Free Republic

Tom Cruise’s fellow Scientology members would like to master “The Master.” A source familiar with Paul Thomas Anderson ’s film about the founder of a Scientology-like religious movement tells us officials of the controversial church group “hit the roof” when they learned — presumably through Cruise — that the movie contains a scene which suggests the belief system was little more than a product of the leader’s fertile imagination. In May, Anderson, who is friends with Cruise and directed him in “Magnolia,” the 1999 film that earned Cruise a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination — reportedly screened his film for...

Scientology leader David Miscavige is often cited as Tom Cruise's best friend. He was best man at Cruise's ill-fated marriage to Katie Holmes and once threw the star a huge birthday party. But the numerous references to Miscavige left out one really sketchy detail: his wife, Shelly, hasn't been seen since 2006........ The New Yorker's Lawrence Wright reported that last year Shelley has been missing since 2006 and "her status is unknown." Just before she went missing, she had supposedly filled several job vacancies without her husband's permission. Misbehaving Scientologists have been known to allegedly be locked up in "The...

Awash with money, beautiful people and lawyers, the film industry makes it easy for stars to break their wedding vows. But not everyone does. It was clear from the start that things wouldn’t work out between Hollywood and marriage. In 1919, Rudolph Valentino, the first real star of the silent era, wed actress Jean Acker. It lasted six hours. A standard was set that the movie business has been trying to live up to ever since. “Get married in the morning,” the old studio hands used to say. “Then, if it all goes wrong, you haven’t wasted the whole day.”...

The Church of Scientology is trying to contend with the greatest scandal its ever seen--the impending divorce of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Media sites are reporting that Holmes is leaving Cruise because he planned to indoctrinate their young daughter, Suri, and send her to a camp for young Scientologists. The church sent out an email instructing members on how to "stand up for their religion" and instruct sites like Microsoft and Google to take down anti-Scientology content. Marty Rathbun, a former Scientologist who now blogs against the religion, posted the email. It's from the Office of Special Affairs, which...

He is the reclusive and enigmatic leader of the world's most famous cult who played best man at TomKat's wedding. But perhaps the biggest mystery shrouding Scientology chairman David Miscavige concerns his wife, Shelly, who has not been seen since 2007. Once a leading Scientologist herself, Shelly Miscavige is even credited as the cupid to Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' doomed alliance. Always by her husband's side, it was her to whom Mr Miscavige turned when a lovelorn Cruise begged for help in finding love following the break down of his second marriage to Nicole Kidman. Believing the role of...

Tweeting first, “Scientology back in news. Very weird cult, but big, big money involved with Tom Cruise either No. 2 or 3 in hierarchy,” and then, “Watch Katie Holmes and Scientology story develop. Something creepy, maybe even evil, about these people,” the News Corp. CEO waded into the morass and basically declared himself Scientology Enemy No. 1. Many were shocked—why the hell would Rupert Murdoch, of all people, get involved in this? But a close Murdoch ally noted, “He has a long memory and no love for Scientology.” ...... Lachlan soon terminated his friendship with Cruise and made it clear...

The eldest son of Rupert Murdoch has denied he ever considered joining Scientology after reports emerged claiming Tom Cruise tried to convert him. Lachlan Murdoch was assiduously courted by the Hollywood star in 1999 while they were both living in Australia, according to the Daily Beast. Cruise, who had moved to live near his then-wife Nicole Kidman's family, was said to be determined to bring the younger Murdoch into the Scientology fold, believing that he would soon take over his father's media empire. Cruise reportedly traveled with Murdoch and his friend James Packer on private jets, all the while evangelizing...

It is Scientology's higher order where members pledge their allegiance for one billion years - and may have cost Tom Cruise his marriage. Sending six-year-old Suri to the Sea Organisation, or Sea Org as it is known, is what is said to have been the final straw for Katie Holmes before she filed for divorce. The group is run like a military clique from the Scientology Gold Base in California which has sniper-style nest bunker that overlooks the entire property. Members are paid just $50 a week and banned from leaving their base or they are tracked down by a...

Rubert Murdoch has a lot of Thetans perturbed with him. That’s because the founder and chairman of News Corp., which owns Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, among other media properties, tweeted Sunday that there is “(s)omething creepy, maybe even evil, about these people.” Murdoch was referring to adherents of Scientology, like actor Tom Cruise, who prefer to think themselves as “Thetans” – a term coined by L. Ron Hubbard, the cult’s founder – rather than “people.” Murdoch followed up his original tweet with another reporting that his twitter account had been bombarded with “hundreds of attacks” from Thetans....

