CO$ fires back back at claims they orchestrated Tom Cruise & Nicole’s divorce

This story gave me an excuse to pore over old Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman photos. Their changing power dynamic was always interesting to me. At the beginning, Nicole was happy to follow Tom’s lead. She’d hang behind him as he paraded in front of the cameras. By the end, she learned to stand up on her own two feet. Then Tom mysteriously divorced her.

You’ve probably heard the buzz coming out of Sundance over Going Clear, an adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright’s exposé about Scientology. We talked about the book in several contexts, including John Travolta’s desire to escape the cult in the 1980s. I devoured the book when it came out, and it’s a revealing read (but covers many subjects we’ve discussed here already). The media’s going wild over the film’s coverage of the Kidman-Cruise split, which talks about how the CO$ engineered the divorce and spied on Tom for years to bring him back from a cult hiatus. Going Clear (which will air on HBO) should prove a valuable tool in bringing down the CO$. Here’s the lowdown from Us:

Because of a certain religion, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s marriage never had a prayer. That’s just one of the bombshells revealed in the controversial and riveting new documentary, Going Clear. It premiered Sunday, January 25 at the Sundance Film Festival — and it’s already been renounced by the litigious-happy organization.

It doesn’t take a Thetan-level 8 to see why. For two hours, a slew of high-profile former members — including Crash writer/director Paul Haggis — take aim at the church founded by eccentric author L. Ron Hubbard in the 1953. Their vivid recollections chill to the bone, as they describe physical abuse, blackmail and children taken from their mothers. “I regret the entire experience,” laments one ex-high-ranking officer.

But Tom Cruise is the real star here. Described by one as “The Guy,” the actor appears in event footage praising church head David Miscavige and singing and dancing at a Scientology-sponsored birthday party. But fans will likely be disturbed to learn what’s behind that gleaming, 1,000-watt smile.

As former members tell it, the trouble started after he fell in love with Kidman on the set of 1990’s Days of Thunder. Because her father was a psychiatrist (the church doesn’t believe in the profession), Kidman was seen as an enemy. In Scientology terms, she was labeled a P.T.S. (Potential Trouble Source.) Indeed she was. Cruise “drifted” from the church during the marriage. He was unreachable on the set of the couple’s joint thriller, 1999’s Eyes Wide Shut.

What happened next plays out, well, like a movie. Desperate to get the ambassador back, Miscaviage enacted a plan to “facilitate the break-up.” Step 1: Send officials to “audit” Cruise’s mental state and stir-up his paranoia. Soon, says one member, Cruise requested a wire-tap on Kidman’s phone because he was concerned that she was confiding in non-church members about their problems. (Miscavige’s purported response: “Get it done.”) Members also persuaded the couple’s kids, Isabella and Connor, to turn against their mom to ensure that Cruise would get full custody. By 2001, the nearly 11-year marriage was over.

[From Us Weekly]

Sadly, this isn’t surprising. Tom uses his “church” to audition wives and alter them physically. The CO$ sets up his relationships, and they end them too. That stuff about the CO$ brainwashing Isabella and Connor isn’t new either, but I’m glad the knowledge is going mainstream. People need to hear how the Celebrity Centre’s Tommy Davis sat the kids down and informed them that their mother was a sociopath.

Scientology isn’t happy this movie saw the light. They reportedly sent members to Sundance to spy, and they’re complaining about the movie’s “lies.” They popped off on Twitter: “Free speech is not a free pass to broadcast or publish false information.” That tweet includes a link to a trash-talking site, which includes CO$ “documentaries” about all the celebs who spoke out in this film. They attack former member Jason Beghe by calling him “a raging bully.” Their “proof” consists of clips of him acting in movies. And they have a video about Paul Haggis, who dared to confirm the wife audition story.

The CO$ is crumbling before our eyes. Thanks to their crazy Tom Cruise propaganda videos, they have been unable to find new members for years. It’s only a matter of time.

Photos courtesy of Getty & WENN