In 2006, there was a lot of buzz over the fact that private investigator Anthony Pellicano was facing charges on federal racketeering and wiretapping charges. Pellicano represented high profile celebrity clients like Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He also did work for Tom Cruise during his divorce from Nicole Kidman, allegedly tapping Kidman’s phones like all of his other targets. People wondered if we were about to hear the sordid details in the Cruise/Kidman divorce, but the most salacious details we heard during Pellicano’s 2008 trial involved comedian Chris Rock and a fake rape charge. (I truly believe that charge was false, you can read more about it in these two stories.)

Pellicano regularly scammed celebrities by planting stories in the tabloids and then contacting the celebrities directly to offer his services at a steep fee. He had contacts in the police and phone departments who helped him run illegal wiretaps and background searches. In 2008, he was convicted of wiretapping and conspiracy to commit wiretapping and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Tom Cruise, his lawyer Betram Fields, and Anthony Pellicano are now being sued by a magazine editor who claims his phone was illegally tapped by Pellicano at Cruise’s request. The former editor of Bold Magazine, Michael Davis Sapir, claimed in 2001 that he had a tape of Tom Cruise engaged in some same-sex lovin. (I don’t think the gay rumors have much merit, although I initially believed them. I think Pellicano duped Cruise with earlier gay rumors so he would hire him. You can read these three stories in order for background, with attention to the last update on the last story.)

Cruise sued the editor and they settled for an undisclosed amount, with Sapir stating that the tape never existed. Cruise also allegedly hired Anthony Pellicano to run some counter intelligence on Sapir. Now Sapir is suing back for the alleged surveillance. He wants $5 million, or $5,000 for each one of the 1,000-something conversations he claims were taped without his knowledge.

Anthony Pellicano’s misdeeds are the gift that keeps on giving to the Hollywood elite.

Tom Cruise is the latest—and biggest—name to be sucked into the fray. The star was sued Friday for $5 million by a real mensch who claims that he was spied on by Cruise and his attorney with the help of Pellicano, years before the celebrity detective was convicted of numerous counts of racketeering, wiretapping and other abuses of P.I. power.

The reason the plaintiff believes he was targeted: his ultimately discredited claim that he had a tape of Cruise engaged in some same-sex action.
Michael Davis Sapir, the former editor of Bold magazine, was tagged in a $100 million defamation suit in June 2001 by the Mission: Impossible star over the alleged video, which Bold says it got a hold of after pubbing a $500,000 reward offer for “videotape evidence that Cruise was gay.”

The case was settled that November for an undisclosed amount, with both parties stating that Cruise was not on any tape in Bold’s possession.
But now Sapir claims that Pellicano, acting on orders from Cruise and his major-player attorney, Bert Fields, wiretapped his phone while the suit was still active.
His allegations include invasion of privacy, disclosure of confidential information and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

[From E! Online]

I read through the lawsuit (on E! Online and TMZ) and the best detail is the password that Pellicano allegedly used to access the encrypted digital recordings of Sapir, which were kept on an iMac: “Bold c*cksucker omerta.”

I love how Cruise’s heavy-handed ways just keep coming back to remind us about the gay rumors. After digging into the allegations a few years ago, I really don’t think Cruise is gay or that he had gay encounters. Pellicano probably set Cruise up with fake gay allegations so he could secure his business, as he often did with his clients. Cruise’s lawyer Fields denies hiring Pellicano for this case, though, and says “We did not even hire Pellicano to work on the Sapir case.” The lawsuit claims a file was found by the FBI in Pellicano’s office called “Michael Davis,” however. I wouldn’t doubt that Cruise hired Pellicano and went for the jugular. If he didn’t, he probably sicced some Scientology goons on the case. I’d love to see Cruise pony up a million or two for Sapir’s trouble.

In related Tom Cruise news, the trailer for his upcoming film Knight & Day with Cameron Diaz has come out. It’s not out until July, and shooting just wrapped last week, but there’s a trailer already. It looks like a pretty solid action movie and I actually laughed in spots.

Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are shown on 12/17/09, “posing for pictures before preparing to leave Spain after filming their new movie ‘Knight and Day’” on 12/17/09. Credit: WENN.com. Tom is also shown partying at an Irish bar with wife Katie Holmes and Cameron Diaz in Seville, Spain for Katie’s 31st birthday later that night. (Katie’s birthday is 12/18/09.) Credit: Target/Fame Pictures

Suri Cruise was photographed out in Sevilla, Spain with the parents she tolerates, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Princess Suri was wearing a pink Flamenco-style dress with tiered ruffles and red polka dot kitten heels. She didn’t have a jacket on during a press-friendly outing to the park, but it wasn’t freezing cold in Sevilla yesterday. Weather Underground reports that it was around 60° Fahrenheit on average. Her mom Katie Holmes told Access Hollywood last week that Suri wears “ballroom dancing shoes for kids,” not kid-styled high heels per se. It’s hard to tell if Suri can still play in the heels as she was mostly being carried by her dad. In one photo, mom Katie shows her how to climb a rope ladder but she’s not having it and doesn’t seem interested.

Katie and Suri were visiting Tom while he’s in Spain to work on his new action film with Cameron Diaz, Knight & Day. This week’s In Touch makes a big deal out of the fact that Katie and Tom spent Thanksgiving apart but it sounds like Tom was too busy working despite the fact that he’s said to have “begged Katie to join him in Europe.”

In Touch reports the typical Tom/Katie tabloid dynamic: she wants more space while clingy Tom wants her closer. Instead of spending the US holiday with Tom in Spain, Katie’s parents flew into NY from Ohio to spend time with their daughter and grandchild. It looks like the famous family got together again soon afterwards anyway. Is it just me or do both Katie and Suri look annoyed with this photo-op? Suri just wants to go home and play dress up with her fabulous wardrobe. She didn’t have enough time to perfect her outfit before Tom dragged her out again. If only her mother had the same excuse most of the time.

Photo credit: Target/FAME Pictures. I’m sorry for posting so many, but there were so many cute photos I couldn’t decide!

Cameron Diaz is currently working on Knight & Day, an action film with Tom Cruise that was previously titled Wichita. We’ve seen photos of Cruise all serious and adrenaline-pumped on the set looking like he’s doing his own stunts – in wedge shoes. Cameron has confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that Tommy boy indeed does his own stunts and that he practically begs for more dangerous and action-filled scenes. Cameron said that Cruise is like a professional stuntman and then she added the key point in her anecdote – “What he does is, like, crazy.” Is anyone else picturing the couch-jumping incident? He has to channel all that mad energy somewhere:

CAMERON Diaz says Tom Cruse makes an excellent stuntman.

The actress — who stars opposite Cruise in upcoming movie Knight & Day — insists the Top Gun star is the “best” when it comes to daring scenes.

“Tom was on top of the car, and I’m inside the car going: ‘Ahhh! Ahhh!’” she said.

“And he’s on the hood of the car flying through the air, you know, cabled to a car, jumping 20 feet across — I’m like: ‘I want an action scene, you guys! ‘I wanna fight! I wanna be on the hood of a car! Write it! Just write it in somewhere.’

“Tom is a professional stuntman. If he wasn’t Tom Cruise the movie star, he would be the best stuntman in the business. He’s phenomenal. What he does is, like, crazy.”

[From ShowbizSpy]

The NY Post has more news from the set of Knight & Day that shows just how dangerous stunt work can be. In one filmed scene, Tom and Cameron fled on a motorcycle from real stampeding bulls (they’re probably trained bulls, but still) in what looks like a recreated scene from the running of the bulls in Pamplona. A few days earlier, seven of the bulls got loose and hurt some passers-by although it sounds like none of the injuries were serious. Damn Tom, slow down.

In related Tom Cruise news, OK! Magazine, which is running a bizarre campaign to compete with Star lately, claims that Tom and Katie are doing fine and that they have reached an “Exclusive New Marriage Deal – $75 Million for Baby Number 2!” This is probably no more true than the other stories in competing rags about how Katie is moving out or leaving Tom. It’s nice to see gossip magazines making up positive fake stories, though. I’ll put this one on the imaginary shelf next to Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson’s domestic bliss, Jennifer Aniston’s pregnancy, and Jen and Brad’s reunion.

