jolie.

It probably wouldn’t be so easy for Cruise to let go of his tightly controlled public image. “It’s one thing for Cruise to fly onto an aircraft carrier or hold court in front of a crowd in Cannes, and another entirely to open up for the kind of profiles or roundtable conversations that are ever-present in modern Oscar campaigns,” Rich said.

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Scientology film director ‘surprised’ there hasn’t ‘been a reckoning’ for Tom Cruise

‘going clear’ filmmaker alex gibney claimed the ‘top gun’ star is ‘not the kind of ambassador for scientology that he used to be’, article bookmarked.

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The director of the Scientology documentary Going Clear has said he is “surprised” there hasn’t been a “reckoning” for Tom Cruise .

The Top Gun: Maverick star is one of the highest profile members of the Church of Scientology , having joined the controversial religion in the 1980s.

Alex Gibney is a filmmaker known for directing the 2015 film Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief .

The film, which was vehemently denounced by the Church of Scientology upon its release, made a number of shocking allegations about the organisation, involving claims of abuse inflicted upon members and misconduct among its leadership. Representatives of the church denied the allegations.

Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine in a new interview, Gibney was asked what it was like to see Cruise endure as the “King of Hollywood”.

The interviewer begins by suggesting that Cruise “hasn’t had to answer a single question about [his involvement in Scientology] in the eight years since Going Clear ”.

“I agree,” replied Gibney. “And I’m kind of surprised. I think he took a step away, so he’s not the kind of ambassador for Scientology that he used to be — not like he was back in the day when he was making [2005 blockbuster] War of the Worlds and had a Scientology tent on the set.

“Being a star is super important to him,” he continued. “I agree, there hasn’t been any reckoning for him. It’s surprised me.”

The Independent has contacted a representative of Cruise for comment.

Earlier this year, Judd Apatow took aim at Cruise’s links to Scientology in a series of jokes while hosting the the Directors Guild of America Awards.

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

At the Golden Globes in January, Cruise was also roasted for his association with the Church , as host Jerrod Carmichael made reference to Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige who has not been seen in public since 2007.

“Backstage, I found these three Golden Globe awards that Tom Cruise returned,” joked the comedian. “I think maybe we take these three things and exchange them for the safe return of Shelly Miscavige.”

The Church has denied that Miscavige is missing. Last year, the LAPD issued a statement confirming that officers had personally made contact with Shelly Miscavige in 2014, and they had subsequently closed the missing persons investigation.

Gibney’s latest project, Boom! Boom! The World vs Boris Becker , is out now on Apple TV+.

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This a-list scientologist is the church’s ‘number one victim,’ ex-boss claims.

by Delilah Gray

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He added that it seemed like the Mission Impossible star almost worships the leader of the Church of Scientology, David Miscavige. “They really are like separated at birth. It was almost cute to see them together,” he said. “I think for Tom that’s a genuine friendship and almost worship.”

For those who don’t know, Cruise has been linked to the church for nearly 40 years since his first wife Mimi Rogers introduced him to the religion, per Cheat Sheet . Years into his involvement with the church, he has allegedly tried to recruit multiple stars, had multiple relationships end because of his involvement, and even allegedly had Scientologists cast him potential new partners .

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How Tom Cruise Was Introduced To Scientology: REPORT

Senior Entertainment Editor, HuffPost

Tom Cruise was already on his way to becoming a movie star well before he joined the Church of Scientology. With leading roles in hit films like "Risky Business" and "Top Gun," Cruise's celebrity status was quickly building, which made him a prime target to be inducted into the Church.

The actor was first introduced to Scientology -- a religion that was founded in 1953 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard -- in the late 1980s by his first wife, actress Mimi Rogers, whose father, Phil Spickler, was one of the church's most powerful members during the religion's early years, reports RadarOnline .

Today, Cruise is both the highest-paid actor in Hollywood and the public face of Scientology, rumored to be second in command with only the church's current leader, David Miscavige, above him. It's a far cry from Cruise's younger self, a dyslexic kid who once reportedly aspired to become a Catholic priest .

RadarOnline reports that Cruise was lured into Scientology by Rogers, who was seven years his senior, and became a believer when some of the church's methods helped him overcome his dyslexia.

