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My friend Mike makes a compelling counter-argument for Tom Cruise's supremacy.
Am I convinced? Hmm.....

(This is a clip from a longer film I posted some time ago in Our Films/Our Scripts, but I just created this shorter snippet yesterday. I should re-film to add Cronenberg to the long list of great directors who for some reason want to work with Cruise.)

No, I don't really like Tom Cruise even though Mike really does.

domino harvey wrote:Katie Holmes files for divorce from Tom Cruise

I guess Rock of Ages really was that bad.

Looks like the contract finally expired or Katie exercised the escape clause. Hope everybody got what they wanted.

Some amusing tweets:

So Tom Cruise took a shave.

Tom Cruise to replace Katie Holmes with Maggie Gyllenhaal

someone calling himself "HAL 9000": Mimi Rogers 1956; Nicole Kidman 1967; Katie Holmes 1978 - my supercomputer analysis says Tom Cruise's next wife was born in 1989

The article says Holmes is seeking sole custody, which seems totally unrealistic unless she has evidence of Cruise having a Gibsonian meltdown.

I'm just hoping this eventually prompts some major Scientology disclosures. I can never get enough of those. And Paul Haggis'/Lawrence Wright's tell-all book is taking too long.

She'll get sole custody because Chris Klein is Suri's biological father...

warren oates wrote:I'm just hoping this eventually prompts some major Scientology disclosures. I can never get enough of those. And Paul Haggis'/Lawrence Wright's tell-all book is taking too long.

You may get your wish. If Holmes has any chance in hell in getting full custody, she can't pull her punches if Scientology's the big reason. I don't know how else she can make it happen.

Highway 61 wrote:The article says Holmes is seeking sole custody, which seems totally unrealistic unless she has evidence of Cruise having a Gibsonian meltdown.

Certainly seems more and more like either something awful happened (either with or without Scientology being involved): Holmes rented an apartment in NYC on the sly to establish residency because the state has more friendly laws with regards to attaining sole custody. TMZ sources speculate that Holmes is leaving because she doesn't want her daughter raised in Scientology. Well, no fucking wonder.

TMZ is reporting that Katie Holmes is indeed filing for sole custody to keep Suri from being shipped off to the Sea Org. For those not familiar with the Sea Org, it's a tax exempt child labor camp that is still operating in the United States in 2012 somehow, that requires a 'billion year pledge' from small children in order to join up and very little chance of escape (not being dramatic, there is literally very little chance of escape).

Man, if TMZ takes down Scientology by using its popularity to educate people on what it's about, I will take back every criticism I've ever thrown at it.

mfunk9786 wrote:TMZ is reporting that Katie Holmes is indeed filing for sole custody to keep Suri from being shipped off to the Sea Org. For those not familiar with the Sea Org, it's a tax exempt child labor camp that is still operating in the United States in 2012 somehow, that requires a 'billion year pledge' from small children in order to join up and very little chance of escape (not being dramatic, there is literally very little chance of escape).

It's not just small children- I have a friend who was raised by scientologists, and he and his sister were both heavily recruited for it at around 15. He actually signed the contract, too, but they actually demanded that he denounce his aunt (who works for the IRS) and agree never to speak to her again before he shipped out, which he refused to do.

As I understand it, Sea Org is legal because it's largely in international waters- the name isn't an accident. It's scary as hell.

I live within spitting distance of PAC Base, the mothership HQ, their big blue compound in Hollywood, so my interest in the cult isn't merely academic. I see Sea Org members walking around there all the time.

I can imagine any settlement of the divorce/custody dispute requiring a complicated binding non-disclosure on Holmes, so she won't be free to dish on the Church. I'm almost hoping that Cruise and Scientology miscalculate, force an all-out war and thereby turn the spotlight light on themselves as never before.

For anyone who can't wait, there's always Janet Reitman's excellent and comprehensive book Inside Scientology and the Paul Haggis/Lawrence Wright New Yorker piece "The Apostate" that's still available free on-line.

