While we're at it, let's not feature Muhammed Ali... cos he's a Muslim. Or Adam Sandler ...cos he's Jewish. Or Sean Connery ...cos he's Catholic.

He's not going on there to promote his religion so why are you concerned? And you also seem to forget he apologised for the comments he made.

Everytime people talk about Tom Cruise, talk turns to Scientology. When people talk about Robin Williams, talk does not turn to Judeaism. I'm a Christian. Not a Scientologist. But, I'm curious about Tom Cruise anyway. Why? I don't know why. Just am. He's a very interesting individual to me, I guess. I'd rather see the segment(s) for myself than hear about it in the gossip so that I can have a more fair assessment of whatever was said and/or happened on the show(s). I was under the impression that they were taping 2 different things to be merged into one televised episode anyways. But, pardon me, I may have misread and misinterpreted the article(s) I read the news from. Perhaps, there are going to be two televised shows with Cruise on. The more the better. It means she's forgiven him for the last time I guess. I was wondering if even she had something against him since it has been so long since that time.

BTW, I don't mind 'Christian' being my identity. And that's a fact!

BTW, May 5th is Cinco De Mayo, a Mexican Holiday.

CyberGalCB

See nzbeks your comments are exactly what I mean when I say Scientology is not what we Americans think of when we think of religion. It is NOT like being a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian. It is an organization that requires you to pay as you go. It is more akin to attending educational seminars. EVERYTHING in Scientology requires payment to participate. It is not the same as Christians passing the basket at a service. CofS sought out religious status to get out of paying taxes. Go online and find out more about it. Scientology requires its members to undergo auditing where they reveal all their innermost thoughts and pains. This information is kept on them and gives the church leverage. READ more about it, please before you compare it to Christianity, Judeaism or being a Muslim.

Tom Cruise lives to promote Scientology. That's why he made those offensive comments about psychiatry. He may have apologized for the comments, but he still believes them.

This country gives people the freedom to practice the religion of their choice as they please. It also gives us the freedom to utter whatever we please without fear of government reprisal. I would rather not have to go see a psychiatrist or take any meds. if there is a vitamin or mineral out there that will help me out, that's good to know isn't it? Perhaps, we don't need a psychiatrist. Perhaps, we don't need medicine to help us out. But, perhaps, some do. Some choose to believe that they are mentally ill and others do not choose to believe that they are mentally ill. Some psychiatric medicines can have deadly consequences just for taking them. Just ask Judy Garland who got hooked on her psychiatric medicine to the point that it killed her when she overdosed on it. Perhaps, it is better not to take it. Some people may need it more than others. Sometimes, I think that a mental illness may be a sign of some sort of sin in a person's life, but I'm not certain of that. It may not be the case with everyone.

mspixie...you need to broaden your horizons then if it's not how "Americans perceive religion". Religion has many guises - even down to just appreciating nature. Just because it's not what you would follow, let them make their own choices in life. And if you read my OP you'll see I wasn't comparing the religions but making the sarcastic point of let's stop all interviews with celebs because of what they believe in.

There are a number of religions that make you pay whatever you do - and some make you pay the highest price possible because of how a minority view the teachings (i.e their life). Again, individuals have a CHOICE. If they don't want to pay or participate, then they don't join. Simple.

Back to my original point. He's an actor. He's a father. He's a friend. And he has some funny stories to tell. I think that in itself makes for a great interview and unless Oprah brings it up, I don't think he'll be 'promoting' his religion.

And whether or not he still believes in what he said, why do you care?? He apologised. Leave it that.

BTW, I spent a couple of hours with him in NZ...at NO time did he promote or talk about Scientology - he IS capable of having a normal conversation that doesn't revolve around what he believes in. And he's a nice guy too.

Well said!!

Alright, so since you met him once everything he does is ok.

As far as broadening horizons, I suggest you broaden yours and read up about Scientology. I am open to debate on the church with people who have done some research on it and know what I am referring to. And my original point still stands: I will be very annoyed if Oprah has not done her research and address the Scientology issue with Cruise. Tom is the one who started this mess with his comments on Brooke Shields and his heated discussion with Matt Lauer.