"I knew some of the people who kid-gloved him into becoming a member," said Nancy Many, a former Scientologist who left the church after 27 years and now "works to help others who have been victimized, and to expose the abuse and crimes of her former group," according to her website.

Cruise's celebrity status meant special treatment, alleges Many, who explained that "everything was orchestrated and orientated. Tom has a problem reading so they don’t have him doing the course on his own and paired him up one-on-one."

Karen Pressley, a commanding officer of the church's Celebrity Centre in Hollywood from 1987 to 1989, confirmed these allegations to CNN .

"There was no bigger recruit than Tom Cruise," Pressley told CNN's Kareen Wynter . "My job was to ensure that celebrities were recruited, that celebrities were well serviced within our organization, and also to open up new celebrity centers around the world."

Pressley also confirmed Many's claims that celebrity members received special perks, and said that Hubbard targeted celebrities with the intention of adding credibility to the church's beliefs. In exchange for special treatment, Pressley claims that church leaders expected their star members to stay committed to the organization and endorse its benefits.

Cruise divorced Rogers in February 1990 and married actress Nicole Kidman in December that same year. Kidman reportedly never supported Scientology and Many claims that church officials manipulated Cruise into ending his marriage with the actress.

"The level of manipulation is unbelievable, it is like 'The Truman Show,'" Many told RadarOnline.

For years, Cruise's involvement with the church seemed like a mild quirk, even when it was reported in 2001 that the religion played a major role in his split from Kidman .

The actor's beliefs publicly came to the forefront in January 2004, when he announced that he thought psychiatry should be outlawed , and again in 2005 when he openly criticized actress Brooke Shields for using antidepressants to treat her postpartum depression, which led to an embarrassing argument with "Today" show host Matt Lauer.

With Cruise speaking so publicly about his beliefs, it prompted some to wonder if the actor had taken on an official leadership role within the church. When asked for comment about Cruise's level of involvement in the organization, the Church of Scientology International directed all questions about the actor to his publicist and lawyer. Cruise's lawyer Bert Fields, told The Huffington Post that, "Tom Cruise has no official role, title or position in the Church of Scientology. He is simply a parishioner."

Cruise may not have an official role in the church, but he's easily the religion's most identifiable member, which is why as soon as news broke that his third wife, actress Katie Holmes, had filed for divorce on June 29, it was widely reported that Scientology played a major role in her choice to end the marriage -- specifically her concerns for the couple's 6-year-old daughter Suri's involvement with the Church.

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The former couple were able to reach a settlement agreement just over a week after Holmes reportedly blindsided Cruise with the news. The details of the settlement are to remain private, but Cruise's lawyer issued a statement downplaying the church's role in Cruise's divorce.

"Let me be very clear about this. The Church of Scientology played absolutely NO ROLE in the divorce settlement talks at all. Period. The mere suggestion that the Church was involved in any element of the talks and ultimate settlement is categorically false. Anyone suggesting otherwise is just wrong," Fields told RadarOnline .

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Former Scientologist shares his story, interactions with Tom Cruise

After being raised in the Church of Scientology, Brendan Tighe says he signed a “Billion-Year Contract” with the Sea Organization, which is devoted to the most devout members of the church. Tighe says that reports of auditions to be in a relationship with Tom Cruise were accidentally sent to his printer, which is how he learned that an interaction with Cruise and actress Scarlett Johansson didn’t go well. He left scientology in 2011, and joins Megyn Kelly TODAY with his story.

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Tom cruise’s p.r. coup: from wacky scientologist to ‘top gun’ golden boy.

For all the crazy aerial maneuvers and tricky stunts in “Top Gun: Maverick,” the most impressive one takes place on the ground.

Tom Cruise has piloted his way back into America’s hearts and made everyone forget his days as an unhinged Scientology ambassador with a penchant for jumping on Oprah’s couch.

The sequel — which was delayed multiple times due to the COVID pandemic — raked in a record-breaking $156 million its opening weekend.

Now 59, Cruise hardly looks like he’s scraping his sixth decade. He’s still performing his own stunts, showing off his impossibly ripped torso on-screen and flashing his trademark smile that seduced audiences early in his career. He’s been ubiquitous, working international red carpets in Japan and Cannes and even hobnobbing with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, whom he helped up the steps at the film’s London premiere .

