Tom Cruise

[Andre Jurieu]

You guys should enjoy this one:

http://drtomcruisemd.blogspot.com/

[exte]

Here's a great article by the Hollywood Reporter.

Cruise loses PR wars as Pitt stays on message By Anne Thompson
Sun Jun 12, 7:23 PM ET

It used to be that no one messed with Tom Cruise. Now the media are having a field day. Why are they beating up on him? Because they can.

The energetic superstar used to be invulnerable. He was represented by Hollywood's most powerful talent firm, Creative Artists Agency. His production company, headed by ex-CAA agent Paula Wagner, is housed at Paramount Pictures, where studio chief Sherry Lansing would lavish her biggest budgets on his movies. He was married to Nicole Kidman, one of Hollywood's smartest actresses. And his press was handled by the head of Hollywood's most powerful PR firm, PMK-HBH's Pat Kingsley, who kept the press from talking about Scientology.

Anyone who has ever dealt with Kingsley knows that going up against her takes guts and the full backing of your organization. That's because she's willing to use her entire arsenal to protect her most powerful clients. With the bat of an eyelash, she'd withdraw the cooperation of her agency's other stars, refuse to cooperate on other stories or ban a publication from getting another star interview. (It took Premiere magazine several years to work itself back into her good graces after one tough "Mission: Impossible 2" story.)

Kingsley controlled the select magazine covers Cruise would do for each picture, the friendly interviewers he was most comfortable with, the photographers who shot him to look his best. Knowing that he didn't have much to say, she controlled his image, preserving his mystique as a movie star. Her PR philosophy has always been, "Less is more." Keep the fans guessing. Hold the star in abeyance. Keep everyone lining up clamoring for more.

So what changed? As Cruise heads toward 43, he's getting to that age when a star is not always sure what his appeal is. His domestic box office numbers have been down, masked by continuing strong foreign box office appeal. And he remains such a powerful client -- representing so many millions of dollars a year -- that CAA can't say no to him. Still, Paramount, which is now in transition under new chairman Brad Grey, refused to greenlight "Mission: Impossible 3" until it could bring down the budget -- and Cruise's share of the first-dollar grosses -- to a level that would permit the studio to make some of its considerable outlay back. (Everyone knows that Steven Spielberg and Cruise will take home the lion's share of the grosses on Paramount/DreamWorks' upcoming "War of the Worlds." That's a loss leader, a given.)

Tentpoles are supposed to make the studio some money, and Grey wasn't happy with the "M:I-3" projections, Paramount sources say. He also had some extra leverage in the negotiation. Cruise is no longer the only A-lister on the Paramount lot. Grey has long represented Brad Pitt and soon will announce a Paramount deal with Pitt's Plan B Prods. Pitt, who already is committed to Paramount's "Babel" and "Benjamin Button," isn't just another movie star. He is Cruise's main competition. His new movie, "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" topped the current weekend box office with an estimated $51 million its first three days, a career best both for Pitt and co-star Angelina Jolie..

Cruise and Pitt have much in common. They're both charismatic 40ish movie stars at the top of their game with a bigger following overseas than domestic and a predominantly female fan base. They can cherry-pick the best projects and directors. (As his three Oscar nominations attest, Cruise boasts a better rep as an actor.) They're both in recovery from busted marriages to famous actresses -- Pitt to Jennifer Aniston and Cruise to Kidman -- which always is a sensitive time for a male movie star. Kevin Costner's career, for one, never fully bounced back from fan backlash after he left his wife and broke up the family.

On the other hand, Kingsley had navigated the Cruise/Kidman breakup masterfully. And Pitt's PR rep, Cindy Guagenti, also knows what she's doing. In this Internet age, when every little movie-star morsel gets picked over and multiplies exponentially on the Internet beyond mere print and broadcast, you can't afford to make a mistake. Now it's virally transmitted on such gossipy sites as Defamer, Jossip and Liquid Generation -- where much of the stuff is sheer fiction. (Ask "Cinderella Man's" Russell Crowe, who might have just thrown away a sure Oscar nomination by allegedly throwing a phone at a hotel minion.)

But then, in March 2004, Cruise unexpectedly fired Kingsley. Why the break after 14 years in which the uber-publicist had guarded him fiercely? Kingsley's dictum to the press had always been, "Lay off Tom's religion." It was verboten to bring it up. But as he headed into his 40s, he wanted to talk about Scientology. It fell to Kingsley, at Warner Bros. Pictures' request, to instruct Cruise not to discuss Scientology during his European press tour for 2003's "The Last Samurai."