It would be akin to her having Mel Gibson on and glossing over the very embarrassing drunken comments he made.

Like Tom, I too, was diagnosed with learning disabilities at 7 years of age in 1962, when I was in first grade, and at a private school. I had to go to another private school for two more years because of my learning disabilities. I then was put into public schools and repeated the third grade. My memories of that first year include a visit to the school by a magician and they allowed all of us kids to go to the school auditorium for the show. At one of the times he asked for a volunteer from the audience, I raised my hand and got picked from those who raised their hand. I, who was only 10, went up onto the stage, and he did a trick that consisted of putting a rope around my waist and through a big needle whose eye was too small for me to fit through and he was going to pull on the rope and when the rope was pulled and disappeared from my waist and through the needle without me, I was emotional about it and reacted by doing some jumping on stage. I was ridiculed about it for a number of years afterwards. Even though I was a Girl Scout, at that age, I knew nothing about knots and magic tricks. I remember being nervous and somewhat scared and uncertain before the trick was performed. I had never seen that trick before in my life. The relief and other emotions I felt once the trick was over, I guess I reacted to it. So, I know how Tom Cruise feels to be ridiculed constantly about that emotional moment on stage when he was so overwhelmed by his emotions for Katie and what was happenning in his life at that time, that he expressed it by jumping and kneeling and such. I never realized how emotional and how expressive he was before that time and I was so deeply touched by them and impressed by them. Yet, he's been so ridiculed and rejected ever since that time when he did his last Oprah interview 3 years ago. I can't help, but empathize with him, not only because of ridicule I received when I was ten, but ridicule I've received at other times in my life for other reasons. I even get ridiculed when I talk about my G-d talking to me personally and the personal nature of my relationship with my G-d. I think that if Tom Cruise is so expressive and so communicative, Katie Holmes must be a lucky woman to have such for a husband that he's does such with her and she's allowed to do such with him. Isn't that what a spouse is for? To have someone you can take your armor off with and be vulnerable with? Isn't that the way David was before Goliath, without armor and vulnerable? And Goliath had been ridiculing David's God, and Israel, and such, and when David came and heard his God being ridiculed, he couldn't stand it and took Goliath on with no armor, and full vulnerability and nothing, but a sling-shot and a few pebbles, and you know who won? David did! So, I'm here to support Tom. I may not be his wife. I may not know him personally and have any real idea of what he's really like in real life, I may not necessarily be a Scientologist and I know that Scientology believes that salvation is earned, whereas Christianity teaches it is a free gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. But, I still choose to support Tom Cruise by turning on my television set and watching Oprah on Friday, May 2nd, 2008, at 4:00 p.m. (when it comes on in Dallas) to see what he has to say then, and again on Monday, Cinco De Mayo (Mexican Holiday), 2008, at 4:00 p.m. to see and hear what he says and does for myself and not depend on what the gossips and the newspapers say about him afterwards. I don't know what you think, but I do know what I think.

Actually, I was born in 1962, and I was diagnosed in around 1969 0r 1970 or whatever year I was seven and in the first grade in. I had taken kindergarten twice before I entered the first grade. I wonder if I'm the only person I know to have flunked kindergarten.

Oprah Winfrey needs to know:

-That its no longer acceptable to do a fluff interview with Tom Cruise that fails to address the core scandals of Scientology.
-That it's not OK to lend her tacit support to a brain washing cult that breaks up families and behaves
more like an organized crime family than a religion.
-That with all that has been so widely publicized about Scientology since TC's last appearence with her that it insults the intelligence of her audience if she fails to ask Tom the hard questions about the group that he is supporting, or about his own well documented bizrre behavior, or about the widely circulated and off paradied Scientology videos featuring him, or about his violent exhortation to "go to guns" against psychiatry.
-That the man has been shown applauding when an image of an exploding hand grenade has been displayed in connection with psychiatry and its not OK to focus questions on "Risky Buisness."
-That many, many people are watching very closely how she handles this interview, and will judge her forevermore based upon how she handles these issues. These people include a growing number of scientology critics, an increasingly internet savvy audience of millions who already know the score about what TC is all about, and a growing number of ex-scienos who have recently become emboldened to tell their stories, and express their views about anyone who gives tacit support to scientology.