Tom and Cameron are shown on the Sevilla, Spain set of Knight & Day on 11/28 and 11/29/09. Look at Cameron’s stunt double! Credit: ENF/Fame Pictures

Tom Cruise’s former Scientology auditor, Mark Rathbun, has a blog where he details his experiences in the cult. In August, Rathburn explained that in 2001 he was “personally assigned [by leader Miscavige] as Inspector General RTC – the second highest ecclessiastical position in the religion – to coordinate Tom’s divorce from Nicole and to serve as his auditor.” Rathbun also gave a scathing account of abuse meted out on high-ranking Scientology officials from leader David Miscavige, who regularly beat staff with witnesses present as a means of intimidation and control. Rathbun’s account of a closed, abusive system in which members feared for their safety is consistent with other Scientology defectors, including Jason Beghe and Marc Headley, the author of a new book about Scientology. Other former Scientologists were also willing to come forward and were quoted on the record in a series of exposes on the cult, published this summer in the St. Petersburg Times.

Now Rathbun is saying that Scientology head David Miscavige once threatened top officials with a beating by Tom Cruise if they didn’t obey his orders – and beat up their own underlings. It all sounds so barbaric and like something you would imagine mobsters doing, not an organization that calls themselves a church and tries to tout their “human rights” record:

Did Tom Cruise offer to personally “beat the living [bleep]” out of disobedient Scientologists?

Cruise’s lawyer and church spokesmen vigorously dispute the claim, but a former high-ranking Scientologist official says he “documented” that church leader David Miscavige once asserted that Cruise would lend his “Top Gun” muscle to do just that.

Marty Rathbun, once one of Miscavige’s most trusted lieutenants, tells us he has a witness who can corroborate his account of a bloody beating at the church’s 500-acre compound in Hemet, Calif. Furthermore, he’s brought it to the attention of Cruise’s attorney, Bert Fields.

On the day before the actor’s visit a couple of years ago, the compound’s managers took part in “the Tom Cruise arrival preparation drill,” which required “orchestrating every action they perform … in the presence of Cruise,” Rathbun recently wrote Fields.

But Miscavige wasn’t happy when he addressed 80 to 100 managers at a prisonlike facility, known as “The Hole,” where three insubordinate
officials — Marc Yager, Guillaume Leserve and Ray Mithoff — were “incarcerated,” according to Rathbun.

“Miscavige berated [the managers] for being far too light in their demands for confessions” from the three, Rathbun alleges in his letter, “because they refused to beat [them] … to pulps. Miscavige said that Tom … had vowed to come to the Hole and personally ‘beat the living [bleep]’ out of Yager, Leserve and Mithoff if the managers failed to do so themselves.

“In response, the mob rushed at the three targeted gentlemen,” Rathbun claimed. “Fists flew and feet kicked into the three. They continued to pound until … each had two black eyes.”

Church spokesman Tommy Davis tells us that Yager, Leserve and Mithoff have all provided sworn affidavits stating they were not assaulted, and that numerous witnesses have also testified that Miscavige never invoked Cruise’s name.

Davis calls Rathbun “an admitted liar” and says he was fired because, on numerous occasions, he assaulted fellow church members. Rathbun argues that, at the time, he was following orders, adding: “I’ve confessed my sins.” Rathbun says he relayed the alleged beating incident to Fields, in the hope that Cruise would recognize the church’s “human rights abuses.”

[From The NY Daily News]

I believe that this happened and that Cruise either said he would help give a beat-down, or that Miscavige just claimed he did. Cruise is high up in Scientology, and it’s likely he’s on board with this culture of fear and abuse that Miscavige helped create. It’s worth noting that Rathbun is not claiming in this account that Cruise beat up anyone, just that it was threatened. In the past, Rathburn wrote that he’d worked with people abused by Cruise, but he didn’t say what kind of abuse that entailed. “I have also counseled people who were abused by Tom personally – in matters that eerily resemble the behavior of Miscavige.”

It’s been a hard few weeks for the Scientology cult. Director Paul Haggis resigned as a member in October with a letter to the head of Celebrity Scientology Centew citing the articles in the St. Petersburg Times and speaking out against the Church’s stance on Prop 8. They were also recently convicted of fraud in France and fined $900,000.

