TV Maven: Tom Cruise on Video: Web a Threat to Scientology's Secrets

amp160You canamp8217t put toothpaste back in the tube and it looks like the Church of Scientology wonamp8217t be able to wrest back total control of that Tom Cruise Scientology videoamp160The 9minute clip of Cruiseamp8217s passionate testimonial about the powers and responsibilities of Scientologists popped up on the Internet via YouTube Gawker and other sites a few weeks ago Thereamp8217s also footage available of the actor receiving a gaudy amp8220Freedom Medalamp8221 from the religionamp8217s top leader David Miscavige at a Los Angeles ceremony In both videos Cruise employs Scientology shorthand speaking of amp8220KSWamp8221 Keeping Scientology Working and amp8220SPsamp8221 Suppressive Persons or those who criticize Scientology He seems downright giddy as he talks about his beliefs and of being able to amp8220create new realitiesamp8221amp160Very quickly the alwayslitigious church got the videos pulled claiming copyright infringement The Church of Scientology maintains copyrights to the works of the religionamp8217s founder the late L Ron Hubbard through its Religious Technology Center and they claim the writings contain amp8220trade secretsamp8221amp160But itamp8217s not so easy toamp160hold ontoamp160this materialamp160anymore Once itamp8217s out there itamp8217s out there Web site Gawkercom defied a strongly worded letter from the churchamp8217s legal machine and reposted the video The footage was then copied imitated and spoofed all over the amp8217net Gawker has kindly gathered all the parodies including those by Stephen Colbert Conan Oamp8217Brien and Craig Ferguson in this video roundup By rough estimates the original video has beenamp160viewed on YouTube more than 4 million times it39s hard to get a total since the video has been posted removed and reposted many timesamp160One clever fellow simply transcribed the original Cruise footageamp8212in which the actor ardently states that Scientologists are the worldamp8217s top amp8220experts on the mindamp8221amp8212and rerecorded it on video in his own voice Others cloned the footage andamp160put it back on YouTube under camouflage titles such as quotCute Puppiesquotamp160The Church of Scientology is well known among media as an organization tough to penetrate and difficult to criticize because of their tendency to sue for libel or to amp8220fair gameamp8221 CoSspeak for using intimidation on anyone who dares point out the particularly weird aspects of the churchamp8217s beliefs Xenu anyone Remember the controversy over that South Park episode Check out this clip from a BBC documentary about the church that also includes a South Park snippet amp160The church has successfully sued some of its exmembers and critics for posting amp8220secretamp8221 documents from the religion on the Web But consider the legal action regarding a Time magazine exposamp233 of Scientology in 1991 that went on for nearly five years with TimeWarner spending a reported 7 million to defend its characterization of the religion as a amp8220cult of greedamp8221 In 1996 a judge finally threw out the churchamp8217s claims of libel citing the magazineamp8217s First Amendment rights Thatamp8217s just about the same year the general public began logging on regularly to the Internet and discovering its almost boundaryfree possibilities for disseminating information others donamp8217t want seenamp160The Web now might be too big and unwieldy for the Church of Scientology when it comes to trying to control how its materials are used and how its celebrity believers are portrayed Tom Cruiseamp8217s public couchjumping and Brooke Shieldsbashing a couple of years back plus his subsequent appropriation of all things Katie Holmes gave evidence to how his devotion to Scientology might be affecting his public image He went from being Rosie Oamp8217Donnellamp8217s favorite amp8220cutie patootieamp8221 to looking like a wildeyed angry weirdo whose third marriage seemed like a ploy to prop up his fading rep as a romantic lead Firing his longtime publicist Pat Kingsley being fired from Paramount by Viacom chief Sumner Redstone having his latest film Lions for Lambs slip into oblivionamp8230not goodamp160Cruiseamp8217s most honest performance in years has him grinning manically above his black turtleneck in the nowubiquitous Scientology video This is the real Tom Cruise bursting out laughing for no reason and going on about how living as a Scientologist is amp8220wild and woollyamp8221 and amp8220rough and tumbleamp8221 Play some clips of Cruise as hucksteramp160TJ Mackey in Magnolia and you can see that role wasnamp8217t such a stretchamp160In Cruiseamp8217s next movie Valkyrie he plays a Nazi Watching how he stiffly salutes amp8220LRHamp8221 in the Scientology Freedom Medal award clips it39s almost too easy to draw some eerie parallels The actor may have jumped the shark when he leapt on Oprahamp8217s couch but now heamp8217s clearly vaulted beyond the tipping point careerwise In the Golden Age of Hollywood he would39ve been pegged quotbox office poisonquotamp160In the days after the Cruise videos appeared Scientologyamp8217s own Web site crashed from the crush of new traffic and from an attack by hackers Little of the information the church reveals about itself however is as intriguing as what the media from CNNamp8217s Anderson Cooper to BBCamp8217s Panorama to AampampEamp8217s Investigative Reports have let viewers see in the pastamp160The Time article did some of the best and toughest reporting calling Scientology a amp8220ruthless global scamamp8221 posing as a religion The cover story said outright that it was not a religion at all but a cult obsessed with making money Scientology was founded in 1954 by Hubbard a sciencefiction writer who once echoed George Orwell in saying that for a man to make a million bucks he should amp8220start his own religionamp8221 The church lures newcomers with free amp8220stress testsamp8221 and eventually requires its members to take courses and undergo training and counseling that can cost thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollarsamp160The film and TV industries boast lots of believers in Scientology including actors writers directors and one of Hollywoodamp8217s top acting coaches Milton Katselas Author Andrew Morton claims in his justpublished unauthorized biography of Cruise that the actor holds the No 2 spot in the church just under Miscavigeamp160The church says it has 10 million members worldwide Critics exmembersamp160and investigative journalists have pegged the real number closer to 50000 as Scientology classifies as amp8220membersamp8221 anyone who has ever bought one of Hubbard39s books or taken one of the amp8220stress testsamp8221 even if they never step foot in a Scientology center againamp160All the hubbub about the Cruise videos certainly has brought new attention to the mysterious religion and to Cruiseamp8217s belief in it Only hardcore members like Cruise are supposed to be privy to this sectamp8217s sacred truths But the new reality ofamp160new media and its ability to reveal those secrets and to expose the behavior of its inner circles may force Scientology to respond to new sources of scrutiny in ways other than threats of lawsuits

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TV Maven: Tom Cruise on Video: Web a Threat to Scientology's Secrets

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Elaine Liner

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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TV Maven: Tom Cruise on Video: Web a Threat to Scientology's Secrets

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