She’s a prisoner in her own home. Katie Holmes fears she can’t take one step without a Scientology goon following her every move in a heavy- handed intimidation attempt, multiple sources close to the actress told The Post yesterday. The pretty actress last night was holed up in her Chelsea pad — terrified that soon-to-be-ex-hubby Tom Cruise might kidnap their little girl, law-enforcement sources said. Holmes told another building resident of her abduction fear — and that neighbor called police on Friday, sources said. But without Holmes phoning in the report herself — and Cruise known to be 2,600 miles...

<p>Rupert Murdoch, New Corp. chief executive... took to Twitter on Sunday to weigh in on the breakup of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.</p> <p>"Scientology back in news," Murdoch tweeted. "Very weird cult, but big, big money involved with Tom Cruise either number two or three in [hierarchy]."</p>

On Friday, TomKat jumped the couch. Katie Holmes filed for divorce from Tom Cruise after 5 1/2 years of marriage. Best-selling biographer Andrew Morton, author of "Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography" (St. Martins Press), explains why it was a true Hollywood romance --because from the beginning, Holmes was playing a part. When Tom Cruise turned 42, his best friend, controversial Scientology leader David Miscavige, threw a lavish birthday party, costing an estimated $300,000, on board the church’s cruise ship. He flew in singers, dancers and even Tom’s favorite sushi chefs for the bash, where the actor was serenaded with the...

After five years of marriage, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are getting a divorce, PEOPLE has learned exclusively. "This is a personal and private matter for Katie and her family," says Holmes's attorney Jonathan Wolfe. "Katie's primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter's best interest."

-snip- New Line/Warner Bros’ Rock Of Ages (3,470 theaters) is falling to earth with a thud. Which Hollywood expected because the pic had been tracking poorly for weeks (and even went down at one point week to week). The studio felt the 1980s period piece was a hard sell to younger moviegoers. I suspect the problem was casting. Russell Brand has been repellant to moviegoers, while Tom Cruise as iconic rocker proved just too incredulous for audiences.

The Church of Scientology, known for celebrity and controversy, is now in the middle of another public relations crisis as a former high-ranking official has created a firestorm, first with an email to church members and then testimony in a Texas state court alleging she saw the church's leader punch another executive in the face, and that at his direction she herself was slapped. For 17 years Debbie Cook ran the church's spiritual mecca, the so-called Flag Base in Clearwater, Florida, where she ultimately rose to the title of captain. But Cook testified this month that beginning in 2005 she...

A senior Scientologist was locked up, beaten and tortured by the controversial religion's tyrannical leadership, a court has heard after an attempt by the Church to silence her spectacularly backfired. Debbie Cook, who was one of the organisation's most respected executives before she quit in 2007, testified that she was held for 45 days in a crowded, ant-infested trailer in the California desert. The 50-year-old also claimed to have witnessed Scientology chairman David Miscavige, a friend of celebrity follower Tom Cruise, punch another senior executive in the face before wrestling him to the ground.

Rick Santorum’s trio of victories ...is shifting the Republican presidential contest into a state-by-state fight for delegates that could last much longer than initially anticipated. The battle appears to be breaking down along regional lines, with Santorum gaining momentum in the Midwest, Newt Gingrich resonating in the South and Mitt Romney faring best in the Northeast and elsewhere... For now, all four candidates are on a hunt for delegates, each with an incentive to stay in through the next several contests. Gingrich and Ron Paul were already pledging to stay in the race for the long haul, and both have...

So a guy whose contract was terminated by NPR on a phony pretext for not toeing the liberal line enough, including writing a book ("Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America--and What We Can Do About It") which indicted the modern civil-rights movement for, well, undermining Black America, now appears to want eliminate "Constitution" and "Founding Fathers" from the lexicon of Republican candidates -- and possibly, it would appear, from political discussion in general -- because, well, they're racial code words. How ironic. Two weeks ago at the Fox News/Wall Street Journal...

For most people, an extended stay aboard a luxury cruise liner sounds like a dream vacation. But Valeska Paris says she was held against her will aboard the Scientology cruise ship "Freewinds" for more than a decade. During her stay on the vessel, she alleges, she was forced into hard labor and never allowed to leave the ship without an escort. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC News) Lateline program, Paris claims that Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige sent her to the ship when she was 18 in order to prevent her family from pulling her...

I guess that makes me a Scientologist, because I’ve posted repeatedly that Palin holds a special position because there is no one — not even George W. Bush — who has been the subject of the Democratic, mainstream media and left-blogosphere smear machine to the extent Palin has. So yes, I do take it personally when conservatives lash out at Palin not because of her policy positions or what she’s done or not done in her career, but with personal invective. It’s not religion, its a cold hard understanding of what is to come, and how those who call Palin...