And of course Paul Thomas Anderson's upcoming film The Master, which looks to be about the most fascinating moment in any charisma-based totalitarian organization:

Spoiler

the passage of power from the original founder/leader to his protege. In Scientology's case from L. Ron Hubbard to David Miscavige.

Can we just have a thread in which to endlessly gossip about Scientology? Because having seen people's lives ruined by it (my friend and his siblings were are criminally neglected as children because their parents were doing dollar a week work for the Scientologists, except the youngest whom they are currently trying to snare at a Study Tech school) the sort of queasy fascination about it I've always had borders on an obsession at this point.

Look around, I can't imagine a more appropriate place for such things!

I don't personally buy into the idea that Tom and Katie's divorce is over religion. The whole religious debate in the media almost hinges on you believing that it was a real marriage in the first place. This always struck me as simply being a beard relationship. I wouldn't be surprised if Katie wanted to leave after realizing that the marriage wasn't going to reboot her career or provide her whatever benefits she thought she would get from the arrangement. I'm sure the church is a huge hassle to deal with but she knew that going in to the relationship. John Travolta has had his own set of scandals as of late. I was just at the grocery store and one of the tabloids had a front page cover story about the possibility of a Preston/Travolta divorce. The tabloids devour every piece of salacious gossip they can get their hands on but they turn a blind eye and even encourage this bearding nonsense. I don't get it.

R0lf wrote:She'll get sole custody because Chris Klein is Suri's biological father...

You're probably right (I always just assumed it as fact), but I'm sure the Cruise-Holmes pre-nup - which was likely handled by Scientology lawyers - probably negated any potential of her using that fact within a custody case. I have a feeling, for any legal proceeding concerning their "marriage", Cruise is considered Suri's father under all circumstances.

TMZ and everyone else is reporting this divorce settled. Phew! That was quick! Very sad to say that sanity seems to have won the day in the Cruise/Miscavige corner. Holmes seems like quite the victorious poker player to me now. She likely got exactly what she wanted with some gesture of superficial face-saving custodial jointness for Tom's image. But we won't know... at least for years or decades. Maybe eventually some leakers close to her will proxy up some of the weirdest and dirtiest tales of the young Sea Org training that Suri will now avoid.

Wasn't the legal divorce with Kidman settled with apparent amicability, followed by the Scientologists brainwashing the adopted children during Cruise's tenure of custody? Hopefully that doesn't happen here.

Assuming it doesn't, good for Holmes and good for her daughter, but I'll admit I was kind of hoping for a big public expose.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Holmes was as crafty as she appeared

The agreement provides Cruise with visitation rights but gives Holmes the lead role in choosing how Suri will be educated, a source said Monday...Holmes wanted guarantees in the settlement to ensure nothing is done while their daughter is with Cruise that would "alienate" Suri from her, the sources said.

Apparently that language was chosen specifically because courts do not rule on the merits of any given "religion" in clashes over the spiritual education of a child. However, given Scientology's virulent attitude toward outsiders and apostates, this language all but guarantees that Suri will be free from the Church's grasp.

Turns out Holmes' father, who advised her, is a veteran divorce attorney known for his aggressiveness. She also used a disposable burner cellphone (very The Wire) to meticulously plan her escape and legal representation in secret before she broke the news to Tom.

I want to give Katie Holmes a big hug today for different reasons than I had 10 years ago

mfunk9786 wrote:I want to give Katie Holmes a big hug today for different reasons than I had 10 years ago

Agreed! I also keep picturing her bust apart the burner with her hands like she's Mike from Breaking Bad. This might be viewed as the greatest performance within her career.

Not to get off-tangent here, but Fring had the best burner-busting scene.

Tom Cruise Worships David Miscavige Like a God. New details from a prominent Scientology defector in the Village Voice. And a related post about the Church's secret prison.