John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Scientology take major hit in new Rolling Stone article

[buttmunch]

Cruise, Travolta: Rolling Stone Gathers Moss

The new issue of Rolling Stone should drive a permanent wedge between Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner.

Writer Janet Reitman spent nine months reporting and writing a 13,000 word piece on Scientology, the mysterious religion with which both movie stars are famously associated.

Reitman peels back Scientology layer by layer, meticulously interviewing everyone and anyone, and draws unsurprising conclusions: that to believe in this religion means also subscribing to a belief in aliens, for one thing. And by aliens I mean creatures from other planets and galaxies.

Reitman so carefully dissects the history of Scientology inventor L. Ron Hubbard, his beliefs and how they’ve been disseminated by a new generation that one can only conclude that Cruise and Travolta share these same ideals.

Reitman relates stories of Scientology children being sent away to “boot camps” for brainwashing, and how those who want to leave are then harassed and ostracized.

(Story continues below)

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By the time I finished reading the story, all I could think was that Katie Holmes ’ parents must be beside themselves since their daughter joined this group.

Reitman also relates in the piece how, when she was just embarking on the project, Cruise’s sister LeAnne Devette and a Scientology official came to Rolling Stone’s offices to see what she was up to. They called critics of the church “wackos” and invited Reitman to come and see the “real” Scientology.

Despite the invite, it took five months, Reitman, said, to work out the details.

It was not like just walking into a church, synagogue or mosque for a prayer service. Indeed, the details of what goes inside the Scientology centers — being hooked up to E meters, having all sorts of mental evaluations, etc. — sounds creepier than ever.

None of this is news, exactly, but it’s a big deal considering the story appears in Rolling Stone. Wenner’s friendships with Travolta and Cruise are legendary. A terrible Travolta movie, "Perfect," featured the actor as a Rolling Stone reporter. Wenner made a cameo appearance in it.

Cruise is also a longtime pal, dating back to his "Risky Business" days. For years, when Cruise did movie publicity, it was unofficially known that he would do a Rolling Stone cover first.

In the days before Bonnie Fuller took over US Weekly -- when it was known as Wenner Media's US magazine -- that magazine bent over backward to do puff pieces on Cruise.

What now? For Travolta, the Reitman story doesn’t much matter. He’s very wealthy, and his career is pretty much on auto-glide.

But for Cruise, it’s a different matter. Industry insiders and Cruise-ologists will be watching to see how Rolling Stone and Us Weekly are treated by — or how they treat — the upcoming release of Cruise’s "Mission: Impossible 3."

One thing is clear: for Wenner and Cruise, there’s no going back now — especially since Reitman has included long, unflattering descriptions of Scientology higher-up Tom Davis, the son of actress and Scientologist Anne Archer.

Davis, 33, is widely known to be Cruise’s best friend and even resembles him. They are inseparable. When Reitman asks Davis what happens to those who leave Scientology, Davis replies: “Then I guess not believing in Scientology means more to them than not seeing their family
foxnews.com

That last line says it all, doesn't it? Hello, Katie, welcome to our cult.

[Voodoo Child]

Scary.

[enctpc]

“Then I guess not believing in Scientology means more to them than not seeing their family
I find this very scary... and I hope that Katie reads this and runs, runs very fast.....

[A*O]

It's too late for Katie I'm afraid. She's already totally brainwashed and is now giving birth to the Scientology New Messiah. Did anyone see the Polanski movie Rosemary's Baby?? LOTS of similarities.
I guess the only hope is that Tom Cruise's bizarre behaviour over the last few months has brought the cult of Scientology to the attention of a much wider public and any publicity he has attracted has been 99% negative. I admit I didn't know much about Scientology until Tom became its poster boy and as soon as I bothered to dig www.scientology.org it became clear that he is deranged and this 'religion' is a money grabbing cult.
I predict that MI3 will tank because everyone knows its leading man is in fact a nutjob.

[moomies]

Wonder if Tom will sue Rolling Stone...maybe not since the article isn't about his sexuality.

[A*O]

There is a creepy Scientologist PR person in Melbourne called Pauline and whenever the subject arises on talkback radio she instantly calls in to deny any kind of weirdness and invites people to come along to the local UFO centre to have a 'psychological analysis' for FREE so they can decide for themselves.

[moomies]

We have a scientology center here in downtown Van, too but they advertise it as a free "personality test." That doesn't sound as frightening though does it.

[Laurent]

L. Ron's son on exactly how scary Scientology is.

[Lalique]

L. Ron's son on exactly how scary Scientology is.

Wow! Interesting link Laurent. Thanks!

[Bellatheball]

Penthouse: Before you filed your lawsuit and began speaking openly about Scientology, there was very little news of it in the media. Why do you think there has been so little investigation of Scientology?


Hubbard: it's very simple. Scientology has always had a "fair-game doctrine"--a policy of doing absolutely anything to stop an investigation or publication of a critical article in a magazine or newspaper. They have run some incredible operations on the several people who have tried to write books about Scientology. It was almost like a terror campaign. First they'd try throwing every possible lawsuit at the reporter or newspaper. We had a team of attorneys to do just that. The goal was to destroy the enemy. So the solution was always to attack, full-bore, with every possible resource, from every angle, instantaneously it can certainly be overwhelming. A guy would get slapped with twenty-seven lawsuits, and our lawyers would start depositioning absolutely anybody who ever knew the man, digging up dirt while at the same time putting together an operation that would get him into further trouble. I know of one case, concerning Paulette Cooper, who wrote a book called The Scandal of Scientology, in which they spent almost $500.000 trying to destroy her.


Wow, does this sound familiar? Laurent, that was a good read!

[CherryDarling]

“Then I guess not believing in Scientology means more to them than not seeing their family
I find this very scary... and I hope that Katie reads this and runs, runs very fast.....

That is freaky right there....it made me get the willies.

Good for Rolling Stone for exposing this though. I can't wait until my new issue comes in the mail. This is going to be hella interesting.

[hello]

Thanks for digging that one up Laurent! Very scary definitely. John Travolta has been scaring me for the last 15 years or so. Do you think Tom Cruise is taking mind altering drugs? He sure acts like it.

[buttmunch]

It's too late for Katie I'm afraid. She's already totally brainwashed and is now giving birth to the Scientology New Messiah. Did anyone see the Polanski movie Rosemary's Baby?? LOTS of similarities.

I agree and have said this many times. So here's the question: if Katie is the Mia Farrow of this scenerio, who will be the Frank Sinatra to beat the snot out of her when she doesn't go along with what he says?

Do you think Tom Cruise is taking mind altering drugs? He sure acts like it.

How many times do we have to say it? Those are vitamins Tom Thumb takes, VITAMINS.

[hello]

That's why Nicole Kidman has been so "respectful" with regards to her divorce!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She CAN'T say anything bad about Tom to anyone!~Oh my God!!

[Bellatheball]

^^ But she lets her kids be raised around that crap? That's something I don't understand at all. She probably fears for all of their safety. Scary shite.