Cruise’s fingerprints are on every aspect of the movie, including the intense flight training for actors and pushing for an in-theater release — the timing of which couldn’t be more perfect. Moviegoers are even welcomed with a prerecorded message from the actor thanking them for making the trip to see it in theaters.

It’s been such a triumph and testament to Cruise’s enduring movie magic that it’s difficult to remember the “Jerry Maguire” star had become almost toxic two decades ago and branded a wacky zealot.

While promoting “War of the Worlds” in 2005, the usually private star infamously stood on Oprah’s couch and proclaimed his love for then-fiancée Katie Holmes, whom he’d marry before divorcing in 2012 . He then sat down with Matt Lauer of “Today” and lambasted him over the use of antidepressants, saying, “You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do.”

The damage to his reputation was amplified at a time when celebrity blogs and YouTube were coming into existence, allowing his bizarre antics to go viral. He also was increasingly seen as the face of Scientology, which was starting to endure a p.r. crisis of its own. (An embarrassing video in which Cruise extolled the virtues of Scientology was leaked in 2008.) It didn’t help that he had parted ways with Pat Kingsley, his hard-nosed, controlling publicist, in favor of his sister, Lee Ann DeVette.

However, that was only part of the story.

At first, what happened off-screen didn’t affect his big-screen appeal. In fact, the Steven Spielberg-directed flick opened to $64.9 million. But then, the following year, Viacom head Sumner Redstone briefly ended Paramount’s working relationship with the actor’s production company , citing his “unacceptable” fanatical behavior, which he said negatively impacted ticket sales for “Mission: Impossible III.”

The effect on Cruise was profound.

“It was like he came out in front of the curtain, and he had tomatoes tossed at him, so he closed the curtain. He made his world very small,” Amy Nicholson, the author of “ Tom Cruise: The Anatomy of an Actor ,” told The Post.

He dropped his sister for veteran publicist Paul Bloch, who passed away in 2018.

Nicholson said Cruise, who had previously taken supporting roles in offbeat Oscar vehicles like “Rain Man,” instead opted for the safe blockbusters that continued to pull in money and adoration from the masses.

While he shut down any attention on his personal life, he used red carpet premieres to charm audiences across the world.

“I think Tom was always savvy about publicity. He was always that person who was going to do more country visits and more red carpets and set the template for the global star. Then Will Smith followed,” said Nicholson.

Cruise has also pushed back against the trend of celebrities becoming accessible and relatable on social media — and it’s been to his advantage.

“There’s a lot of pressure to make pasta on Instagram Live,” Nicholson added. “Do you want to be people’s friends or a movie star?”

Even people like Smith, who was riding in Cruise’s wake, joined in his wife’s salacious tell-alls — airing their dirty laundry and details about their open marriage — before slapping Chris Rock at this year’s Oscars . Add in Johnny Depp’s grotesque warts-and-all defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard, and we’re watching the unraveling of our Hollywood A-listers in real-time.

According to Matt Belloni of Puck News , the “Top Gun: Maverick” premiere was highly controlled and media outlets were vetted to ensure they wouldn’t ask about Scientology issues.

“It’s almost exclusively TV, and outlets were informed they must use professional-grade cameras, no iPhone footage allowed. That’s unusual, but Tom is Tom, and Tom’s got to look great,” Belloni said.

If shaky iPhone footage appears, it’s Cruise with a fan, said Nicholson.

“When you work with Tom Cruise, you know it’s going to be a first-rate event,” said a veteran publicist who has worked many junkets and premieres with the actor. “Everything will be buttoned up. He is very focused.”

The publicist explained that he’s a singular force during the premieres.

“He’s genuinely a nice person to staffers, publicists and fans,” she said, recalling a junket in Vienna for a “Mission: Impossible” where it was roasting hot.

He wrapped up an interview, looked over at her and noticed she wasn’t comfortable. “He asked if I was OK and if I wanted to go stand in the shade. He’s very aware of his surroundings.”

And his controversial religion aside, he still has the clout of the a bonafide Tinseltown titan.

“When you are in his presence, you feel like you are in the presence of a movie star,” the publicist said. “There’s not many actors I can say that about.”