Tom, Katie and Suri are shown out in Boston on 10/4/09. Credit: WENN.com

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in 1990′s Days of Thunder

A former Scientologist who worked for the organization for 15 years has penned an explosive tell-all book about his experiences. Marc Headley’s self-published book, Blown for Good, details the ways he was overworked and manipulated by cult. He was followed and threatened when he tried to leave, and eventually escaped and was able to devise a plan to get his wife out. The Village Voice has details of the book, and Headley’s account is consistent with reports from other ex-Scientologists who have bravely come forward to speak about their experiences.

Headley is likely to get the most attention for his story that he was once “audited” by Tom Cruise for three weeks in the early 90s. Cruise had Headley talk to inanimate objects, including a bottle, book and doorknob, for hours at a time. It would be funny if it wasn’t so abusive. The Voice points out that this ridiculous exercise has a name in Scientology and that the methods are documented online.

This comes on the heels of several public setbacks for the cult, including a denouncement by director Paul Haggis, being convicted of fraud in France, and their hot-headed PR person walking out of an interview that aired a couple of weeks ago. The cult has also been exposed in several articles in the St. Petersburg Times, all of which included multiple ex Scientologists willing to go on the record with stories of extreme abuse and manipulation.

Here are some pertinent parts of Headley’s book, with more available on The Village Voice. You can order the book and get more information on Headley’s website, BlownForGood.com:

On how Cruise convinced him to talk to a bottle, book and doorknob – for three weeks
In 1990, not long after he was assigned to the sprawling Scientology compound at Gilman Hot Springs, near Hemet, California, Headley was told that he would be excused from his normal duties so that Tom Cruise — fresh off his most recent success, the movie Days of Thunder — could practice auditing on him.

Headley writes that he was selected for two reasons: although he’d already spent several years at Scientology schools and working for the church, he had participated in little auditing, and had completed few of the courses that Scientologists pursue as they travel “up the bridge” to a higher status. Also, because he was still only a teenager, Headley was thought to be a minimal security risk.

“[Cruise] was going to do his auditor training and he needed someone to audit and this person had to be low on the bridge. That was me,” he writes. Cruise had arrived at the base with his then-girlfriend, Nicole Kidman (they were married later that year), and Headley writes about what a thrill it was when Cruise took him on an impromptu ride on his motorcycle.

In the book, however, Headley doesn’t go into any real detail about what transpired during the three weeks that he spent with Cruise as the actor went through his training, using Headley as a guinea pig. What actually happened?

Headley says that Cruise took him through something called the “Upper Indoctrination Training Routines,” or “Upper Indoc TRs,” in the abbreviation-filled jargon of Scientologists.

And what did those entail?

“You do a lot of things with a book and a bottle,” Headley says. “It’s known as the book-and-bottle routine.” Cruise, he says, would instruct Headley to speak to a book, telling it to stand up, or to sit down, or otherwise to move somewhere.

“You do the same with the bottle. You talk to it. You do it with an ashtray too,” he says. “You tell the ashtray, ‘Sit in that chair.’ Then you actually go over and put the ashtray on the chair. Then you tell the ashtray, ‘Thank you.’ Then you do the same thing with the bottle, and the book. And you do this for hours and hours.”

Let us get this straight. Tom Cruise, who had already starred in Risky Business and Top Gun and Born on the Fourth of July and Days of Thunder, the man who, at the time, was 28 years old and perhaps the biggest movie star in the world, spent hours and hours of each day, for three straight weeks, instructing Headley to speak to inanimate objects, requesting that they get up and move on their own, and when they didn’t, told Headley to move them anyway, and then thank them?

“For hours and hours,” Headley says.

In God’s name, why?

“It was to get your intention over to the bottle.”

Your what?

“It was supposed to rehabilitate your ability to control things. And to be controlled,” he says.

And there was more. It involved doorknobs.

“Tom would ask me to find a place in the room that I could easily communicate to. I was supposed to look around the room, and then tell him the place I had picked out. I might say, ‘the doorknob.’ And he’d tell me to over there and touch it. And then he’d say, ‘OK. Now do it again with another place.’”
Headley says that after a couple of weeks, he did begin to wonder about trying to make objects move by talking to them. But this was Tom Cruise, and not someone you would question.

