Tom Cruise is “Second in Command” of the Church of Scientology.
Tom Cruise has become the de-facto second in command of the Church of Scientology, according to a new biography – which makes an extraordinary attack on the star by comparing his 20-month-old daughter Suri to the Devil’s child in the film Rosemary’s Baby.
Andrew Morton’s unauthorised biography claims Scientology has taken over the 45-year-old actor’s life, with its officials selecting many of the staff at his Hollywood mansion.
The biographer of Princess Diana alleges Cruise is consulted by Scientology leader David Miscavige on “every aspect of planning and policy” and is tailoring his career to fit the aims of Scientology.
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.
The relationship between the two men is so close that, according to Morton’s book, Miscavige even joined him on honeymoon in the Maldives after his wedding to Katie Holmes in 2006.
Cruise denies each of the claims vehemently, and Scientology lawyers are believed to be drawing up a lawsuit seeking £50million 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.
He criticised a passage in which Morton claims some “fanatical” Scientologists believed Suri Cruise was actually the result of a sperm donation by Scientology’s dead founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
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”.
Mr Fields said: “It’s not being published in England. The American publishers criticised the libel laws in Britain because they require an author to tell the truth. Well, thank God for the British libel laws.”
Cruise will not be reading the book when it is published in the United States on January 15, Mr Fields said. “He has no intention of reading it. He’s very, very busy with a lot of things right now.
“He has been told about it and naturally he knows there are a bunch of lies about him. You can imagine what it must be like to have someone compare your baby girl to Rosemary’s Baby. Morton should be ashamed of himself.
“It’s a boring, poorly researched book by a man who never talked to anyone involved in Tom Cruise’s life or anyone close to him.
“There’s no real independent research. He hasn’t spoken to his mother, his sister, me, Paula Wagner [Cruise's film producing partner], his agent, his wives, David Beckham, Will Smith, Jennifer Lopez or any of the famous directors he’s worked with. Instead you’ve got this long, boring reference to people he knew 30 years ago.”
Morton’s book paints a picture of a talented actor who tasted enormous success at a young age and then gradually became consumed by Scientology.
He recounts how the actor was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in 1962 and moved around North America with his parents, living in Ottawa, Canada, until the age of 12, when his mother Mary Lee left his abusive father.
Cruise excelled as a wrestler at school but took up acting seriously in his final years in high school when he was cast in a lead role for his school’s musical Guys And Dolls.
By the age of 21, he had starred in his breakthrough movie, Risky Business, and was in the Hollywood Brat Pack, hanging out with Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe and Sean Penn.
Three years later he had become a major star in Top Gun, and went on to star in Rain Man, Born On The Fourth Of July, Mission: Impossible, Jerry Maguire and Eyes Wide Shut.
His 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 oneonone counselling called “auditing”, measured by an “E-meter”.
Courses can cost thousands, and critics make much of the doctrine of “Thetans” – alien spirits inhabiting human bodies who have to be flushed out.
Scientologists have also attracted criticism for the practice of “disconnect”, where followers are encouraged to cut off friends and family members who do not follow Scientology.
Morton claims Scientologists pursued Cruise as part of a campaign to recruit celebrities.
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.”
Cruise’s recruitment was a coup for his wife Mimi but when their marriage began to fail in 1990 the hierarchy sided with him, according to Morton.
He quotes a former Scientologist saying: “The impetus was to help Tom Cruise and within 24 hours they had agreed to split up.”
Morton says David Miscavige sought to rebuild Scientology’s reputation, battered by a fraud scandal in 1982.
He invited Cruise to his “desert lair” in 1989, a 500-acre resort in Hemet, 90 miles from Los Angeles, nicknamed “Gold Base”.
Miscavige lives there with Scientology’s most devoted followers called Sea Organisation or Sea Org.
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”.
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