Cruise attacked in shock bio; questions over Suri's father
Article from: The Sunday Times
January 07, 2008 10:38am
TOM Cruise has been slammed in a new unauthorised biography which claims his daughter Suri was sired by the head of the Church of Scientology.
The biography also claims that Cruise himself has become second in command.
Author Andrew Morton – the biographer of Princess Diana - claims Scientology has taken over the 45-year-old actor's life, with its officials selecting many of the staff at his Hollywood mansion, according to the UK’s Daily Mail.
The shocking book also compares 20-month-old daughter Suri to the Devil's child in the film Rosemary's Baby, born by sperm donation from Scientology's dead founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
Scientology leader David Miscavige is said in the book to have gone to extraordinary lengths to charm Cruise, even ordering his staff to plant a field full of wild flowers at a Scientology base in California after Cruise had told him of his fantasy to run through a wildflower meadow with his then newlywed wife Nicole Kidman.
According to Morton's book, Miscavige even joined him on honeymoon in the Maldives after his wedding to Katie Holmes in 2006.
Not surprisingly, Cruise denies each of the claims, and Scientology lawyers are believed to be drawing up a lawsuit seeking $113 million (£50 million) in compensation from Morton's publishers, St Martin's Press.
Cruise's lawyer and close confidante Bert Fields gave a rare interview to The Mail on Sunday to pour scorn on Morton's book, titled Tom Cruise: An Unauthorised Biography.
Morton writes that Ms Holmes may feel she was in "the horror movie Rosemary's Baby, in which an unsuspecting young woman is impregnated with the Devil's child".
Cruise will not be reading the book when it is published in the United States on January 15, Mr Fields told the Mail. "He has no intention of reading it. He's very, very busy with a lot of things right now.”
Morton's book reportedly paints a picture of a talented actor who enjoyed enormous success at a young age and then gradually became engrossed in Scientology.
Cruise’s involvement in Scientology began in 1986 when he was recruited by his first wife Mimi Rogers, a Scientologist who gave him some literature on the subject.
L. Ron Hubbard, a science-fiction writer, created Scientology in 1954. Its followers have fought hard to have the system of beliefs recognised as a religion, and its central teaching is that life's problems can be solved through a system of one on one counselling called "auditing", measured by an "E-meter".
The author quotes former senior member Karen Pressley as saying: "A senior Scientology executive would be on the phone telling us that Emilio Estevez was staying in Malibu and that we had 48 hours to speak to him and get him in for an auditing session. There was so much heat and pressure on this it was outrageous."
Morton says David Miscavige invited Cruise to his "desert lair" in 1989, a 500-acre resort in Hemet, 90 miles from Los Angeles, nicknamed "Gold Base".
Morton claims the base was surrounded by security cameras, with "secret plans to rig the perimeter with homemade explosives in case of attack", as well as a "man-made eyrie where eagle-eyed guards with high-powered rifles fitted with telescopic sights scanned sunbaked California scrub for possible intruders".
After Cruise fell in love with Nicole Kidman on the set of motor-race movie Days Of Thunder in 1990, Miscavige invited them to Gold Base, Morton says.
According to Morton: "When Tom confided to the Scientology leader about the couple's fantasy of running through a meadow of wild flowers together, his friend apparently decided to make his dream come true.
Morton claims Scientologists were worried that Kidman might be a problem because her father was a psychologist and she had given an interview emphasising her roots as a Catholic.
Morton claims Cruise’s later girlfriend Penelope Cruz's father Eduardo "was concerned that his famous daughter could be drawn into what he considered a cult - and, like so many others, be lost to him and his family for ever.”
Cruise's lawyer Bert Fields described the allegation as "ridiculous".
Morton says Cruise's current mission is to recruit David and Victoria Beckham. The actor invited Miscavige to a Real Madrid game back in 2004 and held a celebrity party for the couple when they moved to Los Angeles.
The Church of Scientology is incensed about a series of allegations Morton makes about Miscavige, who took over from the religion's founder L. Ron Hubbard at the age of 26.
Elliot Abelson, general counsel for the Church of Scientology, said of Morton: "We tried to contact him to co-operate, to give him the truth, to give him a tour. I received nothing.
"This was a pre-ordained mission to trash Tom Cruise. He didn't ask to speak to David Miscavige and wrote some horrible things about him which are totally untrue. No one has ever made complaints of that kind."
Mr Abelson denied the actor was "second in command".
The Sunday Telegraph
Article from: The Sunday Times
January 07, 2008 10:38am
TOM Cruise has been slammed in a new unauthorised biography which claims his daughter Suri was sired by the head of the Church of Scientology.
The biography also claims that Cruise himself has become second in command.
Author Andrew Morton – the biographer of Princess Diana - claims Scientology has taken over the 45-year-old actor's life, with its officials selecting many of the staff at his Hollywood mansion, according to the UK’s Daily Mail.
The shocking book also compares 20-month-old daughter Suri to the Devil's child in the film Rosemary's Baby, born by sperm donation from Scientology's dead founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
Scientology leader David Miscavige is said in the book to have gone to extraordinary lengths to charm Cruise, even ordering his staff to plant a field full of wild flowers at a Scientology base in California after Cruise had told him of his fantasy to run through a wildflower meadow with his then newlywed wife Nicole Kidman.