The next time she met with Cruise was her last, though. When he left for Europe, she was not on his jet.

Cruise replaced her with someone he could trust to do what he wanted: his older sister and fellow Scientologist, Lee Anne Mapother De Vette, who had long functioned as his assistant and PR go-between at C/W Prods. And Cruise's press since PR amateur DeVette took over has been markedly different.

He can't stop talking about Scientology, which is, arguably, his star-sapping kryptonite. In August's Rolling Stone cover story, he took the writer on a tour of the famed Scientology Center. "He's such a zealot now," says someone who received one of his Scientology Christmas cards. "There are no halfway measures anymore. He's beside himself with trying to convert the world."

The other Cruise hot-button issue that Kingsley controlled with an iron fist -- backed up by legal action from attorney Bert Fields -- was the media's insistence on questioning his heterosexuality. The rumors kept reasserting themselves despite Cruise's 10-year marriage to Kidman and a three-year relationship with his "Vanilla Sky" co-star, Penelope Cruz.

After the Cruise/Cruz breakup, the star didn't date anyone seriously for a year. (This prompted scuttlebutt that he was asking women out and getting turned down.) Then he set up a meeting with 26-year-old actress Katie Holmes. "One minute, they were having a professional meeting," one observer says. "The next they were lovers."

It's still unclear why, in a ham-fisted maneuver, De Vette was compelled to orchestrate the April public outing of the Cruise and Holmes affair in Rome, where Cruise received a lifetime achievement award at the David di Donatello Awards. ("War of the Worlds" wasn't opening until June 29.) The press, accustomed to having to chase down every nugget of elusive star gossip, reacted by suggesting that the whole thing was fake. When Cruise went wild on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," fed by the intensity of his gaga female fans, he jumped on the sofa, knelt on the floor and virtually howled his love at the moon.

Even the reputable media, including Time, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, couldn't resist the story. It didn't help that Cruise's religious beliefs prompted him to criticize Brooke Shields during an "Access Hollywood" interview for relying on psychiatry and prescription drugs to treat postpartum depression. He was far better off when journalists complained that he was a lousy interview with nothing to say. While a tsunami of bad press has swept over him, there is no evidence to suggest that Cruise is aware of it.

By extreme contrast, under Guagenti's stern direction, Pitt is handling his career like a consummate pro. Pitt and presumed romantic interest Jolie have kept their distance from the press. While they have been tracked by paparazzi, they have assiduously tried to avoid being caught. On the set of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," screenwriter Simon Kinberg says, they literally drove their trailers into an Ikea hangar every day until the press hordes gave up and went away.

In promoting "Smith," Pitt is also staying in message, or focusing on his humanitarian interests, as shown on ABC's "Primetime Live" last week when he talked with Diane Sawyer about feeding African children rather than his recent African safari with Jolie.

The question is, will all the bad publicity adversely affect Cruise's career? Although Cruise has not been promoting "War of the Worlds" effectively, the Spielberg/H.G. Wells/Cruise combo is not likely to be negatively impacted by its star's PR debacle. But "M:I-3," where Cruise controls a budget that could approach $200 million, is a different story.

Paramount sources say Grey is gravely concerned about the fate of this franchise. According to Paramount insiders, Grey insisted on cutting the budget and building in some protection against budget overruns. Cruise also trimmed his hefty profit-sharing arrangement.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

[Andre Jurieu]

I'm pretty sure Kidman is no longer a member of the Church of Scientology, and is back to being a Catholic. Wasn't it a rumor that one of reasons the marriage dissolved was over how they would raise their adopted children in terms of their faith. Of course, it now appears Katie is switching over.

The latest EW interview with Cruise makes it clear that all those annoying forwards I receive about "AIDS infected needles in movie theatre seats", "killers hiding in the back seat of my car", and "Bill Clinton having people executed and allowing Ossama to run free" are probably sent out by the Church of Scientology.

Yeah, I can't believe I'm extending this thread's life either. Give me a break, Au Hasard and Heaven have yet to arrive.

[exte]

Via AP:

Cruise Clashes With Lauer on 'Today' Show

NEW YORK - Tom Cruise criticized NBC "Today" show host Matt Lauer on Friday when Lauer mentioned Cruise's earlier criticism of Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressants. Cruise told Lauer he didn't know what he was talking about. "You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do," Cruise said.

