Jada Pinkett Smith covers the new issue of Redbook. I’m not crazy about the cover image, nor am I crazy about Redbook jamming so much extra stuff onto the cover. Jada also allowed the mag to photograph a purple-haired Willow. At this point, I really like Willow and I want her to grow up in peace, away from the spotlight, and I think that’s what she wants too. So I’m not sure why Jada continues to push her into photoshoots and appearances and such. Ugh. Anyway, you can see Redbook’s slideshow here and here are some highlights from the interview:
On why she would ever leave her husband, Will Smith:
“What is the thing that Will could do to make me not love him? That would make me abandon him? I can’t think of one. I’m sorry. Except if he did something bad to the kids – now we’ve got a problem.”
On how they find special moments in everyday life:
“We tend to find magic in the mundane. Picking Willow up from her girlfriend’s house at 9:30PM, and enjoying that ride together, then stopping at 7-Eleven to get some ice cream as a family.”
On not being interested in reality shows and tabloids:
“I have been affected by gossip and I know people who have been too. I’ve seen marriages destroyed by gossip. It is cruel. At the end of the day, all that matters is: Do you love what you see when you look in the mirror? That is it, baby.”
On producing The Queen Latifah Show (premiering Sept 16th on CBS):
“It will be a cross between Oprah and Ellen – not serious but heartfelt…to help execute this idea for such an amazing artist is really pleasing. I’m able to be creative on a whole different level.”
I think Jada has been negatively affected by gossip and true, a lot of it isn’t fair. But some of the gossip was shady because IT WAS TRUE. Jada and Will really did have significant marriage problems and they really did spend more than a year mostly separated. And the gossip about the Smith family and Scientology is getting epic too, especially with the release of (box office bomb) After Earth. Several sites have noted that After Earth is pretty much Scientology propaganda, and if you begin to view the Smiths through the lens of Xenu, things become clearer, right? They are a Scientologist family. That’s why their kids are… that way. That’s why their marriage was struggling (and perhaps still is). That’s why everything around this family has gotten so strange over the past five years or so. They went full-throttle Xenu.
Yesterday, Kaiser linked up Tom Cruise’s rather uneventful turn at the Los Angeles premiere of Oblivion, and (to a few of you) yes, I saw those hush-hush comments after this post which alluded to Tom’s amazing physical state as a 50-year-old man. I read everything that has to do with Tom Cruise, so don’t even try to pull a fast one on old Bedhead. With that said, I agree that Tom looks good, and I think he might have had something done to his face recently. As in, he had plenty of time between “generously” wrapping All You Need Is Kill and these promotional rounds to visit his favorite Brazilian plastic surgeon for a refresher. That could be the reason for that silly turtleneck too — all the better to hide new scars! Anyway, Tom showed up five hours early to work the crowd.
FIVE hours.
That’s not what a “nice guy” does … that’s what a “creepy guy” does.
One or two hours would be “nice,” but five is “creepy.” See the difference, Tom?
Now onto the subject of this story, which has to do with Isabella Cruise’s boyfriend, Eddie Frencher (you can see a photo of him here, she is shown with her brother below), who signed the Sea Org’s infamous billion-year contract last summer and shipped off to Gold base. There was much speculation that Isabella wanted to follow her boyfriend, but Tom’s rep shut that rumor down because (let’s face it) there’s no way in hell that Tom Cruise would let his little girl commit herself to a life of slave labor and eating rice and beans for her next several lives. When the initial story of Eddie’s fate broke, some of you speculated that Tom might have actually organized the entire affair so that Isabella wouldn’t be able to see Eddie. That makes sense, but now Eddie has quit the Sea Org and, as such, he is now a disgraced member of Scientology. Note: Star makes an error in this story by claiming that the Sea Org members work eight hours a day for very little pay. Actually, it’s more like fourteen hours a day for about $50 per week. Here are the details from Star, which cites Tony Ortega’s blog as a source and claims that Tom will not be happy to see the return of Eddie Frencher:
When Katie Holmes blindsided Tom Cruise by filing for divorce last year, the actor leaned on the two people who have remained a constant in his life all these years: his kids Connor, 18, and Isabella, 20, whom he adopted with his ex-wife Nicole Kidman.
But now one of those relationships may be hitting some turbulence. One of Scientology’s most vocal critics, Tony Ortega, alleges that Isabella’s longtime boyfriend, Eddie Frencher, has abruptly left Scientology’s elite clerical order, the “Sea Organization,” after just five months — and says that decision could have repercussions for Tom and his beloved daughter Bella.