According to Morton's book, Miscavige even joined him on honeymoon in the Maldives after his wedding to Katie Holmes in 2006.
Not surprisingly, Cruise denies each of the claims, and Scientology lawyers are believed to be drawing up a lawsuit seeking $113 million (£50 million) in compensation from Morton's publishers, St Martin's Press.
Cruise's lawyer and close confidante Bert Fields gave a rare interview to The Mail on Sunday to pour scorn on Morton's book, titled Tom Cruise: An Unauthorised Biography.
Morton writes that Ms Holmes may feel she was in "the horror movie Rosemary's Baby, in which an unsuspecting young woman is impregnated with the Devil's child".
Cruise will not be reading the book when it is published in the United States on January 15, Mr Fields told the Mail. "He has no intention of reading it. He's very, very busy with a lot of things right now.”
Morton's book reportedly paints a picture of a talented actor who enjoyed enormous success at a young age and then gradually became engrossed in Scientology.
Cruise’s involvement in Scientology began in 1986 when he was recruited by his first wife Mimi Rogers, a Scientologist who gave him some literature on the subject.
L. Ron Hubbard, a science-fiction writer, created Scientology in 1954. Its followers have fought hard to have the system of beliefs recognised as a religion, and its central teaching is that life's problems can be solved through a system of one on one counselling called "auditing", measured by an "E-meter".
The author quotes former senior member Karen Pressley as saying: "A senior Scientology executive would be on the phone telling us that Emilio Estevez was staying in Malibu and that we had 48 hours to speak to him and get him in for an auditing session. There was so much heat and pressure on this it was outrageous."
Morton says David Miscavige invited Cruise to his "desert lair" in 1989, a 500-acre resort in Hemet, 90 miles from Los Angeles, nicknamed "Gold Base".
Morton claims the base was surrounded by security cameras, with "secret plans to rig the perimeter with homemade explosives in case of attack", as well as a "man-made eyrie where eagle-eyed guards with high-powered rifles fitted with telescopic sights scanned sunbaked California scrub for possible intruders".
After Cruise fell in love with Nicole Kidman on the set of motor-race movie Days Of Thunder in 1990, Miscavige invited them to Gold Base, Morton says.
According to Morton: "When Tom confided to the Scientology leader about the couple's fantasy of running through a meadow of wild flowers together, his friend apparently decided to make his dream come true.
Morton claims Scientologists were worried that Kidman might be a problem because her father was a psychologist and she had given an interview emphasising her roots as a Catholic.
Morton claims Cruise’s later girlfriend Penelope Cruz's father Eduardo "was concerned that his famous daughter could be drawn into what he considered a cult - and, like so many others, be lost to him and his family for ever.”
Cruise's lawyer Bert Fields described the allegation as "ridiculous".
Morton says Cruise's current mission is to recruit David and Victoria Beckham. The actor invited Miscavige to a Real Madrid game back in 2004 and held a celebrity party for the couple when they moved to Los Angeles.
The Church of Scientology is incensed about a series of allegations Morton makes about Miscavige, who took over from the religion's founder L. Ron Hubbard at the age of 26.
Elliot Abelson, general counsel for the Church of Scientology, said of Morton: "We tried to contact him to co-operate, to give him the truth, to give him a tour. I received nothing.
"This was a pre-ordained mission to trash Tom Cruise. He didn't ask to speak to David Miscavige and wrote some horrible things about him which are totally untrue. No one has ever made complaints of that kind."
Mr Abelson denied the actor was "second in command".
The Sunday Telegraph
CRUISE POP-PING MAD OVER BIZARRE SURI SIRE TALE
By CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
January 8, 2008 -- Mega-star Tom Cruise went ballistic over the potshot claim in a blistering new biography that daughter Suri was fathered by dead Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard using his frozen sperm, the actor's lawyer said yesterday.
READ: Suri-ously Looney Claim
"He's very angry," lawyer pal Burt Fields said after speaking with Cruise about the soon-to-be-released bio.
Fields said that the worst of all the allegations lobbed at his longtime pal, including the sway Scientology bigwigs had over the actor's 2001 divorce from Nicole Kidman, was the author's report of the ludicrous suggestion that Cruise is not Suri's real dad. "Some sect members sincerely believed that Katie Holmes was carrying the baby who would be the vessel for L. Ron Hubbard's spirit when he returned around the galaxy," author Andrew Morton writes.
"It's so bizarre and grotesque to imply that [Suri] is fathered by the frozen sperm of L. Ron Hubbard. ... you just look at Suri, and you see Tom and Katie," Fields said.
By CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
January 8, 2008 -- Mega-star Tom Cruise went ballistic over the potshot claim in a blistering new biography that daughter Suri was fathered by dead Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard using his frozen sperm, the actor's lawyer said yesterday.
READ: Suri-ously Looney Claim
"He's very angry," lawyer pal Burt Fields said after speaking with Cruise about the soon-to-be-released bio.