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Celebrity Scientologists and those who left the church: Tom Cruise, Leah Remini, more

L . Ron Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology in February 1954 and since then, the controversial religion has been met with a lot of criticism for its “cult-like” beliefs.

However, many people, including several celebs, have turned to the faith for spiritual guidance.

Below are the stars who have remained loyal to the Church of Scientology — and those who quit the religion.

Tom Cruise is widely considered to be the celebrity poster child for Scientology. His first wife, Mimi Rogers, introduced him to the religion in 1986 and he’s been a devout follower ever since.

The “Mission Impossible” star is allegedly “ considered a deity within Scientology” and Leah Remini, who left the church in 2013, once said he is second in command to leader David Miscavige and considered “the savior of the free world.”

However, Cruise has reportedly felt “persecuted” for his beliefs because many of his life decisions have come under severe scrutiny — and Scientology has been said to be behind them.

The church allegedly facilitated the “Top Gun” star’s split from Rogers and helped him get together with his second wife, Nicole Kidman. Scientology has also been blamed for keeping Cruise from his daughter Suri , whom he shares with his third wife, Katie Holmes, and whom he has not seen in 16 years .

Holmes, who was raised Catholic, divorced Cruise in 2012 and did not want Suri to be a Scientologist to “protect” her from the controversial religion.

Remini had been part of the Church of Scientology since childhood. Her mother, Vicki Marshall, introduced her to the religion .

Page Six exclusively reported in July 2013 that Remini quit the church after years of being allegedly subjected to “interrogations” and “thought modification” because she reportedly once asked about leader David Miscaviage’s wife, Shelly Miscavige, who had not been seen in public since 2007.

The “King of Queens” alum then launched a crusade against Scientology after leaving to expose their alleged misdeeds.

In 2016, her docuseries, “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath,” which told the stories of former church members, premiered on A&E. It ran for three seasons.

Remini then sued the Church of Scientology in August 2023, claiming they had stalked, harassed her and caused emotional distress.

The church denied any wrongdoing in a statement and called Remini’s allegations “lunacy.”

John Travolta was raised Catholic but converted to Scientology in 1975 at age 21 after his former “The Devil’s Rain” co-star introduced him to the religion.

“He was extremely unhappy and not doing well,” Joan Prather said at the time, per the Hollywood Reporter .

After signing up for the Hubbard Qualified Scientologist Course at the Celebrity Centre, Travolta reportedly boasted that his career had taken off.

The “Grease” star has been a staunch defendant of Scientology over the years. The Church was widely criticized following the deaths of his close relatives, which many believed could have been avoided .

In 2009, Travolta’s son, Jett, suffered a seizure at age 16 that led him to fall and fatally strike his head on a bathtub at a hotel. The Church of Scientology reportedly discouraged the use of medication for seizures.

Travolta’s wife, Kelly Preston, then died in August 2020 at age 57 after a secret breast cancer battle .

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It’s unclear if she received treatment, as Scientologists teach that through “Dianetics,” church founder Hubbard’s official theory about the religion, auditors within Scientology can treat and even cure some of their mental and physical diseases. 

Travolta, however, has praised the church for being there for him during difficult times, saying in 2015 after Jett’s death, “I’ve been brought through storms that were insurmountable, and (Scientology has) been so beautiful for me, that I can’t even imagine attacking it.”

Travolta’s longtime pal and “Look Who’s Talking” co-star, Kirstie Alley, was also a Scientology member.

After being introduced to the religion by a neighbor, the actress joined the church in 1979 in an effort to free herself from her cocaine addiction .

Alley told “Entertainment Tonight” in 2012 that she was then admitted into Scientology’s rehab network, which reportedly promoted long hours in a sauna and an increased vitamin intake.

“Miraculously, and I do mean miraculously, I had one Scientology session and never did cocaine again,” she told the entertainment news program.

Alley died in December 2022 after a short battle with cancer at age 71. She reportedly received treatment at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla.

Tony Ortega of the long-running Scientology blog “The Underground Bunker,” told Page Six at the time that Scientology is “against psychiatric care and psychiatric drugs” but followers are “not stopped from seeking medical treatment if they have cancer,” adding members are not told to not go to the hospital.