The interview became more heated when Lauer, who said he knew people who had been helped by the attention-deficit disorder drug Ritalin, asked Cruise about the effects of the drug.

"Matt, Matt, you don't even — you're glib," Cruise responded. "You don't even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, OK. That's what I've done."

When asked if he could be with someone at this stage in his life who doesn't have an interest in the Church of Scientology — girlfriend Katie Holmes has said she's embracing the religion — Cruise told Lauer: "Scientology is something that you don't understand. It's like you could be a Christian and be a Scientologist."

"It is a religion. Because it's dealing with the spirit. You as a spiritual being. It gives you tools you can use to apply to your life."

Cruise, 42, and Holmes, 26, went public with their romance in April, smooching and posing for photographers in Rome. They recently became engaged.

Many have doubted the romance. The words "publicity stunt" have rained down on the couple like an alien invasion as Cruise has been busy promoting his new film, "War of the Worlds," directed by Steven Spielberg, which opens on June 29.

"You know what? There's always cynics. There always has been. There always will be," said Cruise, who hasn't been shy about displaying his affection for "Batman Begins" actress Holmes. "I have never worried ... about what other people think and what other people say."

"I have to tell you. It's just a great time in my life," Cruise said. "I'm really happy. And, you know, I'm engaged. I'm going to be married. I can't restrain myself."

The actor, whose marriages to Mimi Rogers and Nicole Kidman ended in divorce, declined to say what Holmes has brought to his life that wasn't there in the past.

"I don't want to compare things," Cruise said. "It's that thing where you just — in life when it just happens. ... You meet someone. And it's — I can't even describe it."

[Andre Jurieu]

Here's the full-transcript of the interview (the psychiatry stuff is on the 2nd page):

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8343367/

Au Hasard Balthazar and Heaven Can Wait arrived 2 days ago, so I have absolutely no good excuse for posting this crap.

[jcelwin]

But isn't it interesting to watch a man slowly (or perhaps, not so slowly) lose his public persona and reputation?

And, if you don't see it now, you'll have to wait fifty years for the film

[mute nostril agony]

[The Invunche]

Brilliant.

[Martha]

It's really sort of astonishing how quickly Cruise is losing it. On the juicy rumor front, the most recent only vaguely plausible reason I've come across for the meltdown/quickie marriage/MI3 delay is that he's HIV+.

[analoguezombie]

he's just getting more deep into Scientology is all. They wait till you're good and brainwashed before springing the real nutjob L Ron Hubbard stuff on ya. It's called the Operating Thetan 3 phase. Read about it, and Xenu, the evil galactic overlord who is indirectly responsible for all human suffering at www.xenu.net, an anti-scientology web resource site

[colinr0380]

That video is the more effective demonstration of the dangers of static electricity I've ever seen!

Have just been reading through that Scientology website and there is an interesting quote from the 'How to believe in Scientology' page:

Interestingly, very soon after entering ‘therapy', your idea of what memory actually is begins to get conflated with the notion of imagination. Gradually, the line between the two gets blurred. Eventually, you come to accept that if you can see a mental picture of something, then you must have seen it before. The notion quickly occurs to a person that if he recalls something then it is a memory. You get a ‘mental image picture', and the therapist ‘runs' it as an incident. He is not interested as to its historical veracity, only in running the incident. In such an uncritical environment, anything you give them is run, and anything is taken as an incident. As a new recruit, you're sometimes told that it doesn't matter if you're recalling ‘real' memories, only that if you do recall past lives you get better regardless. So you humour them, you go earlier-similar, you find mental pictures – you've discovered past-life incidents to erase - and hey presto, your hair stands on end and it ‘works' all over again, as evidenced by the mental euphoria. In the mind of the recruit, past lives are now a reality.

It worries me that as an actor putting himself into many different 'past lives' that Cruise might now add being attacked by aliens to his list of experiences along with: being in a strange futuristic world "and before that?" I was a foul-mouthed self help guru with father issues "and before that?" I was a super spy "and before that?" Having fights with my semi-naked soon to be ex-wife before going to an orgy "and before that?" race car driver, where I met my wife "and before that?" fighter pilot with a penchant for riding my best buddies tail.... and so on.

Although it might be fun to hear John Travolta's session: I've ruined my career "and before that?" I was the biggest star in the world "and before that?" I'd ruined my career "and before that?" I was the biggest star in the world

Au Hasard Balthazar and Heaven Can Wait arrived 2 days ago, so I have absolutely no good excuse for posting this crap.