“Leaving Sea Org isn’t looked upon favorably by Scientologists, so Eddie leaving could cause a rift between Tom and Isabella,” says Marc Headly, a former Scientologist and Sea Org staffer and author of Blown for Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology.” “Isabella is still in Scientology, andt ehre is pressure on her to shine because Tom is one of the church’s main figureheads.”
The Sea Org — in which officers work eight-hour days for almost no pay and sign a billion-year contract to symbolize their eternal devotion to the religion — is considered the ultimate committment by followers. If Eddie told Isabella “what a horrifying experience it was,” Headly says, “that would definitely turn anyone off. It wouldn’t surprise me if she pulls away from Scientology.”
Bella is fiercely devoted to Eddie (and planning to marry him, according to Ortega, whose website, The Underground Bunker, puts Scientology under a microscope), leaving church watchers whether she could find herself caught between the two men she adores most.
“I’m lucky — my kids are really loving,” the Mission: Impossible star has said, adding that his daughter is “a good girl” — and one who has a mind of her own: “Bella has a very strong sense of herself.”
[From In Touch, print edition, April 22, 2013]
This could get tricky because Isabella is utterly financially dependent upon Tom, and I don’t necessarily fault her for this because she was educated only in Scientology schools, so she didn’t really learn any life skills, and I imagine poor Eddie Frencher is in the same boat. As such, it would be hard for her to pull away from the CO$. I absolutely believe that Tom would completely cut Isabella out of his life if she left the cult, and I think he’d do anything to make sure she didn’t keep dating someone who was such a “disgrace” that he left the Sea Org. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how this shakes out, but I feel for these kids.
Tom Cruise’s international tour of terror to promote Oblivion continues, and we skipped his brief stint in Austria where he rubbed nips with with daredevil Felix Baumgartner. Hopefully, he didn’t pass Felix a copy of Dianetics or invite him to go motorcycle riding through the desert with David Miscavige, but you never know with Tom.
These are photos of Tom in Dublin where he paid a visit to the Guinness Storehouse and poured a pint while pretending to enjoy beer. LOL. Then Tom attended a needless ceremony to celebrate his Irish roots where he was protected by Scientobodyguard on the left in the below photo. I’ve kind of missed this guy — he worked with Katie in NYC for a few years, but after the divorce, he was shuffled back to Tom’s side of the pond. The dude seems like an intense guy who works very hard at his job. Let’s hope he sees the light and breaks free one day.
In more ridiculous news, Tom decided to talk about aliens because Oblivion deals with the aftermath of an alien invasion on Earth. The hilarious thing, of course, is that any association between Tom and aliens leads to a discussion about Xenu and the disembodied souls lurking around volcanoes all those billions of years ago. Yet here’s Tom unironically claiming that he’d love to meet some aliens. Sounds like fun!
Tom Cruise wants to go on a Tour of the Worlds – by taking a trip to space.
The Hollywood star says he would consider spending £130,000 to fly into orbit – and would love to bump into an ALIEN.
Speaking as he promoted new sci-fi film Oblivion, Cruise added: “Who wouldn’t want to do something like that?
“I’m going to let a couple of other people test it out first but it would be great. I was always hoping when I was a kid that we would be travelling to different planets by now.”
The War of the Worlds star, 50, would be following other celebs like Ashton Kutcher who plan to go into space. The Two and a Half Men star has already forked out £130,000 for Virgin Galactic’s upcoming two-hour mission.
And Scientologist Cruise believes it would not be out of this world to think aliens exist. Some of his religious pals hold that an alien called Xenu brought humans to Earth 75 million years ago.
Tom said: “I don’t think you can actually count it out. It might be a little arrogant to think we were the only ones in all the galaxies throughout the universe – but I’ve never met one!”
Cruise was speaking in Moscow at the Russian premiere of Oblivion, in which he plays one of the last men on Earth after an alien battle ravages the planet in 2073.
The 5ft 7in star is well practised for a trip – he once flew a Space Shuttle simulator at Nasa’s space centre in Houston, Texas. Now that’s one giant step for a small man.
I’m tempted to agree with Tom (for once) in that it would be awfully presumptuous of us humans to believe that we’re the only life form in the entire cosmos. Obviously, life must exist elsewhere, but I’m of the opinion that we’d never be able to communicate with otherworldly beings anyway. Obviously, life isn’t really like Star Trek with universal translators, but Tom is still convinced in the back of his sunshiney little mind that one day, he and fellow “big being” Dave will hop into their spaceship of love and greet the aliens with open arms.
Kirstie Alley really needs to step away from the social media with her crazy Scientology bias against psychiatry. Everyone’s favorite Xenu puppet of delusion took to her Twitter account after she happened to catch a television commercial for the Abilify antidepressant. I think I’ve seen the ad spot she’s talking about, which is one that shows a bouncing happy face. Well, Kirstie seems to believe that children will see this commercial and want to take this drug, you know, just for fun. Say what?