That was part of why Headley had been chosen. He was young and green, and had few contacts outside the base.

“It couldn’t be someone who might run off the next day and tell the National Enquirer that Tom Cruise was telling me to talk to a bottle for the last three weeks,” he says.

As Headley points out, this kind of instruction is quite common in Scientology, and you can even find the routines spelled out in places on the Internet.

On how he was overworked, framed, and ultimate managed to escape
But Headley’s book also provides stunning material that has rarely been collected in one place, even with the Internet’s deep resources on L. Ron Hubbard’s strange creation. Headley’s account as a whole provides a damning account of life working for Scientology leader David Miscavige at the secretive desert base, where young people who sign billion-year contracts work 100-hour weeks for little or no pay with the ever-present threat that they may be pulled into hellish disciplinary drills, or separated permanently from friends and family members for the slightest perceived infraction.

In 2005, after 15 years working at the base, Headley found himself accused of embezzling money (he’d actually been selling old Scientology equipment on eBay in an approved scheme to raise money for a new base project), and was told he was about to be declared a “suppressive person.” He knew he’d probably be sent to the dreaded “Rehabilitation Project Force” in Los Angeles, a kind of prison program that was known to physically debilitate church members through harsh labor and extreme deprivation. He knew also that he’d be separated permanently from his wife of 13 years (she was also a Scientologist at the base) as well as the rest of his family in a notorious policy Hubbard had termed “disconnection.”

Before he was scheduled to be interrogated, Headley made a break for it, ditching the base in a dramatic chase with security guards that ended with Headley taking a spill on a motorcycle. An ensuing shouting match with Scientology guards drew the attention of Riverside County sheriff’s deputies, who helped Headley get away.

Headley managed to get himself to Kansas City, where his father lived. But then came the real challenge: His wife, Claire, got word to him that she also wanted to defect so that they could be reunited. Would they be able to pull it off now that she was being watched day and night? Her attempt to escape provides a thrilling final chapter to the book, which, while showing some of the rough edges of a self-published tale, is well-paced and an entertaining read.

[From The Village Voice, thanks to Jason for the tip]

Headley also notes that despite Scientology’s claims that they have 10 million members, it’s more like 10,000. The AP reports in a separate article quoted by the Voice that it’s around 25,000.

Headley is currently suing the organization for violating labor laws by employing him and his wife for years with little pay. He’s since recovered from the ordeal and now runs his own multimedia company in LA. He is still with his wife, the same one he was able to help escape from Scientology, and they have two sons. He says that it wouldn’t have been possible for them to have children if they would have stayed.

Hollywood bigwigs are scared to touch Scientology because of the cult’s connections, their reputation for being ruthless, and the dirt that have on so many. They’re an insidious organization that will stop at nothing to deter critics and defectors. The stories told by ex-Scientologists are so explosive, though. A docudrama exposing the cult would make for a very compelling TV series or film. I doubt it’s going to happen anytime soon. People are waiting for the axe to really fall before they feel comfortable exposing Scientology.

There’s a movie being made about the supposed suicides of NY artists and Scientology detractors Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan by Lionsgate, which has close connections to Tom Cruise’s production company. Somehow I don’t think that they’ll do the departed couple any kind of justice.

High profile Scientologists Tom Cruise and John Travolta were spotted at a big Scientology shindig in England with their wives on Friday. This might put to rest those rumors that John Travolta was ready to step away from the cult following his admission in court that his deceased son, Jett, suffered from autism. Autism is not recognized by Scientology, which vehemently and irrationally opposes all forms of psychiatry. According to a former Scientology minister quoted by CBS News, Scientology teaches that non-physical disorders stem from connection to “a suppressive person… who is opposed to Scientology.”

The party, a gathering of the “International Association of Scientologists,” was attented by 4,000 people who listened to lectures that lasted almost two hours. The best part of this story, reported exclusively by US Weekly, is Tom Cruise’s nonsensical quote about the protesters outside. He allegedly called them “squirrels” who were “stuck in an electronic incident.” Say what? Doesn’t that sound like something from Minority Report?

Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and daughter Suri reunited with John Travolta and wife Kelly Preston — plus over 4000 other Scientologists — at a massive party in England on Oct. 16, Usmagazine.com has confirmed.

The stars were surprise guests at the 25th anniversary of the International Association of Scientologists held at Saint Hill Manor in East Grinsted, West Sussex. During nearly two hours of speeches, Cruise, 47, briefly addressed the rapturous, fist-pumping crowd: “Because we never took our eyes off the ultimate prize, we stand where we are today,” he intoned, witnesses tells Us. “We are in this together!”

When a choir took to the stage, the Cruise-Holmes family stood up with the rest of the audience. “Tom was swaying and looked like he was in heaven,” an attendee tells Us. “He was really, really into it. Katie was next to him doing her best to look as enthusiastic. She was clapping along with the song, but was totally out of sync. Suri was standing by, looking a little bemused in a cute little party dress.”

Seated nearby, the Travolta and Preston — still mourning the death of son Jett and dealing with a related extortion trial — were more muted. “John and Kelly were holding hands throughout the performance,” an onlooker says. “They look like a very united couple.”

Later, during a reception, Cruise was overheard chatting with another American man about the protesters outside the venue. “They’re squirrels,” Cruise said angrily, according to a witness. “Stuck in an electronic incident. It makes me so angry!”

The family left the party around 11 p.m.; they have a home in nearby Dormans Park.

[From US Weekly]

It recently came out that Scientology head David Miscavige regularly beat and imprisoned his staff in an attempt to control them. Former Scientology “Inspector General,” Marty Rathbun, has a blog in which he details the abuses he’s witnessed in the cult. Rathbun even posted a letter from Tom Cruise’s lawyer confirming his former position in Scientology and asking him to no longer admit that he was once Tom Cruise’s “auditor.” Rathbun now works as a counselor for former Scientologist and states on his blog that “I have also counseled people who were abused by Tom personally – in matters that eerily resemble the behavior of Miscavige.”

According to Rathburn the organization is running scared following the leak about some of the nasty abuses committed by Miscavige and other higher-ups. Scientologists can’t control the Internet although they try, and all anyone has to do is Google the cult to figure out they shouldn’t get involved. Scientologists are masters of deceiving both other people and themselves, though, and can always hold big parties and speak in their own wacky pseudo language to help make themselves feel like they’re the chosen ones. The word is out about them, though, and they can only keep up the facade for so long. They don’t have tax free status here in Germany, and everyone pretty much knows they’re a dangerous cult. Let’s hope their status as a religion is soon revoked in the US too.

Do you think Katie Holmes tries to get into all this Scientology foolishness or does she just put up with it for the sake of her marriage and the designer perks? Is she afraid that if she doesn’t put up with it she’ll lose her child or worse, and is she regularly subjected to the type of intimidation that other Scientologists face? I like to think she’s shielded from that type of treatment, but she does look pretty beat most of the time. There’s only so much that shopping can fix.

Katie, Tom and Suri are shown in Boston on 10/4/09. Credit: WENN.com

Even though I think there are several terrifying aspects of Tom Cruise and his Scientology “faith”, I still have to give the guy credit for some things. First, I totally respect how hard he works, whether he’s filming a movie or on promotional duties. He has an amazing work ethic, and I think that’s probably one of the biggest reasons he’s had a career that’s spanning three decades of superstardom, and why people in Hollywood were perfectly willing to give him a “comeback” after the couch-jumping incident. Secondly, I have to give Tom props for always going out of his way to talk to and spend time with his fans. He always appears very gracious and generous on that front, and I have so much respect for that.

So Tom’s entertainment lawyer was a guest lecturer at the Harvard Business school yesterday, and guess who showed up? According to sources, Tom chilled out with the students to listen to lawyer Bertram Fields’ lecture, and after the talk was over, Tom hung out with the kids and jokes around, being charming. That’s really sweet:

Tom Cruise, who’s in Boston filming his new rom-com Wichita with Cameron Diaz, swapped the film set for the classroom, when he joined a Harvard law class given by his own lawyer on Monday.

Hollywood legal eagle Bertram Fields was lecturing in the school’s entertainment law class Oct. 5, when the father-of-three snuck in, announcing he was there to see Bert speak.