-That Tom Cruise is a bald-faced liar. Oprah has already shown that she is capable of turning on one of her pets when she feels they heve been shown to be dishonest. When James Frey was shown to have fabricated much of his memoir "A Million Little Pieces" Oprah called him out on it, and saved face for herself in the process. Tom's lies about Scientology (no xenu, yeah right!) and psychiatry are far more dangerous than anything Frey made up about himself. It's time for Oprah to call him out and give him a chance to come clean.


In the mean time I hope we all can find ways to let her know that a rampant internet community will see to it that, this time, she aint gonna get a free pass on fluff.

My biggest issue with him started out with his being so anti-psychiatry. I have a severe, life affecting, mental disability. I have to be on medication or I go to a very very dark place. I also have flash backs, nightmares, etc. and if it weren't for my meds. I'd most likely be dead years ago. Part of it is hereditary, both sides of my family have had issues, the other part was due to severe abuse. HOW DARE anyone say that I can be just fine by taking vitamins, etc., I've tried that and it fails miserably! To me Tom Cruise is a sanctimonious a$$hole and I won't watch anything he is in or support anyone who hosts and supports him.

You could argue that she's the most influential woman in America, not least because her daily television programme reaches the living rooms of almost every home in the U.S.

Television insiders insist she can single-handedly make books into best-sellers and mere celebrities into mega- stars. But now, glamorous-talk show host Oprah Winfrey has become the target of the controversial Church of Scientology.

The campaign is being led by its most famous disciple, 43-year- old Tom Cruise - who is doing everything in his considerable power to convert her to the cultish faith. As the Mail reported last week, Cruise has recently bought a house two doors away from Oprah in the glamorous suburbs of Santa Barbara, California.

The two are close friends. Winfrey regularly sings Cruise's praises on her show, and it was there that he chose to make his first public declaration of love for his new fiancée, 26-year-old Katie Holmes, in a toe-curling spectacle that left thousands of Americans wondering, in the words of one website, whether 'Tom Cruise really has gone nuts'.

But the wooing of Oprah Winfrey to the Scientology cause has not been left to Cruise alone. Fellow Scientologist, Pulp Fiction star John Travolta, 51, whom she also repeatedly favours on her television programme, recently presented her with a Pounds 250,000 Bentley car for her birthday.

'Oprah would be a massive catch for the Scientologists,' announced one Internet site this week, 'and you can almost see Tom Cruise's eyes gleaming at the prospect.' Another added: 'If Oprah falls into the hands of Scientology, who can tell what influence she might have on the population.
Celebrities and Scientology

"The Church of Scientology uses celebrity spokesmen to endorse L. Ron Hubbard's teachings and give Scientology greater acceptability in mainstream America. As far back as 1955, Hubbard recognized the value of famous people to his fledgling, off-beat church when he inaugurated 'Project Celebrity.' According to Hubbard, Scientologists should target prominent individuals as their "quarry" and bring them back like trophies for Scientology. [http://...|http://...] Celebrities are considered so important to the movement's expansion that the church created a special office to guide their careers and ensure their 'correct utilization' for Scientology. The church has a special branch that ministers to prominent individuals, providing them with first-class treatment. Its headquarters, called Celebrity Centre International, is housed in a magnificent old turreted mansion on Franklin Avenue, overlooking the Hollywood Freeway.

The prospect is terrifying. For the Church of Scientology has a controversial reputation.

One American judge described its founder, the science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, as 'a pathological liar'.

Scientology may not be quite as hip in Hollywood at the moment as the ultrafashionable Jewish mystical group beloved of Madonna, Kabbalah, but it is regarded by many as being more powerful, and the church is clearly on a recruitment drive for another star disciple.

Scientology already counts among its celebrity followers Travolta's actress wife Kelly Preston, former Cheers star Kirstie Alley, Lisa Marie Presley and Nancy Cartwright, the voice of cartoon character Bart Simpson.