Just for a second, let me backtrack and say that I don’t agree with Kirstie when she says that psychiatric drugs are the devil, but I don’t think that kids should take them unless it’s absolutely necessary. I don’t doubt that there are some children whose parents will medicate them because it’s easier than dealing with behavioral problems. One of my friends went through a big custody battle in court and won sole custody of his daughter because the mother kept doctor shopping, and the poor little girl was on all kinds of meds because, well, let’s just say that the mother had issues of her own. In that case, the court-appointed doctor determined that (just like the father suspected) this little girl did not have any psychiatric problems, but this was a very extreme case where the mom just kept insisting that her kid take these drugs to be “fixed.”
In contrast, there are kids who do genuinely benefit from drugs for depression, ADHD, and other mental-health maladies. Some kids (and adults) really need such such medication, but Kirstie doesn’t see that, of course. She’s conditioned to follow the L. Ron Hubbard-dictated doctrine that holds psychiatry out as the root of all evil — including the Holocaust and the Xenu volcano debacle. As such, we can’t expect any common sense from Kirstie in this department, and here are some of the bizarro things she said on Twitter about pharmaceutical companies and their eeevil drugs:
“HOW is it legal to INTICE people to down TWO mind altering drugs by using cartoon characters to depict the DRUGS? ABILIFY. Big PHARMA not marketing to youth? ABILIFY… Talking umbrella, cute little smiley pill, while lethal side effects like suicide r rattled off. I have a great name for a psych drug NOT targeted at children…Broccoli-ifi. At least when that dirty creep across from the campus is selling smack we see the intensity of it. Same dude on TV Drug ads…just bathed. You can hate me for my viewpoint .but on this it won’t change..some things are just not right..a ‘little bit of slavery’ is not acceptable”
Does anyone else find it ironic that Kirstie is likening psychiatry to the promotion of slavery when the CO$ itself runs on slave labor? From young children in the Sea Org to Tom Cruise’s mechanics and housekeepers, the entire cult relies on slavery. Yet all of that is easy for delusional celebrity members to ignore when pushing their cult’s wacky ideology. L. Ron Hubbard hated psychiatrists because he felt that doctors at the Veteran’s Administration had failed him.
Somehow though, traces of psychiatric drugs were found in Hubbard’s system after his death, but celebrity members will never acknowledge such truths. Remember how Tom Cruise famously jabbed his finger at Matt Lauer and gave him a profound lecture on “psychiatric abuses” while promoting War of the Worlds? Tom insisted that poor Brooke Shields didn’t need antidepressants for postpartum depression because “there’s no such thing as a chemical imbalance.” That’s basically the same deluded point of view that Kirstie is presenting in her silly Twitter rant. How unfortunate.
Here’s a photo of Lisa Marie Presley (from her Twitter account) with her wacky, over-Botoxed mother, Priscilla, in London. Lisa Marie always looks so much happier and fresh when posing for candids as opposed to red carpets where she generally looks stiff and grumpy (she’s still got the best bitch face in the business though). It took me a moment to realize that Mama Presley doesn’t always dress this way just for fun. Nope, this is a backstage picture of Priscilla dressed for her role in the Wimbledon pantomime edition of Snow White where a critic praised her performance as such: “Though the 67-year-old’s expression remains glamorously frozen, she takes regal delight in her Wicked Queen role.” Sounds about right.
Last fall, we reported that Lisa Marie appeared to have placed a substantial distance between herself and Scientology. She relocated from California to London a few years ago, she stripped all references to Scientology from her website, and she has cryptically spoken about a betrayal from her inner circle: “I got bad advice. I was insulated with no grip on reality. They were taking my soul, my money, my everything.” In addition, her new Storm & Grace album references herself as “transgressive” and “suppressive” while inquiring, “Am I a disruption to your corruption?”
Mind you, Lisa Marie hasn’t come out and actually stated that she’s left the CO$. As such, that is the primary question on every journo’s mind. Dame magazine managed to nail her down for a phone interview and asked the same question, and Lisa Marie was slightly more forthcoming with her answers:
Why she left Hollywood (i.e., “living in a wasp’s nest) for London: “Uncovering the fact that I was surrounded by people who were not well-intended, for one. Confidants [who were] very, very intimately and closely involved with me and my life. And had been for years. Basically, it was a big sinister situation, where there was like, kind of intel and covert ops going on, and a whole effort to control me that I didn’t know about. Lots of people (were) involved in that in various ways. And I uncovered it and it was mind-blowing, and I just was done with people at that point…It was just too much for me. I have a pretty high tolerance, and I’ve seen a lot, but I was just not ready for all that. It’s like uncovering [people] one by one, and then somebody that was holding it all together, and then they get exposed, and then I find out who’s behind that person, and that person was no good, and…it was pretty much like dominos. So I just thought, ‘Oh, my God, is everybody this dishonest and awful?’ And I really had an obscured view of the world, so I needed to get far away to rediscover people and life and not have a bunch of people around me. You know how that happens in high-profile situations, where you get so many people around you that they obscure your reality on life and insulate you for their own benefit? That was what was happening. But really, it was a sinister situation. I’m not going to say specifically, but I’ve given you a pretty good scope.”