Tom, 46, took his seat among the students, and gazed attentively at the guest lecturer, every so often sharing a joke with the lucky law student sitting next to him.

The Harvard Law Record reports that he interjected with stories about his own experience in entertainment and he “kept students laughing with his jokes.”

At one point the entire class yelled out the most famous line from his 1992 movie A Few Good Men, “You can’t handle the truth!”

After the lecture Tom, who’s been putting wife Katie Holmes through her paces on daily runs, “shared advice, stories, high fives, handshakes, hugs, and even at one point an impromptu dance.”

[From OK! Magazine]

See, even though I’m pretty sure Tom is crazy, I’d still like to meet him. I would be one of those people who’d stand in line to shake his hand, and I might even want to get my picture taken with him. He’s Tom Cruise! Yeah, he’s crazy. But he’s also a gifted actor and an outstanding businessman. Plus, if I got the chance to meet him, that might give Katie and Suri enough time to escape! Run, Katie, run!

Tom, Kate and Conner are shown running in Boston on 10/4/09. Credit: Fame Pictures. Other photos are credit Jessica Corsi/Harvard Law Review

After months of seeing nothing but the occasional grumpy photo of the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes family, we’re now getting non-stop happy images. What changed? Katie is no longer doing her film in Australia, and she and Suri have joined Tom in Boston. Tom seems perked up, stepping out around town in too-tight jeans (are those women’s skinny jeans? Is that a woman‘s v-neck?) and blue wedged heels. Katie seems like her normal zombie self. Meanwhile, Suri is growing up before our eyes! Yesterday, it looked like Suri had gotten herself some lipstick (in a fabulous petal-pink shade) and smeared it on her mouth. Now Suri is stepping up her ensemble!

Yes, Suri has now taken to wearing kitten-heels. They’re pretty fabulous white-silver peep-toes, and you can bet that Suri likes the sparkles. I also like that Suri has paired her kitten-heels with a lovely tiered skirt and a bright pink shirt. Suri has so much more style than her mom, it’s a little sketchy. Still, doesn’t this look like an outfit a little girl would pick out for herself? I don’t think Katie had much to do with putting this ensemble together.

As far as the shoes, I’m sure some people will claim that Suri shouldn’t already be in heels, but this is maybe the one thing I can relate to with Suri. When I was little – around Suri’s age – I was fascinated by high heels, and I begged my mom to get me the little kid’s costume ones. She refused, so I spent months walking around on my tip-toes, pretending I was in heels. Seriously. My parents thought there was something wrong with me, but I know for a fact a lot of little girls do the same thing. I think Suri is one of them – except when she asked for heels, Xenu provideth.

Photo credit: Fame Pictures

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Tuesday night, Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz stopped by (via video hookup) Jay Leno’s suckfest new show. Cruise and Diaz are about to start working on Witchita, their first film together since 2001’s Vanilla Sky. Is it weird that I generally like Cameron and Tom together? They seem to have a genuine friendship, and they really do seem to enjoy each other’s company. Anyway, because Cameron has the sense of humor of a 13-year-old boy, the conversation swung to strips clubs and sex – thankfully not farts, body odor and poop, Cameron’s other favorite subjects. Now, all of this TMI isn’t really Cameron’s fault, but I have to blame someone:

Jay Leno introduced a new segment on his talk show Tuesday night called “Ten @ Ten,” in which the host “makes house calls” to celebrities and asks them 10 random questions.

Speaking via satellite from the Worcester, Mass. set of their new movie “Wichita” was Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.

The actors, who previously co-starred in “Vanilla Sky,” were game to answer anything from their guilty pleasures, fast food preferences and strip club visits.

When asked who spends more time in the make-up chair, Diaz sarcastically joked, “Please, do I look like I wear rouge?”

“Clearly me, Jay,” joked Cruise.

Cruise, 47, also denied ever going to a strip club, resulting in the audience booing the actor.

“I never have been. Sorry to disappoint you,” he answered. “I swear, if I went I would say, ‘Jay, yeah of course, I went.”

The actor also showed off his musical chops by singing a line from Stevie Wonder’s hit song, “Isn’t She Lovely,” a tune he sings when putting his 3-year-old daughter, Suri, to bed.

