Another ‘Tom Cruise leaving Scientology’ squawk from the tabs, and the weakest ever
Here we go again.
Last August the Daily Mail claimed that Tom Cruise was leaving Scientology because he hadn’t been showing up in East Grinstead, England.
Now InTouch Weekly is saying that Tom Cruise is leaving Scientology because he’s not showing up in Los Angeles.
We wondered if the Daily Mail’s piece was the “lamest tabloid ‘Tom Cruise has left Scientology’ speculation ever,” but we didn’t think there would be a new contender so soon.
Look, we get it. We understand why the tabloids continue to write and rewrite this story over and over again. The name Tom Cruise brings in eyeballs, and the public still has a hard time accepting that Tom is really serious about his L. Ron Hubbard obsession and friendship with current church leader David Miscavige that he would choose Scientology over, say, his own 18 year old daughter. So the tabs can’t help speculating that in reality, he must be breaking away.
The Daily Mail last August found that flight data showed Tom, who lives in England now, had not flown his helicopter to East Grinstead, home of Scientology’s UK headquarters Saint Hill Manor, in three years. So they speculated that it was a sign that Tom was leaving Scientology. And even though the Daily Mail posed it as a question, we were fairly stunned at how the rest of the tabloid echelon then adopted it as settled fact: Tom was out.
Then, in November, Scientology responded in a pretty spectacular way, by having Cruise show up at the restored IAS gala at Saint Hill Manor on November 3 by flying to it in his helicopter. And then, the next night, he not only showed up to the Patron’s Ball and gladhanded his fellow Scientologists, but they posted their selfies with him to social media — something that was obviously condoned by the church itself, and to counter all the tabloid speculation. Not only was Tom still a dedicated member, he was more dedicated than ever.
Now, we’re seeing some attention paid to a new InTouch Weekly item that wonders, how can Tom Cruise be into Scientology if we don’t see him around Los Angeles much?
Yes, this one is even weaker than the Daily Mail speculation, and especially coming so soon after Cruise made his very obvious show of zeal in November.
We remember not so long ago, when InTouch Weekly was owned by Baeur Publishing, we used to hear from its reporters often. Even if it was the kind of publication you found on sale at the supermarket, its reporters cared about the facts and they wanted to get Scientology stories right. Since Bauer sold the magazine in 2018 to American Media, publishers of the National Enquirer, it appears to have sunk to that level of lazy rumor-mongering.
In this piece, someone unnamed tells the publication, “It’s clear he comes to L.A. when he has movie business stuff to attend to but if he needs to practice Scientology, he’s doing it out of Florida, if at all.”
Again, Tom lives in England, and just a few months ago made a huge point of showing up for Scientology’s biggest event in several years there and even posed for selfies with his fellow space cadets. No mention of that in the story from InTouch, which apparently doesn’t have access to Google.
But also, there is another explanation for why you’re not seeing Tom Cruise at LA events, and it’s part of something we’ve been saying for years: In the world of Scientology, Los Angeles itself has been losing influence to Clearwater, Florida.
We don’t think it’s an accident that when church leader David Miscavige recently returned the three big annual events to their traditional locations — the IAS event to Saint Hill in England, the New Year’s event to Los Angeles, and the L. Ron Hubbard birthday event to Clearwater — Cruise made a big showing at the IAS gala, John Travolta was in the front row with Elisabeth Moss at the Hubbard birthday party, and all Los Angeles could summon up were Erika Christensen and possibly Juliette Lewis.
It’s something we’ve watched develop for a long time now: Los Angeles is simply not as influential in the world of Scientology as it used to be.
That’s a story InTouch Weekly might have looked into instead of participating yet again in the usual canard that Tom Cruise is leaving.
He isn’t. He made his biggest public showing of dedication in years just a few months ago in England. He also didn’t bother to show up for his daughter Suri’s 18th birthday in New York last month because he’s chosen his Scientology obsession over her.
We know it’s difficult for many people to accept, but Tom Cruise is not being held in Scientology against his will. He’s a true believer. He really does think that L. Ron Hubbard is the greatest human being who ever lived, and that David Miscavige is the most important human being living today, and that Scientology is the only salvation for this planet.
And what’s especially sad is that as a Scientology celebrity — in fact its number one celebrity — Tom Cruise could ignore its rules about “suppression” and “disconnection” and he could see his daughter Suri whenever he wanted to without sullying his standing in the church. But he doesn’t. Why not? Because his dedication is that firm, and because he’s a huge piece of shit.
That’s the real story. It’s a shame the tabs haven’t discovered it yet.
Chris Shelton is going Straight Up and Vertical
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Cruise is in. No story. Some day he may discover just who he is and what he has thrown away, but he’s lapping up the adulation both in and out of Scientology right now. The two worlds are not compatible, and the inevitable misstep is just around the corner. Maybe he will lose his adoring public, maybe he will lose Scientology. He’s already losing his looks and starting to look like he’s melting. He is a person made for Scientology. The type they breed and protect. If he were to leave, he’s too old to regain the humanity he may never have had in the first place. To the tabloids: if Cruise had left Scientology you’d know it, now go count how many days it’s been since Ben and Jen have been seen in public. Or find a real job.
Huge pieces of shit have uses in the natural world. $cientology, not so much. The public relations game is built on head fakes, feints and straight out lies. Any thing to serve the purposes of the client. We have no idea if any tabloids still practice 'catch and kill', but I bet there is a nice reward for anyone killing any anti-$cieno story.