Naturally, the CO$ has no comment: “[I]t is our policy not to speak about individual parishioners,” spokesperson Linda Wieland said in an email. “You should address such questions to Ms. Presley’s representatives.” Presley’s 2012 tour publicist, Bobbie Gale, answered only that Lisa Marie “isn’t going to give a direct quote… many have tried and she refuses to answer.”
She loves London though: “It was a four-or five-year process and, to be honest, I’m still looking back going, ‘Wow!’ But then all these amazing songs started happening, and I started realizing what life was like without all that going on. Life is actually great, and there are incredible people in England, just out in the country, down in the local pub, you know? People with a conscience and a common sense of right and wrong. The paparazzi were sitting outside my house one day, and a farmer backed his truck into them. He was like, ‘Hey, leave her alone.’ I hadn’t even met him yet. I thought, ‘Okay, now that’s just a really good person who’s protecting me, and I don’t even know him.’ It’s simple, but it was very telling of human nature. I needed to rediscover that again.”
Yep, she’s out. Not officially out, but she’s in that same phase as Tom Cruise when he drifted away from the cult for a number of years while her was married to Nicole Kidman and after he went into a rage over the OT Level III Xenu story. Of course, David Miscavige pulled Tom back into the fray, but I don’t think Lisa Marie is vulnerable in the same way. Like, I’d be scared of Lisa Marie if I were Miscavige. She doesn’t take crap from anyone. At the same time, she probably won’t ever come out and declare that she’s left the CO$ while Priscilla, who is still well entrenched within the cult, is alive. Unless Priscilla decides to leave too, and then all bets are off.
Here’s Lisa Marie blowing out the candles on her birthday cake on February 1st. She turned 45 years old this year!
Here are some semi-creepy photos of Giovanni Ribisi and Agyness Deyn taking their (adorable) dog for a walk in Santa Barbara over the weekend. To recap, Agyness and Giovanni eloped last June after dating for an ambiguous period of time during which no one even realized they were together. A few months later, word leaked out in a Star story that Agyness hadn’t quite realized how much of a hardcore Scientologist she had married until after the fact, and that Giovanni’s second-generation level of devotion was kind of weirding her out. But then in October, Laura Agyness officially retired from modelling so that she could (theoretically) try to make it big in acting, which I took as a sign that Agyness was going to use her new CO$ connections to try to make it big in Hollywood, and she was probably just going to ignore the Xenu stuff. After all, Agyness is nothing if not a chameleon.
In these photos, Agyness and Giovanni are clearly aware of the paparazzi’s presence as they stroll on the beach. They’re smiling and holding hands and then Giovanni leans in and lays a huge kiss on Agyness.
So at this point, I’m thinking that Agy is in pretty deep with the CO$. She’s probably been doing some introductory-to-intermediate level auditing sessions, and it’s all about positive thinking at this point. Because that’s how Scientology gets people started — with all the love bombing and sh-t. Now she and Giovanni are an ideal CO$ couple, and in a few decades, we’ll see them unconvincingly gross-smooching on the red carpet just like Kelly Preston and John Travolta. Agyness Deyn, this is your future.
Speaking of the CO$, Scientology took out a full banner ad on the front page of YouTube that appeared in the United States for the whole of Sunday. The ad includes the hilarious “think for yourself” Superbowl spot & an interactive video menu that would allow prospective victims to learn more about the “religion.” YouTube’s willingness to take CO$ advertising dollars makes me wonder if there’s more to the fact that, years ago, my two YouTube accounts were disabled after I posted some vids that were critical of the CO$. It’s probably just a coincidence because I can’t blame YouTube for preferring to take down accounts rather than continue to listen to a few persistent CO$ whiners. But you know, it just bugs.
As the niece of Scientology’s leader (David “Tiny Tyrant” Miscavige), Jenna Miscavige was born into the cult and raised as one of the Sea Org members who sign a billion-year contract as early as age 7. Growing up, she spent very little time with her parents and endured 14+ hour workdays, 7 days per week with only a few days off per year. After her escape as a young adult, Jenna founded the ExScientologykids.com website with a couple of other ex-members, and now she lives a relatively normal life in San Diego with her husband (Dallas Hill, also a former Scientologist) and their two children.
