A sharp new copy of a Scientology video from 2007 has been dropped on the Internet, and wow, is it making us feel nostalgic.
Video of the “OT Summit 2007” — when Scientology leader David Miscavige formally unveiled a new set of L. Ron Hubbard books and lectures called “The Basics” — has been online before, but never so complete or in such clarity. We’ve grabbed a segment that we knew you’d want to see.
It’s a crowd shot at the beginning when Scientology leader David Miscavige comes out on stage, and in the front row the celebrities applaud him, including a beaming Tom Cruise with his then-wife Katie Holmes at his side.
Of all the celebrities, Tom is grinning the most, so excited to see his pal. Katie, on the other hand, looks not as thrilled to be there.
Next to Katie is Jessica Feshbach, who was her handler and who was so constantly at her side it became a running joke with the press. And next to Jessica is Dan Sherman, official L. Ron Hubbard biographer.
There’s another look at the front row later in the segment, and we can see a string of old regulars: Kirstie Alley, John Travolta, and his wife the late Kelly Preston, and then Anne Archer and Priscilla Presley.
This event was a couple of years after the grand experiment of sending Tom out as an ambassador for the church in 2005, which had gone so disastrously. It included, for example, Tom’s embarrassing combative interview with Matt Lauer on the Today show.
You may have seen some misguided conservative pundits bizarrely trying to rehabilitate that debacle in recent days as a “win” for Cruise. But it’s important to remember that Cruise, that day on Today, was acting as David Miscavige’s proxy, trying to grow interest in founder L. Ron Hubbard’s contention that evil psychiatrists have been planting booby traps in our minds for trillions of years across the galaxy, a key concept in Scientology.
So please keep that in mind when you see the likes of Tucker Carlson today saying that “Tom was right.”
Anyway, it’s really something to see Tom Cruise so excited to see his best man, Dave, come out to drone on for the next couple of hours about some new editions of Hubbard’s books and lectures, now with fewer semicolons. (If you’re a real masochist, you can watch the entire thing here.) The full “Basics” package ran about $3,000 each, and every Scientologist was expected to pay for one or more sets, even though they probably had all of the original set of materials at home already.
It was a shameless money grab, but look at Tom’s face. He’s so proud that Dave is about to come out and knock it out of the park.
No wonder Katie made a run for it five years later.
Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:
Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history
Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea
Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time
Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology
Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain
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Episode 5 of the Underground Bunker podcast has been sent out to paid subscribers, and it’s a conversation with Sunny Pereira dishing secrets of Scientology’s Hollywood Celebrity Centre. Meanwhile, we’ve made episodes 1 through 4 available to everyone, with Bruce Hines on the crazy life in the Sea Org, Jeffrey Augustine on recent Scientology court cases, Claire Headley exposing Tom Cruise, and Marc Headley on what it must be like for David Miscavige living in Clearwater, Florida. Go here to get the episodes!
I was at that event - in the “way back” section. It was cringe worthy. I was sick to my stomach because I knew what was coming as far as a push to get my husband and I to buy a set. Little did I know the full extent of what was coming. Little did I know this was the beginning of the end for me. This also began what I like to call “The Exodus” for the church of scientology.
South Park's 'Trapped in the Closet' episode aired in November, 2005. This event was in 2007. In the South Park episode, the David Miscavige character admitted that selling books and 'services' was the real business of the Clampire. So much fun in that episode, R. Kelly in the closet with Cruise was hilarious and then Travolta joined them there. Stan Marsh as the reborn Lron, who was writing a book about more space adventures was only slightly less crazy than an Lron lecture.