Scientology members reportedly believed Alley achieved superhuman status , reaching OT VIII, which according to Ortega is the highest you can go on the “Bridge to Total Freedom,” Scientology’s primary action plan toward spiritual freedom.

Danny Masterson was raised in the Church of Scientology as his stepfather, Joe Reaiche, and mother Carole Masterson, were members of the Sea Org, the church’s clergy.

The “That ’70s Show” alum reportedly tried to woo some of his famous buddies, including Ashton Kutcher, into practicing the faith as well.

Before his May 2023 convictions for rape and 30-year prison sentencing thereafter , the Church of Scientology’s alleged secrets were aired out during the trial.

One of the accusers testified that a church official told her to put in writing that she would “take responsibility” for a 2001 sexual assault Danny allegedly committed.

Another claimed a church lawyer showed up to her family’s house and threatened to expel her from the congregation if she told police the “Men at Work” alum raped her.

After Danny was found guilty, it was rumored that he had gotten expelled from the church because he had been deemed a “suppressive person,” which is an individual whose behavior seeks to impede the spiritual progress of those around him, but the allegation was never confirmed.

Danny’s estranged wife , Bijou Phillips, also practiced Scientology alongside the actor.

However, the Daily Mail reported in January 2024 that the former model quietly left the church “a few weeks” after her ex was reportedly declared a suppressive person.

An insider said at the time, “It’s never an easy decision to leave Scientology because you face being ripped apart from your family and friends who are still members. 

Danny’s “That ’70s Show” co-star Laura Prepon was raised Catholic and Jewish, but later converted to Scientology in 1999.

Prepon revealed in August 2021 that she quit the church five years prior, noting that she and her husband, Ben Foster, who never practiced Scientology and whom she wed in 2018 , preferred meditation.

The “Orange Is the New Black” alum also said at the time that motherhood “forced [her] to look at a lot of things in [her] life that [she] wasn’t looking at before.”

Elisabeth Moss’ parents joined Scientology before she was born, so the “Mad Men” alum was raised in the church since childhood. She is currently still a member.

Moss has said that she thinks Scientology is “misunderstood,” telling the New Yorker in April 2022 that it’s “not really a closed-off religion.”

The “Handmaid’s Tale” star added at the time, “It’s a place that is very open to, like, welcoming in somebody who wants to learn more about it.”

Lisa Marie Presley was introduced to Scientology as a young child by her mother, Priscilla Presley, following her father Elvis Presley’s death.

Amid her struggles with drug abuse as a young teen, the songstress underwent three Scientology Purification rundowns , but they reportedly didn’t work.

Former top-ranking Scientologist Karen de la Carriere previously told The Post, “She would always relapse.” However, a Scientology rep denied Carriere had any firsthand knowledge of the situation.

Lisa Marie also raised her children , including Riley Keough, in the church, but she decided to leave the institution in 2014 after reportedly getting into an argument with Miscavige.

The “Lights Out” singer later opened up to Ortega about her time in the church, reportedly alleging that after she got Elvis’ inheritance at 25, church members “started grooming [her] to be this person who would go out and get everyone else in.”

She also said of Cruise, “I f–king hate Tom. I met him 20 years ago. I said I never want to be in a room with him again.” Lisa Marie died in January 2023 of complications from a small bowel obstruction .

Doug E. Fresh confirmed to Essence Magazine, per AllHipHop.com , that he practiced Scientology after being introduced to it by his ex-girlfriend and Hot 97 radio personality, Miss Jones.

“I am the first hip-hop artist to do it,” he told the publication at the time. “Miss Jones stopped going but I continued. I found it fascinating. It changed how I thought.”

The famous beatboxer concluded, “I’ve learned how to look at things and not judge them but respect them and use it in a way that people understand that I respect them, show them love and respect their reality.”