Just this week, Jenna has released a book Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape that details her harrowing, brutal experiences within Scientology’s ranks as well as her eventual escape. Here’s a clip from Jenna’s appearance on Piers Morgan’s CNN show where she talks about barely ever seeing her parents and being brainwashed by the CO$ to the point where she disconnected from them when they left the Sea Org:
Notice that Jenna mentions the blatant irony of the Scientology Super Bowl ad. That’s exactly how desperate this cult is getting — they’ve been forced to purchase some of the most expensive advertising real estate in history. It’s really only a matter of time before this organization crumbles. In the meantime, Jenna has been doing her part to bring the CO$ down, and during the Piers Morgan interview, she discusses how celebrities are treated incredibly differently than the rest of the members. Primarily, she discusses whether or not Tom Cruise is aware of this discrepancy:
On the heels of a divisive Scientology ad that aired during the Super Bowl, on Tuesday evening “Piers Morgan Tonight” invited Jenna Miscavige Hill to share her unique perspective on the controversial religious organization.
The niece of current leader David Miscavige, the guest left the church nearly a decade ago and has since become an outspoken critic of the organization and its teachings.
Well-known for its connection to some of Hollywood’s biggest names — including Tom Cruise and John Travolta — Scientology has been accused of being a cult that brainwashes its members, and forces children into long hours of unlawful labor.
According to Hill, Cruise and others are either turning a blind eye, or simply perpetuating the problem:
“I think that either he does know what’s going on and he’s not talking about it, or he is willfully ignorant about it,” she says of the star of the “Mission: Impossible” franchises. “People who endorse an organization like this, I feel like they have a responsibility to know everything about it and know what they’re endorsing.”
Having grown up in the church, including staying with the organization for five years after her parents left, Hill told Piers Morgan that conditions and facilities designed for the general population are far different than those reserved for the group’s celebrity members:
“Obviously, the church itself is much nicer,” she revealed to the “Piers Morgan Tonight” host. “Celebrities have their own private entrances. There’s beautiful restaurants there. They have their own classrooms.”
You know what? I’ve been going back and forth on this Tom Cruise issue for years now, and I’ve concluded that there is no way that he doesn’t realize how he’s treated like a god in this cult, and he just doesn’t see a problem with that. Tom is truly in love with his slavelabor. As such, Tom is completely aware that he’s receiving loads of freebies in terms of construction labor and gifts, but he thinks he deserves it because he’s such a “big being“. He has absolutely no problem with his labor being of the unpaid variety because these poor thetans can reap the rewards of basking in the glow of Tom’s happiness. In short (ha!), Tom Cruise is a reprehensible human being.
Tony Ortega has also published a review of Jenna’s upcoming book, and his piece is quite lengthy. I started to excerpt the text, and I just couldn’t do it justice. In short, Jenna became disillusioned with the fabled OTIII level of L. Ron Hubbard’s scripture (the infamous Xenu/volcanoes tale) but decided to overlook that discrepancy because the CO$ was the only life that she knew. Once she got older, Jenna met Dallas Hill, and they fell in love. Unfortunately, the CO$ wouldn’t let them marry, so they engaged in premarital sex and were threatened with separation and never seeing each other again. That’s when they started to plot their escape and met several obstacles not limited to but including the permanent severance of communication from Dallas’ family. It’s a very riveting story, and here’s the link to Ortega’s excerpts if you want to learn more. In the meantime, here’s what Jenna had to say about her childhood:
“To me, the Church is a dangerous organization whose beliefs allow it to commit crimes against humanity and violate basic human rights. It remains a mystery to me how, in our current society, this can go on unchecked. It is particularly insidious because of its celebrity advocates and affiliated groups, such as Narconon, Applied Scholastics, and the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. The list of duties and procedures went on endlessly, and the result of all this process, paperwork, and regulation was that there were no children at the Ranch — only little adults. At special events, we were dressed up in cute outfits and paraded in front of our parents and Int crew to make it seem as though Scientology was creating a normal and joyful childhood, when in fact we were all being robbed of it.”
“Little adults.” This term reminds me a lot of what we saw Suri Cruise experiencing before Katie Holmes had the foresight to file for divorce from Tom Cruise. If we get lucky, Jenna’s story will reach many ears who will find the courage to leave the CO$. In the internet (and Wikileaks) culture, we probably won’t see many people gullible enough to sign up with this cult. The primary interest, therefore, is helping people who are already “in” get “out” of this troublesome and unlawful organization.