Ditto!

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Here's an interesting article on Salon.com's site about Cruise and how Scientology's public profile is changing:

http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2005/0 ... ex_np.html

Here's an excerpt:

Regarding the romance -- who can explain love? It's a mystery, particularly in Hollywood, and we're unlikely to ever get the particulars about Cruise and Holmes. But the buzz in some Scientology circles is that Cruise may have reached one of the highest echelons of the Church of Scientology. While not a lot is known about this level, known cryptically as OT-VII, Scientology observers say that attaining it could explain Cruise's behavior in recent months.

[Polybius]

But isn't it interesting to watch a man slowly (or perhaps, not so slowly) lose his public persona and reputation?

Interesting, and (for me and many like me) deeply satisfying.

[colinr0380]

I'm wondering how much of the controversy around Cruise and his life was due to the lack of pre-publicity for War of the Worlds itself? I heard that there were no pre-showings before the release. Is this a case of journalists not being able to write about the film and moving on to talking about the stars instead (and finding fertile territory in Mr Cruise firing his agent, romancing Katie Holmes, being rudely splashed with water for a practical joke TV show at the UK premiere, and getting involved in all sorts of other eccentric behaviour!)

I don't know about the US but there seems to be no end of Heat-style magazines in the UK that focus more on the private lives and whos-bonking-who gossip of celebs to the extent that commenting on the book or film being promoted is just an unnecessary distraction, so it would be great for them!

[Andre Jurieu]

I don't know about the US but there seems to be no end of Heat-style magazines in the UK that focus more on the private lives and whos-bonking-who gossip of celebs to the extent that commenting on the book or film being promoted is just an unnecessary distraction...

Thanks to the efforts of canuck Bonnie Fuller, North America has Us Weekly and Star Magazine . Plus, there are about a million blogs.

[bunuelian]

Frankly, if I were a Scientologist I'd be pretty heated, too, given all the crap they take. I'm not exactly a fan of any organized "religion" but they are free to believe what they want. It's bordering on scary the way people feel free to talk about Scientologists like they are all insane axe murderers. I think Cruise's explosion was more because of this than anything else. Imagine if he were Christian and told he shouldn't talk about his belief - then everyone would have been behind him firing his PR person, and the PR person probably would have had to change her name.

[analoguezombie]

I definitely don't want to open a religious talk here, but while allr eligions do offer up some farcical and fanciful mythologies they are not all the same. And there is a difference between a cult and religion. A religion attempts to persuade someone to a particular belief, often using imagery that strikes an emotional nerve. A cult actively attempts to manipulate a person's mind through the use of psychological techniques, to get them to believe the mythos. At the heart of every religion is the choice of whether or not to believe. A cult attempts to negate choice by circumventing the mind's ability to choose freely.

at any rate, scientology is a cult. And this OT VII (Operating Thetan 7) level thing the particular level of brainwashing (refered to by scientologists as clear levels) you have reached. The higher the level the less able you are to distinguish between reality and your imagined or percieved past life experiences.

so basically Cruise is a member of a cult that actively brainwashes its members so they will give millions of dollars to L Ron Hubbard's so called church. And Cruise has now achieved the utmost level of said church which implies that he has completely lost his mind.

[The Invunche]

Religions are absurd, but most of them have a beautiful message (tho often perverted by the followers). Scientology has NOTHING to offer the world.

[dvdane]

I'm pretty sure Kidman is no longer a member of the Church of Scientology, and is back to being a Catholic.

It has never been confirmed by either side how much a member Kidman was, but fact is that she left the the church and she even made several huge stunts noting upon it. According to the gossips about Cruise and Kidman, she already decided to divorce him in late 1997, and took the role in "Practical Magic" to piss him off. Some sources have also suggested, that the isolated lenghty shooting of "Eyes Wide Shut", made Kidman realise who much her and Cruise had grown apart.

Kidman would tell her close friends, that Cruise didn't believe in sex and wouldn't "procreate" with a non-scientologist (which in light of the 5 year no sex contract between Cruise and Holmes, is pretty interesting, and yes, there is a rumour that Cruise is gay and his lawyers fight it very aggressively), that he believed that all non believers were possessed by demons or aliens or something. According to Kidman herself, she tried hard to convince him that everything he believed in was nonsense, but as the most "convinced" celeb, he wouldn't give in.