Diaz, 37, admitted her guilty TV pleasure is watching all the “Real Housewives” shows, whereas Cruise sticks to ESPN.

Leno finished the segment by asking the most uncomfortable question for Cruise: “What are you better at? Flying or sex?”

“I try to excel in all areas and I’ve never been asked for a refund,” he answered. “[Sex with me] is like flying.”

TMI, Tom. TMI.

[From the New York Daily News]

Yeah, I totally believe Tom has never been in a strip club (“What’s that smell? Is that a tuna melt?”). What I don’t buy is that Tom has never been involved in any kind of sex-refund situation. But that’s the kicker, isn’t it? Tom says he has never been asked for a refund. No mention of whether he has asked for a refund. I’m not saying Tom Cruise has hired a string of male prostitutes to service his “Little Xenu”, I’m just saying that if he did, and he wasn’t happy with the service, he would ask for a refund. And by the way, when I first read the transcript, I read “Flying or sex” as “flying oral sex” – which totally sucked.

This story is sort of anticlimactic after CB’s earlier post about the clusterf-ck that is the Church of Scientology. But consider this as an addendum to it – because Katie Holmes has been absorbed into Tom Cruise’s creepy CoS world, and most of the tabloids are reporting that she’s looking for a way out. The bulk of In Touch’s story is the same old stuff, much of it regurgitated from their cover story last week – Katie is sad, she doesn’t care about her appearance, Tom is getting on her last nerve, et cetera. Now they’re claiming that Tom even pointed out to Katie that she’s “gaining weight” – as in, he didn’t like the enormous five pounds she put on. But before I get into that, there were a few pieces of information that were new to me.

First, there was this little piece in one of the sidebars to the story: “Katie may find Tom’s divorce from his second wife, Nicole Kidman, 42, to be something of a cautionary tale. Not only does Tom have full custody of their kids – Connor and Isabella – a pal says, ’They call Katie ’Mom’ but they call Nicole by her first name.’ Nicole admitted to Marie Claire that the children prefer living in LA to living with her and her husabnd Keith Urban in Nashville.” It’s interesting because that’s what we’ve all been thinking, haven’t we? Katie is staying with Tom at this point because she doesn’t want to be separated from Suri. Of course, if my theory is right about Suri’s conception, Tom might not even have a biological claim on Suri. So if Katie ever does leave Tom, that should be the card she plays, I think.

The second part I found interesting was this pullout – “She’s not a trophy wife anymore”. In Touch points out that when she was first with Tom, Katie “seemed far more focused on her looks than on her acting career.” But lately, Katie “has been dressing down – and telling her friends that wants to be taken seriously.” Tom allows Katie to have friends? And Katie was well dressed before? Well, I guess they’re making the comparison to what she looks like now.

“Katie and Tom’s relationship is troubled,” says a pal, adding that Katie often holds her tongue to avoid upsetting Suri. “Her priority in life is being a mom.”

“The bottom like is, Katie wants her own life,” the pal says, adding that it’s hard to come by because Tom is such a big star. “She wants to be more than Mrs. Tom Cruise.”

The pal claims Katie has began to rebel against the relationship in subtle ways, like overeating when Tom isn’t around. “He usually has her on a strict diet and exercise routine, but since she’s been in Australia, she’s put on five pounds… she’s been eating chocolates, potato chips and pizza. Tom has mentioned to her that she’s putting on weight, but she doesn’t care.”

Katie wants to strike out on her own as she sees fit, even if it means making the wrong career choice. “Even her recent appearance on So You Think You Can Dance was green-lighted by Tom,” another pal explains. “She’s tired of it.”

[From In Touch Weekly, print edition, September 7 2009]

Oh, she gained five whole pounds! After looking like an emaciated zombie for the better part of a year, I hope those five whole pounds went a long way to making her look healthier. Even though I suspect it’s not true, wouldn’t Tom be the biggest bitch in the world for “mentioning” that she’s putting on weight? But I do believe Tom probably keeps her on a Xenu diet. Anti-Thetan corn flakes, barley water and discipline. Tom probably didn’t even notice that Katie had gained weight. It’s not like he would even care.