Screencap courtesy of YouTube, photos courtesy of Freedom Magazine, Fame/Flynet, and Amazon
This week’s issue of the Enquirer has a preview of Lawrence Wright’s new book, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood & the Prison of Belief, and we’ve already covered a bunch of stuff from this book about Tom Cruise and his hilariously misguided quest for the presidency, so now it’s John Travolta’s turn. John may very well be back on the CO$ wagon with bizarre claims of car-crash victim “assists”, and he also secretly longs to replace Tom as the public face of Scientology, but John wasn’t always so willing to be crushed under the alien-tentacled thumb of Xenu. In fact, Wright’s book claims that at one point — sometime in the early 1980s (the Urban Cowboy and Staying Alive era) — John was so fed up with Scientology’s intolerance of the gay lifestyle that he threatened to bolt and “marry” his male lover. Naturally, Xenu wasn’t having any of that nonsense, and since John is still with the cult, the rest is history. Here are the details:
John Travolta once threatened to turn his back on Scientology so that he could run off and marry his boyfriend.
That’s the outrageous claim made in an explosive new anti-Scientology book, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood & the Prison of Belief, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright.
In the shocking tell-all, Wright alleges that a young Travolta had grown disenchanted with the church in the early ’80s but was afraid that officials would expose him as gay if he tried to leave.
Travolta, nthen the most prominent member of Scientology, had allegedly confessed his homosexuality during church-run “auditing,” or counseling sessions, according to the book’s author. And while the author states that the church was terrified their top member would be exposed as gay — long considered to be an “illness” by Scientologists — Wright believes they were prepared to destroy the actor’s rising career by outing him if he tried to defect.
Frustrated over being trapped, in one emotionally charged auditing session, Travolta threatened to walk away from the church and “marry” his male lover even though gay marriage was not legal at the time, former Scientology official Jesse Prince told Wright.
Prince claims he was the church’s second highest-ranking official when he left it after 16 years in 1992. “Because of my position, I knew specifically what was said in certain auditing sessions, and I can confirm that John Travolta once threatened that he was going to marry his boyfriend,” Prince told The Enquirer. “There’s no question (Scientology) had a lot on John’s gay activities and used it to keep him from leaving — and to keep him in line.
In the end, says another source, the church convinced Travolta that following through on his threat would NOT be in his best interest. He remained int he organization and eventually wed fellow Scientologist Kelly Preston in 1991.
Despite marrying a woman, Travolta, 58, continues to be at the center of gay scandals. In September, his former pilot Doug Gotterba told The Enquirer that he’d shared a six-year affair with the actor. And last spring, two male masseurs filed sexual battery suits against Travolta in federal court.
Although Travolta’s attorney vehemently denied the claims, several more men have since come forward with similar allegations.
[From Enquirer, print edition, January 28, 2013]
Naturally, the entire world (well, besides Kelly Preston and the rest of the CO$) seems to readily accept that John Travolta is gay, and it’s really not such a big deal that he likes men. Not a problem at all! What is a problem is that John apparently thinks it’s okay to assault other men instead of aiming for mutual gay encounters. That’s some pretty warped thinking. We’ve heard stories of his long-term, co-pilot lover, his spa-based dalliances, and that he’s got a very long list of male lovers. Sadly though, John would rather stay in the closet and sexually assault masseuses to get his rocks off.
In a certain respect, part of me wants to feel sorry for John as well as Kelly Preston for feeling like they need to live a lie in order to keep the CO$ happy enough that their audit files won’t leak to the press. But honestly, the public is learning so much about the evils of the CO$ that they’d likely find great sympathy if such leakage ever happened. And I can’t feel sorry for people who readily remain prisoners of a cult. These two are celebrities who could get out, but they’re just too afraid to confront the truth.
Nicole Kidman appears in the latest (Jan 23) print edtion of The Hollywood Reporter to promote Stoker and its upcoming Sundance premiere. This interview is actually kind of juicy and dovetails with the release of NYT writer Lawrence Wright’s Scientology exposé, Going Clear, which arrives in stores … tomorrow! If you’re interested in a preview, the Daily Beast is running 15 (mostly new) revelations from the book.