Fields said that the worst of all the allegations lobbed at his longtime pal, including the sway Scientology bigwigs had over the actor's 2001 divorce from Nicole Kidman, was the author's report of the ludicrous suggestion that Cruise is not Suri's real dad. "Some sect members sincerely believed that Katie Holmes was carrying the baby who would be the vessel for L. Ron Hubbard's spirit when he returned around the galaxy," author Andrew Morton writes.
"It's so bizarre and grotesque to imply that [Suri] is fathered by the frozen sperm of L. Ron Hubbard. ... you just look at Suri, and you see Tom and Katie," Fields said.
SURI-OUSLY LOONY CLAIM
By ERIC LENKOWITZ
January 7, 2008 -- Here's more about Andrew Morton's upcoming biography of Tom Cruise, excerpted yesterday in the Sunday New York Post.
An unauthorized biography of Tom Cruise includes the outrageous claim by a handful of the group's members that Suri Cruise is the spawn of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
The controversial tome - which could earn writer Andrew Morton a hefty lawsuit - also suggests that Tom Cruise is now second in command of the Church of Scientology.
"It's just the lowest of the low," Scientology's chief counsel, Elliot Abelson, told The Post last night.
Cruise lawyer Bert Fields told London's Daily Mail that the book is "poorly researched and badly written, and it's not really even about Tom Cruise - it's an attack on Scientology."
A small group of members of the Scientology sect Sea Org have outrageously theorized that Cruise's wife, Katie Holmes, was impregnated with frozen sperm from Hubbard, the group's founder, who died in 1986, according to the book.
Morton, the Princess Diana biographer who penned the Cruise bio, shockingly used the small group's claim to compare Holmes' situation to the horror flick "Rosemary's Baby," in which a woman is impregnated by Satan.
Fields said the idea that Hubbard is Suri's father is "sick and bizarre."
Abelson said, "When Morton was writing . . . did he have any concern for Suri or Katie?
"Just saying this is such a tragedy, especially for Katie."
A central theme of the hotly disputed book is how Cruise's life has been taken over by the church, in particular its leader, David Miscavige.
But the idea that he is No. 2 in the organization is far-fetched, Abelson said.
"That's like saying I'm Jewish, so I have the ability to control the Israeli army," Abelson said, adding that there is no No. 2 in the organization.
"The church is run by executives for the church, and he is not part of that and has never been a part of that."
Added Fields to the Mail: "I've represented him for over 20 years, and I've never discussed his business with David Miscavige."
The biography also claims that Scientology influenced Cruise's 2001 divorce from Nicole Kidman.
"If the church was part of a divorce, I would know, and I would be a part of it," Abelson said. "We're there to keep marriages together."
The church is mulling legal action.
"I know we could win the lawsuit," Fields said, noting a suit would be filed only after the book's release, which is slated for Jan. 15.
Morton spent two years researching his book.
By ERIC LENKOWITZ
January 7, 2008 -- Here's more about Andrew Morton's upcoming biography of Tom Cruise, excerpted yesterday in the Sunday New York Post.
An unauthorized biography of Tom Cruise includes the outrageous claim by a handful of the group's members that Suri Cruise is the spawn of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
The controversial tome - which could earn writer Andrew Morton a hefty lawsuit - also suggests that Tom Cruise is now second in command of the Church of Scientology.
"It's just the lowest of the low," Scientology's chief counsel, Elliot Abelson, told The Post last night.
Cruise lawyer Bert Fields told London's Daily Mail that the book is "poorly researched and badly written, and it's not really even about Tom Cruise - it's an attack on Scientology."
A small group of members of the Scientology sect Sea Org have outrageously theorized that Cruise's wife, Katie Holmes, was impregnated with frozen sperm from Hubbard, the group's founder, who died in 1986, according to the book.
Morton, the Princess Diana biographer who penned the Cruise bio, shockingly used the small group's claim to compare Holmes' situation to the horror flick "Rosemary's Baby," in which a woman is impregnated by Satan.
Fields said the idea that Hubbard is Suri's father is "sick and bizarre."
Abelson said, "When Morton was writing . . . did he have any concern for Suri or Katie?
"Just saying this is such a tragedy, especially for Katie."
A central theme of the hotly disputed book is how Cruise's life has been taken over by the church, in particular its leader, David Miscavige.
But the idea that he is No. 2 in the organization is far-fetched, Abelson said.
"That's like saying I'm Jewish, so I have the ability to control the Israeli army," Abelson said, adding that there is no No. 2 in the organization.
"The church is run by executives for the church, and he is not part of that and has never been a part of that."
Added Fields to the Mail: "I've represented him for over 20 years, and I've never discussed his business with David Miscavige."
The biography also claims that Scientology influenced Cruise's 2001 divorce from Nicole Kidman.
"If the church was part of a divorce, I would know, and I would be a part of it," Abelson said. "We're there to keep marriages together."
The church is mulling legal action.
"I know we could win the lawsuit," Fields said, noting a suit would be filed only after the book's release, which is slated for Jan. 15.
Morton spent two years researching his book.
Whoa..
