While Good Morning America scored a sit down with Katie Holmes on Monday, Diane Sawyer’s refusal to ask any questions about, um, SCIENTOLOGY, makes its softball interview look like a steaming pile of PR-friendly crap next to Today anchor Meredith Vieira’s chat this morning with Tom Cruise unauthorized biographer Andrew Morton.
While GMA executive producer Jim Murphy claims there was no contract in place that kept them from asking the hard questions in exchange for access to Holmes, few believe their story. (For his part, Murphy claims it was he who ended the interview early, angering Sawyer who didn’t get a chance to get to the tough Qs. Take one for the team!)
Morton’s book – which isn’t being published in England, Australia, and New Zealand because of stringent libel laws – received the expected level of criticism from the Church of Scientology. It also received a skeptic’s view from Meredith, who challenged Morton’s claims that Cruise is the “de facto” second-in-command, that daughter Suri is the spawn of L. Ron Hubbard, or that Tom Cruise is “dangerous” (a statement he backtracked on in the interview). What’s this? Not accepting someone’s statements at face value! Tres nouveau!
After the jump, the full video of Tom Cruise’s Scientology video that got some of this buzz going.
Editorial Director
Yea and what about letterman- all kissing up to that stepford wife katie holmes -saying what great legs she has - katie holmes is scary!
You can be scary and still have great legs.
The key thing that Cruise keeps banging home here is that if you study Scientology’s methods of working with people, you then really HAVE the know-how to do something about the gossipy neighbor, the critical mother-in-law, the too-familiar boss man, the bullies on the playground.
I’ve seen this stuff reform kids who were on the wrong path. If a Scientologist hadn’t stepped in and known HOW to straighten the kid out, who knows what jails she could have ended up in as an adult.
That’s the part that critics always leave out: Scientology gives workable tools to help make lives better.
Tom Cruise is a total nut job
what? he’d *like* to go on vacation but can’t because he “knows”? yes, tom cruise the ever-humble billionaire with his thrifty wife and peasant-beclothed daughter…
your best performance since Born on the 4th of July, Mr. Cruise.
Scientologists could benefit from asking a few simple questions:
1) Why do people leave Scientology?
2) Why does Scientology always sue people?
3) Why do people find other effective methods of beating drug habits besides Scientology?
4) Why is Scientology hated by so many?
5) Was your life really so bad before you became a Scientologist?
6) Are you willing to listen to other people who are not Scientologists and take their advice?
7) Why are Scientologists so afraid of criticism?
Check out Operation Clambake and do some research on Scientology.
I see the scienos already have the (b)org in force offering silly reasons why the latest unhinged-o-rama by their top celebrity figurehead isn’t really quite that insane, just nutty like a fruitcake. Fear not, I am sure the great Elron will reward you out there in the galaxy when you meet him after your billion year contracts are up. When you do get the chance, be sure to ask him if he ever found those imaginary 21 medals and palms he didn’t earn during WWII, as well as seeing if he ever caught up with his pals Aleister Crowley and Black Jack Parsons. I’m sure his “Babalon Working” sessions were almost as much fun as taking the money of the faithful.
Hey Karma electric when did u join the cult of scientology. If this “church” really had the answers to drug abuse and depression and improving the world….WHY HAVE THEY NOT SHARRED IT WITH THE WORLD. The are such hippocates WE (scientology) have the answer as long as you sell all your worldly possessions and give us the money and come into our fold…ohhh yeah and then you cant tell the world at large how to fix these problems. If Tom C has the answers then why is he not on a TV program showing how he can change these lives and fix these problems. the real answer is (and I know your not going to like this) because he can not really do it..he is really a victim..he is a duped cult member and someone really should get him help and a deprogramer. Most cult members are less than intellectual and are really only looking for the love and acceptance that they did not get when they were children.
the Church of $cientology isn’t a religion. it’s a cult. it’s a cult that will stop at nothing to silence its critics. it’s a cult that sought religious status to avoid criticism from the medical community. it’s a cult that uses “religious tolerance” to avoid criticism. CO$ claims that scientology members don’t practice “Fair Game”…but why are so many people afraid of the church?
i applaud Morton for having the guts to write about TC and CO$. i don’t doubt that most of those he interviewed for the book refused to talk on the record.