Nicole’s relevance to Wright’s book, of course, has to do with her 12-year-old divorce from Tom Cruise. According to well-documented sources, Celebrity Centre boss Tommy Davis (who has recently blown the cult, btw), held weekly, post-divorce sessions with Tom and Isabella Cruise. In these audits/information dumps/brainwashing sessions, Davis labelled Nicole a Suppressive Person and reportedly informed Nicole and Tom’s children that their mother was a sociopath who was not to be trusted. In this piece, Nicole finally says something about her estranged state with her eldest two children, and you can easily tell that she doesn’t blame them at all because she knows the drill. So sad. On a lighter note, she also discusses peeing on Zac Efron. Here are some excerpts:
Peeing on Zac Efron in The Paperboy: “I just don’t find urination shocking,” Kidman declares matter-of-factly. “I think I peed in the beginning of Eyes Wide Shut, too. But then, I don’t find a lot of things shocking! Violence is a lot more shocking than sex — sex is primal. Lee [Daniels, director of The Paperboy] had an obsession about shooting me from behind — he was obsessed with my ass! To me, that was so funny. He’s hilarious, I love him. I’m drawn to Lee for his wild nature. I felt shy singing in Moulin Rouge! But peeing — no, not shy.”
Journo mentions that her Cruise divorce happened because of CO$: “I’ll bet it is. My eye is going to a dress here — that’s how interested I am in this.” When pressed, she’ll say only: “I’ve chosen not to speak publicly about Scientology. I have two children [adopted with Cruise] who are Scientologists — Connor and Isabella — and I utterly respect their beliefs.”
On her recent career decisions: “I try to go places I’m terrified of,” she says. “It makes you more compassionate. The journey of life is hard; you’re always waiting for the cannonball to come and hit you. I do develop very powerful relationships with most of my directors,” admits Kidman. “Gus Van Sant changed my career with To Die For. I’ll definitely work with Lars von Trier again. And [The Hours director] Stephen Daldry is like a soulmate. He was so kind to me when I was pregnant, even when I couldn’t do The Reader. It’s not the size of the role I care about, it’s the subject matter here: torture and the human soul.”
She’s a traditional gal: “I’m just a nice Southern girl. It’s such an easy lifestyle. And it’s more diverse than you’d expect. There’s so much great music. The Black Keys go jogging past the restaurant Keith and I go to. We’ll hang out with Jack White in the studio. And there’s music in our house all the time — Keith plays harmonica, drums, banjo, piano and bass guitar. He has a strong will about his career, and so do I. We want each other to thrive and do what we love, and we never interfere in the other’s career choices.”
On the future: “I really want to do Chekhov in Russian. I know my choices are erratic and unpredictable, and there’s no rhyme or reason. I want to be spontaneous. I love subtext. Subtext is what’s interesting — in Ibsen, in Chekhov, in all the great literature. The sound of Russian gives it such gravitas. It’s a very difficult language. It’s always been my dream to perform Chekhov in Russian. And don’t be surprised when I do it.”
She wants to be an indie queen: “My heart is independent. I come from Australia, I was trained in indie movies. It’s an unconscious decision — it’s who I am. As an actor, you live and die by your choices. I don’t associate with mainstream films anymore. I don’t do so well in them, either. I guess I have a foot in both worlds. I’ve been offered some studio films this year and turned them down. They just didn’t align with who I am. I actually don’t even know what a movie star is now — what is a movie star? When the best female part of the year is Claire Danes in ‘Homeland,’ you know the game’s changed. Maybe in the ’50s, there was a far more particular idea for a movie star. But now that’s all blurry — everything’s more fluid.”
Oh, Nicole. I feel so much for her in regard to Isabella and Connor’s unfortunate rejection of her “suppressive person” self. Although the timing is strange with the reporter pushing for Nic’s response in regard to Scientology’s involvement in her divorce from Tom Cruise. It’s been over a decade since Tom tore up her contract, and certainly, her publicists have been very conscientious about shutting down potential inquiries until now. So what gives? I am assuming that the journalist was informed that he could ask questions about the CO$, but that Nicole might be dicey in response. I guess this is progress from her former radio silence, right? At least we now have concrete evidence (from her answers) that she feels quite abrasive about the cult despite paying positive lipservice to her estranged children.
Also, I can’t help but wonder if Nicole’s fresh embrace of indie movies might have something to do with her blockbuster-centered ex, Tom Cruise? He’d rather die than go indie. Then again, Nicole has had some really big recent studio failures, including The Golden Compass and The Invasion, the latter of which only brought in $15 million against a $80 million budget. Ouch.
Let me first start out by saying that I am seriously bummed that our photo agencies didn’t get any photos of Tom Cruise at the Tokyo premiere of Jack Reacher. Tom is always very manic and entertaining when he hits Japan because he’s pretty huge there, and I mean that in a figurative and literal sense. Not only do the Japanese enjoy Tom’s movies, but Tom loves the fact that he can actually tower over some of the men in the country. But we will have to make do with these (sort of) old photos of Tom while he was in NYC last month to appear on Letterman (where Tom learned the “F” word). I never noticed before how much I love how Tom’s shadow is wearing lifts too.