She knew she just couldn't get a divorce, so she began using scientology against him. Kidman would openly begin to talk about psychiatry, Catholocism and do normal things, she knew would frustrate Cruise. According to rumours, one of the leaders, David Miscavige, is controlling every aspect of Cruises life, and technically what Kidman did was make him so unhappy, so frustrated, that he would seek Miscavige guidence. She knew it would become a choise between Scientology or her and the kids, and she knew, that Miscavige never would allow Cruise to leave. So that is how she got her divorce.

The thread really should have been if Jackson would be the next Cruise. Michael Jackson was in fact attempted being recruited by Scientology during his marriage with Marie Presley, who is a very active member, but he never turned around. And that makes on wonder, if she married Cage for the same purpose aswell?

Anyway...

Scientology has alot of influence in Hollywood. On one side they invest in movies their members star in and get huge kickbacks (its rumoured that Cruise gives half of what he makes to the Church), the general agreement is 10% or so of their income. The stars themselves also get kickbacks from the church, in terms of both money and free services, the more members they indirectly or directly recruit. But Im sure that if someone were to do a projection, the fiscal benifits belong to the church.

But when you are this rich, money isn't the issue. Thats why, if you want something to happend, they make it happend. When Travolta wanted to build an airport in lenght of his home, they made it happend. When Cruise dreamt of fields of grass in the desert, they made it happend. They do the same thing as any other power-event group. And its a very exclusive club to belong to.

However, once really inside (not just some level 2 member or what its called), you don't get to leave. Both Cruise and Travolta were at a time on their way out, but they would them be taken to resorts to talk things out and after a few weeks, they were even stronger members.

[The Invunche]

I wouldn't mind knowing your sources for that post, dvdane. Especially since Kidman definitely looked the most hurt by the breakup.

[Andre Jurieu]

Especially since Kidman definitely looked the most hurt by the breakup.

Well, she is an actress. Someone says she isn't a very good actress in 3, 2, 1...

[The Invunche]

Oh I think she's quite wonderful.

[Galen Young]

\:D/

[bunuelian]

A cult actively attempts to manipulate a person's mind through the use of psychological techniques, to get them to believe the mythos.

And the concept of Hell is . . . what?

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Carried over from the WotW thread:

Scientologist believe that :

1) There is an evil space alien and his name is Xenu.
2) The origin of the cult's belief is that their bodies are inhabited by the wandering souls of space aliens named thetans.
3) Earth is actually called Teegeeack.
4)These thetans wiped the inhabitants of Earth millions of years ago in an epic war ala War of the Worlds.
5) Scientologist, because of their "knowledge" of these thetans, are going to protect us of another alien invasion that could wipe the human race.

The "real" story is a little more interesting than this. According to Hubbard, Xenu ruled a "galactic confederacy" that was becoming horribly overpopulated, with each member planet having somewhere in the area of 178 billion people. Xenu decided to prune the numbers a bit, so he used psychatrists to paralyze billions of people with special injections (on the pretext of "income tax inspections"), then loaded the unconscious bodies onto a fleet of spaceships that happened to look exactly like DC-8 airliners. The ships were sent to Earth/Teegeeack and the passengers unloaded; then, Xenu used hydrogen bombs to detonate a series of volcanoes, killing all but a few people but leaving their souls behind. (This is why volcano imagery figures prominently in Scientology -- on the cover of recent editions of Dianetics, for example.) These souls are known as "thetans" in Scientology.

The thetans were then forced to view a series of 3D movies for 36 straight days, the intention being to brainwash them into submission. Among the concepts implanted into the thetans by these films were all major world religions. The thetans also lost all sense of individuality; afterwards they clustered together and attached themselves to the few remaining physical bodies on Earth. As these beings evolved, the thetans remained with them, so every human on Earth today carries with him "body thetans" that are responsible for various physical and mental ailiments and can only be removed through what Scientologists call "clearing," which basically involves spending a shitload of money to sit down with an "auditor" and confess your weaknesses and shortcomings. A device called an "E-meter" (basically a glorified lie detector) can allegedly detect the presence of thetans by passing a small current through the subject and measuring electrical resistance in the skin.

Xenu, incidentally, was eventually overthrown by a rebellious group called "the Loyal Officers" and imprisoned in a mountain on some unnamed planet. Hubbard wrote a screenplay based on the Xenu story but it remains unfilmed (and probably never will be -- the Church likes to keep the Xenu story under wraps as much as possible, for fairly obvious reasons).