Travolta, who also has a house in Santa Barbara near Winfrey, vehemently denies claims that the followers of Scientologists are brainwashed into blind adherence to its principles.

'That is garbage,' he says. 'Do you really believe that I would stand for something like that? The courses help me solve my problems. I also attend religious counselling where, with a spiritual guide, I tackle personal problems.' But most of the focus is on the cult's biggest star, Cruise, who now uses his considerable power and influence in Hollywood - not to mention his estimated Pounds 150million fortune - to gather recruits for the so-called religion, which suggests that humans are an exiled race from outer space called Thetans and claims to have eight million followers worldwide (though some critics would argue its true membership is only about 50,000).

Founded by the late L. Ron Hubbard in 1955, Scientology is defined by a belief in the power of a person's spirit to clear itself of past painful experiences through self-knowledge and spiritual fulfilment.

This is achieved through intensive counselling or 'auditing'. Mental pain is measured by an electropsychometer, a machine that Hubbard invented. The basic aim of the cult is to create a society in which everyone, even non-Scientologists, is managed by the Church's 'leaders of tomorrow'. In this imagined society, human rights would be disregarded - only 'cleared' and 'non-aberrant' Scientologists would be entitled to any rights.

One critic of the cult, psychologist and author Milton Sapirstein, has argued: 'It is the authoritarian dream: a population of zombies free to be manipulated by the great brains of the founder, leader of the inner manipulative clique.' Some members around the world have been convicted of serious crimes.

In 1996, a French Scientology leader was convicted of involuntary homicide when a court found he was responsible for driving an acolyte to suicide, while in Italy the following year, 29 Scientologists were sentenced to between nine and 20 months in jail after being found guilty of defrauding members and evading Pounds 35million in taxes.

Scientology is extremely sensitive to criticism. It uses the vast funds it accrues from its members to defend itself and harass its critics around the world.

Members have been known to hold 'shoot-a-thon' parties, in which cult members use Uzi and AK47 submachine guns to shoot at photographs of critics and staff members who have left and publicly criticised the organisation.

In spite of this, the cult's appetite for rich, influential supporters knows few bounds - Winfrey aside.

Oprah Winfrey is not Tom Cruise's only prey when it comes to wooing the powerful.

Just two years ago, Cruise made a determined effort to convince Jamie Packer, the Australian media tycoon (and heir to a Pounds 4.5billion fortune), of the benefits of Scientology, just as he did with his second wife, actress Nicole Kidman, and his subsequent girlfriend, Penelope Cruz. None of those attempts worked, however, which accounts for his current fascination with Oprah.

Cruise is now so much in thrall to the Scientologists that he insists that his children and anyone else close to him must embrace its bizarre teachings - which include the claim that Scientology can free individuals of negative views 'implanted' in humans by aliens centuries ago.

Indeed, some movie insiders say that Cruise's passion for the cult has grown to such extraordinary proportions in the past year that it now pervades every part of his life. On the set of his latest film, War Of The Worlds, Cruise demanded that a Scientology tent - complete with volunteer 'ministers' - should be available at all times to 'help the sick and injured' among the cast and crew.

There are suggestions that Scientology lies behind his sudden engagement to the beautiful Katie Holmes, which some in the industry have dismissed as a sham romance conducted for publicity purposes - a claim Cruise firmly denies.

Sham or not, what isn't in doubt is that Holmes has fallen under the spell of the cult since meeting Cruise.

The young former Dawson's Creek TV star has already announced her conversion to Scientology and is followed everywhere by Scientology 'monitors', who constantly whisper into walkie-talkie devices strapped to their wrists and wear ear-pieces as if they were intelligence agents.

She is also seldom to be seen without her Scientology minder, a shadowy 29-year-old woman called Jessica Feshbach Rodriguez, whose family are one of the cult's largest financial donors. Holmes calls Rodriguez her 'best friend', even though they have known each other for only a matter of weeks.

Bizarrely, a series of red blotches on Katie Holmes's face, which suddenly appeared after she met Cruise, were alleged by some critics to be the result of a niacinbased 'detoxification process' performed by the Church of Scientology, although this process was officially denied by the organisation.

