Tom Cruise Keeping a Low Profile on Scientology

According to an article on ABC featuring snippets of an interview with Barbara Walters to air on "The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2008", Cruise has earned "Germany's prestigious media prize, the Bambi award for courage".

I have no idea what this award may be, and whether is is a fake prize like anti-cultists self-congratulatory award themselves through their own type of front groups, or if it is something genuine. I will have to check this on occasion, but anyway I would agree that an award for courage would be perfectly justified in this case, following the arguments I developed in a recent blog entry.

This interview confirms Cruise's commitment to the Valkyrie script:

"It was inspiring," Cruise said. "A story that I didn't know about, and that I had no idea that happened. And that it was just very compelling." [...] "I'm an actor, and this was a story that I found compelling and I felt there was something to contribute to it," he explained.

The article also confirms what could be observe de visu, that Cruise is working at mending his reputation and that he currently stays away from promoting Scientology (other than just being a "role model"):

The "new" Cruise has been working overtime to keep a low profile. He no longer wishes to speak out about Scientology. "Now, I just say look, I'm not going to talk about my religion, and if people want to know about Scientology, they can absolutely just go to the Web site."

He also seems ready to live with his couch jumping episode, which the article claim became part of America's lexicon under the expression "jump the couch", meaning: "going off the deep end".

Says Cruise:

"And I really think that all men should celebrate their women. ... They should all jump on couches for them."

Also check out T-Magazine web site, featuring video interviews of Tom and Katie, and hubpages.com for a list of some of the past winners of the 10 Most Fascinating People selected by Barbara Walters since 1993.