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

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

BuzzFeed Staff

1. Left: Jerry Seinfeld

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

2. In it: Michael Peña

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

3. Left: Laura Prepon

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

4. In it: Elisabeth Moss

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

5. Left: Katie Holmes

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

6. In it: Juliette Lewis

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

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

7. Left: Nicole Kidman

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

8. In it: Kirstie Alley

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

9. Left: Jason Lee

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

10. In it: Giovanni Ribisi

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

11. Left: Christopher Reeve

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

12. In it: Jenna Elfman

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

13. Left: Mimi Rogers

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

14. In it: Ethan Suplee

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

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

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15. Left: Beck

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

16. In it: John Travolta

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

17. Left: Neil Gaiman

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

18. In it: Nancy Cartwright

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

19. Left: William S. Burroughs

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

20. In it: Danny Masterson

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

21. Left: Leah Remini

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

22. In it: Tom Cruise

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

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Tom Cruise Reportedly Stepping Away From Church of Scientology, But Is It True?

By Ashley Turner - August 25, 2022 05:10 pm EDT

Is  Tom Cruise parting ways with the  Church of Scientology ? As reported in this week's edition of the  National Enquirer , Cruise is withdrawing from the controversial religion after its latest scandal. But that might be far from the truth.

According to the tabloid, via  Suggest ,  That '70s Show  actor  Danny Masterson is pulling Tom Cruise into legal trouble. In a new court case, Masterson is accused of sexual assault by three women, and the Church of Scientology is accused of concealing the crimes. The bad publicity for Cruise's religion is supposedly ruining his success from  Top Gun: Maverick . In response to the church's scandals, he's allegedly kept a low profile by selling off his U.S. properties and residing in London.

Sources told the outlet he might lose his Oscar chances due to his Scientology connection. "The tide has definitely turned against the Church of Scientology," an insider said. "And, because of Tom Cruise's longtime association [with Scientology], I don't think they would ever give him an Oscar."

There are also reports that Cruise has become so anxious about Scientology's impact on his career that it has worried church leader David Miscavige. "Anything the church, or Miscavige, can do to make Tom's life easier will be done," the source claimed, adding Cruise is receiving intensive PR training to handle the latest crisis.

While it is unlikely the movie star is distancing himself from Scientology, there is evidence that Cruise has downplayed his devotion to the organization. Founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard in 1953, the organization has become a PR liability for celebrities like Cruise and John Travolta , who used to openly discuss their commitment to Scientology. According to  Vox , former Scientologists have reported and filed lawsuits accusing Scientology of being an abusive cult profiting from forced labor and human trafficking. Throughout the years, the church has repeatedly denied financial exploitation or abuse of its members. It claims its critics are engaged in religious bigotry and have made these claims because they are disgruntled, former members.

Cruise's popularity suffered in the mid-2000s after he overshared details about Scientology and his personal life in a high-profile manner. He received negative publicity after jumping on Oprah Winfrey's couch to declare his love for third wife Katie Holmes and from her subsequent 2009 divorce. That opened the door to further reporting on Cruise's connections to Scientology and his close friendship with Miscavige, including a 2012 Vanity Fair exposé, and Lawrence Wright's 2013 book,  Going Clear .  However, Cruise is currently enjoying a late-career comeback.  Top Gun: Maverick   is a massive success, and the press is giving him largely positive coverage. Since his period of oversharing, Cruise has developed a reputation for being extremely private. 

According to  Vox , his religion and family life are off-limits to journalists before he agrees to an interview. Meanwhile, Cruise has kept making well-received movies, such as  Tropic Thunder (2008),   Rock of Ages   (2012),  and   Edge of Tomorrow   (2014) , with the  Mission: Impossible  franchise continuing to produce smash hits. Despite that, Cruise has maintained a successful career throughout Scientology's myriad controversies. Celebrities such as Cruise and Travolta frequently attribute their substantial achievements to the group. Also, Cruise stayed loyal even during the lowest period of his career, so it seems unlikely he would consider leaving during one of the highest.

Regarding Cruise's award prospects, the actor has garnered three Oscar nominations as a public, practicing Scientologist.  According to  Vanity Fair's  Katey Rich, there are serious talks that his performance in  Top Gun  could put him in contention for an Academy Award for the first time in more than 20 years.  Nevertheless, Rich points out that an Oscars campaign could be daunting for an actor who has long "been protected by his tower of mega-fame and Scientology." "It's one thing for Cruise to fly onto an aircraft carrier or hold court in front of a crowd in Cannes, and another entirely to open up for the kind of profiles or roundtable conversations that are ever-present in modern Oscar campaigns," Rich said.

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