Holmes says it is 'ludicrous' to suggest that she has been pressganged into adopting Scientology by her new fiancé.

She says: 'Tom doesn't put pressure on people. He is the kindest, smartest, most adoring man.' Not everyone is convinced. One American commentator said this week: 'Holmes, who was previously a sweet, thoughtful, articulate young woman, now comes across as a zombie,' adding: 'It can only be more worrisome for her parents as they see the steady hold Tom Cruise and Scientology have taken of their beloved daughter.' So pervasive is Scientology's influence in Cruise 's life that he has even placed the education of his two adopted children with his former wife Nicole Kidman - Isabella, 12, and Conor, 10 - in the hands of Cass and Marian Cruise, two of his three sisters, who both converted to the religion over a decade ago.

They are reported to be placing heavy emphasis on the teachings of Scientology.

'Bella Cruise', as his daughter is known, has recently been listed in the Scientology bulletin for completing what it calls the 'basic course'. 'This can only be heartbreaking for Kidman,' says one industry insider, 'as she is a devout Roman Catholic from an observant family.' Holmes, too, comes from a Catholic family, but has agreed to convert to Scientology - something that Kidman always refused to do.

It was Nicole's reluctance to embrace the religion, and the effects she saw it having on her husband, that some friends insist helped to destroy their marriage.

'Nicole's very worried about her children now,' one friend of the actress said this week.

Actress Penelope Cruz, whom Cruise dated after his separation from Kidman, also took some Scientology courses during their three- year relationship, but she, too, declined to convert - which many Hollywood insiders believe was one cause of their break-up.

'You can hardly get to Tom these days without going through a Scientologist,' says one industry professional.

Cruise's third sister, Lee Anne De Vette, another convert to Scientology, has taken charge of his public relations this year, replacing respected movie industry figure Pat Kingsley.

Since his sister's arrival in the job, Cruise's public support for Scientology has increased dramatically - so much so that there are signs that even senior Scientologists feel that he may have 'gone overboard' in his preaching.

'But they'd never rein in their poster boy,' says an insider.

'He's their best recruiter.' Cruise insists that the Paramount studio executives on Mission Impossible 3 attend the cult's lavish 'Celebrity Centre' in Los Angeles for a four-andahalf-hour induction course before they meet him.

He also insists that any journalist wishing to interview him should also first attend the centre's course.

One executive at Paramount's parent company, Viacom, has confirmed that the studio is considering cancelling the third instalment of the Mission Impossible series, due to start shooting next month, because of Cruise's ever-increasing support for the cult.

A convert to Scientology in 1987 in the wake of his first marriage to actress Mimi Rogers, Cruise claims that its teaching helped him to overcome his dyslexia.

According to members of the Church, Cruise has reached the sixth of eight 'Operating Thetan levels' and is trusted enough to 'know almost all the secret truth of the universe'.

He now puts his so-called religion 'above everything else in his life' in the words of one friend.

'In the past few years Tom's gone completely crazy with his public support for Scientology,' adds another insider. 'So much so that it's beginning to affect his standing in the movie industry.' When asked if he sees it as his role to recruit new followers for Scientology, Cruise says: 'I'm a helper. For instance, I myself have helped hundreds of people get off drugs. In Scientology, we have the only successful drug rehabilitation programme in the world called Narconon'.

However, independent experts in various countries have warned against the Narconon programme, warning that it is based on 'pseudo-science', a description that Cruise heatedly disputes.

In Hollywood, one rumour refuses to die down - that Cruise interviewed a number of young actresses in the months before the sudden announcement of his attachment to Katie Holmes - ostensibly about their appearing as his co-star in Mission Impossible 3.

One was Scarlett Johansson. The Lost In Translation star was reportedly subjected to a long interview by Cruise, before being ushered into a room for dinner with senior Scientologists.

The actress is said to have made her excuses and a sharp exit. The smitten Miss Holmes entered shortly afterwards - under Cruise control.

Oprah Winfrey beware.

If Scientology is "just" a religion and Miscavige is not about the money ...then explain this. THI