To divert slightly from the main point today, a story in this week’s In Touch paints a lovely picture of Tom’s new relationship with Cynthia Jorge, the 26-year-old restaurant employee with whom he was dirty dancing in NYC clubs. Apparently, Cynthia feels that dating Tom “feels like a fairy tale,” and “they have a lot in common and are seeing where things go.” But they’re taking it slow! “They’re getting to know each other. It’s like any relationship in the beginning phase.” This basically means that Scientology is performing its filtering functions right now. Cynthia is probably undergoing the usual processing method of introductory auditing and incisor filing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if her family and friends haven’t spoken to her in weeks. So sure, it’s a “fairy tale” if there ever was one.
Now back to the “F” word. Tom has spoken that word before in some of his movies, but I’m not sure that he knows what it means. I’m not trying to be rude — that’s just how I see Tom: asexual and (to paraphrase Mimi Rogers) the proud owner of a “pure instrument.” Yes, I believe that Tom is Suri’s biological father, but I’m not entirely convinced that he had actual sex to get there. Instead, it seems like Tom has a hero-like fascination with CO$ leader David Miscavige.
The relationship between Tom and Dave is being detailed further in a new book by Lawrence Wright (staff writer from The New Yorker) called Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief. The Hollywood Reporter provides a multi-page summary of this book, but it’s a lot of stuff that we’ve heard already (including the familiar details about how Miscaviage and Tommy Davis instructed Isabella and Connor Cruise that their mother, Nicole Kidman, is a raging sociopath), so mostly, I am going to excerpt the parts about Tom and David Miscavige’s strange relationship. In short, not only are Dave and Tom the ultimate “big beings,” but they also plan on getting in their little spaceship of love together for an actual rendevous with L. Ron Hubbard himself once day. Here are some excerpts, which include a disturbing story about Dave’s dogs and Tom using the “F” word to describe his hopeful candidacy in running the United States:
Miscavige’s taste in music and movies: [Every evening], Miscavige retires to his den and drinks Macallan scotch and plays backgammon with members of his entourage or listens to music on his $150,000 stereo system (he loves Michael Jackson) or watches movies in his private screening room (his favorite films are Scarface and The Godfather trilogy). He usually turns in around three or four in the morning.
Miscavige makes Scientologists salute his dogs: Miscavige keeps a number of dogs, including five beagles. He had blue vests made up for each of them, with four stripes on the shoulder epaulets, indicating the rank of Sea Org Captain. He insists that people salute the dogs as they parade by. The dogs have a treadmill where they work out. A full-time staff member feeds, walks and trains the dogs and enters one of them, Jelly, into contests, where he has attained championship status. One of Miscavige’s favorites, a Dalmatian/pit bull mix named Buster, went on a rampage one day and killed 10 peacocks on the property, and then the dog proudly laid out his kill for all to see. Buster also attacked various members of the staff — sending one elderly woman to the emergency room — before being transferred to another base, causing staffers to joke he had been sent to the dog equivalent of Scientology rehabilitation.
Tom & Dave plotted to take over the US: “Bush may be an idiot,” Miscavige observed, “but I wouldn’t mind his being our Constantine,” referring to the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity. Cruise agreed. “If f–ing Arnold can be governor, I could be president.” Miscavige responded, “Well, absolutely, Tom.”
Tom & Dave have a future rendezvous with L. Ron Hubbard: “[Miscavige would] say that Tom Cruise was the only person in Scientology, other than himself, that he would trust to run the Church,” one former Sea Org member recalled. Rathbun observed: “Miscavige convinced Cruise that he and Tom were two of only a handful of truly ‘big beings’ on the planet. He instructed Cruise that LRH was relying upon them to unite with the few others of their ilk on earth to make it onto ‘Target Two’ — some unspecified galactic locale where they would meet up with Hubbard in the afterlife.”
HAhahahaha. Tom Cruise as Presidential candidate? Don’t worry, it would never happen. Neither Tom nor the CO$ could afford the pay cut (the article points out that in 2004 alone, Tom “donated” $3 million to “the church”). Also, even if Tom managed to convince a political party to nominate him, there’s no way he could handle even one live political debate. It would be all about blinding-white smiles and sticking his finger in his opponent’s face. “But what about the economy, Tom?” You don’t understand the history of psychiatry! I do.”
There’s also a separate article from Hollywood Reporter that is devoted to the portions of Wright’s book that cover John Travolta’s “blithe” acceptance of “the faith,” and it details an auditor’s defection from the CO$ after her baby (who was denied vaccinations) had developed whooping cough: “The baby’s eyes were welded shut with mucus, and her diaper was wet — in fact, her whole crib was soaking. She was covered with fruit flies.” The really sad part of this story? It is probably all true.
