Will Smith Credits Cruise with Success

"Will Smith credits Tom Cruise with his record-breaking box-office success - because the icon reviews his movie scripts before he takes on a new role.

The stars have become close friends over the years, and Smith admits he turns to Cruise for advice before signing on to a film.

Smith tells Newsweek, "I was so used to competition between other artists that I just didn't get him at first. And then Tom just broke it down to me and said, 'Will, we are not competing, so don't think that way.' That blew my mind because that is not how this business works at all..."

From http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_212191284.shtml

Growing the Cojones to Leave Scientology

From time to time I receive e-mails from moderate ex-members who share my views. It is always rewarding, especially when they have been substantially helped by the information contained on my web site. I have webbed such an example on my Scientology kids page. Check also this blog entry for another example, but I have many more on my email archive.

Often, it helps ex-members to know that not everything in Scientology is either rabid anti-Scientologists or fanatical CoSers, and that there exists a "third way" that is neither nor one or the other and that goes beyond both on the path that ultimately amounts to a spiritual journey.

On occasion also, it helps members who are on the edge to break away from the bond of Scientology more than other critical web sites. Indeed, they are quickly put off by the exaggerations and distortions most critical web sites typically engage into, whereas on my site they find a more gentle approach, as well as a stand against the myths they can observe for themselves at various places on the net. They thus tend to listen more attentively to a critical view, which in turn can bring them to think about it all.

Below is the email I received today, from a lady who grew up a Scientologist and gradually broke away from Scientology. The email is published with permission.

I am very gratified to read your perspective both on Scientology and the Anti-Cult freaks that so mischaracterize it. I was born and raised in a Scientologist family, with a very strong willed and critical thinking Scientologist mom, while Dad was less critical but perhaps more deeply philosophically-minded – together they made a fine, inquisitive pair.

Like you, I have noticed that there are cultish aspects of the church that are both encouraged by some of LRH's writings while completely contradicted by others. My big cognition was that the EP of Scientology was growing the cojones to leave Scientology.

Anyway, it really heartened me to read your perspective, because I deeply appreciate much of what I learned in the CoS, and I wouldn't trade the training and study I had as a young adult and adolescent for anything. It was a great way to grow up and it instilled in me a lust for learning and bent for philosophical inquiry that benefits me to this day. The anti-Scientology comments from overwrought critics annoy the hell out of me. It's sheer ignorance and closed-mindedness. I am also annoyed at my friends who constantly tease me when I still use the term "we" while gently correcting their misinformation regarding the beliefs of Scientologists (after spending most of my life identifying with that group, it slips out sometimes) and who make cult jokes and rib me about Xenu. Like you, I walk the middle ground, defend Scientology when appropriate, and agree with criticism when appropriate. I am very glad to know that I am not the only one!

I am not a Scientologist, but I'm not a non-Scientologist either. I'm my own damn self!

Thank you so much for your website.

R.I.P. - Forrest Ackerman

Forrest Ackerman died Dec. 4 at the age of 92.

Ackerman was a primary contributor to making science-fiction something that could be defined and understood by the masses, right down to coining the phrase "science-fiction" itself. There is not a single aspect of genre culture that he did not inspire, influence, embrace, embody, popularize, promote or have an actual hand in creating.

As an agent, he represented more than 200 authors in the genre, and was instrumental in the rise of greats such as Isaac Asimov, Charles Beaumont, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Ray Bradbury, Ray Harryhausen, Rod Serling, Edward D. Wood Jr.

Why the news is relevant in this blog is because he also was the literary agent and friend of L. Ron Hubbard, long before Dianetics and Scientology.

As a publisher, his Famous Monsters of Filmland, the garish, gushing, goofy fan magazine he launched in 1958, became an acknowledged inspiration to countless future fantasy creators, from Steven Spielberg to Stephen King to budding auteurs not even born when it ceased publication in 1982.

Ackerman was considered as perhaps the science fiction's greatest collector, owner of a huge private collection of science-fiction movie and literary memorabilia that for years filled every nook and cranny of a hillside mansion overlooking Los Angeles, the "Ackermuseum" – which he gladly kept open to the public.

Collated from:

• http://reason.com/blog/show/130428.html
• http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2008/12/voices----forre.html
• http://syfyportal.com/news425633.html
• http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/549655
  

Travolta - A Cut Above the Lot

"From a performance standpoint, the new cast is just as capable as the old, with one odd exception. Mock his love of Scientology, but John Travolta was a much more effective villain in the original Punisher than Dominic West’s Don of Douchebags, Billy Russoti, aka Jigsaw."

From http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/66557-this-punisher-goes-to-war-with-the-audience/

Danny Masterson

When asked if the negative press surrounding Scientology, his religion, upsets him, Danny Masterson told Hollyscoop,

"No, because no one ever says anything that makes any sense and no one ever says anything that’s true."

"Also scientology is so new 58 years now at least were not having to deal with the inquisition and the crusades. That’s pretty good."

Masterson's interview coincided with Tom's appearance on Barbara Walters's Most Fascinating People special, which featured Tom at number 9.

"You can tease Tom all you want I don’t really think he cares."

The Journey of Life

'Looking back on her 10-year marriage to Cruise, which ended in 2001, she says there are no regrets. She doesn't dwell on the relationship and there's no discussion of the acrimonious, highly publicised divorce. Sensitive, presumably, to the feelings of her older children, the actress doesn't have anything negative to say about her ex-husband (who is now married to the actress Katie Holmes) or about his religion, Scientology, which she also embraced. "That's the journey of life – we all go through it. You have love, you lose love, you find new love." '

From:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/nicole-kidman-ive-been-through-a-lot-in-my-life-1051769.html

Katie Holmes Doesn't Get Online

'In order to avoid all the crazy theories circulating about her, Tom, Scientology and whatever else is out there, Katie says she doesn't go online: “I would get too upset and overwhelmed if I read or looked at what's out there."'

Maybe just as well... That would explain how she could just focus on her role in the highest grossing show on Broadway and ignore Anonymous, proving them wrong simply based on her performance.

The quote comes from an article writing about how Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got his 'n' hers Old Hollywood-style T Magazine covers in this Sunday's New York Times. You would think the article is about Tom and Katie, but in fact, little Suri steals the show.

CelebrityCafe reveals more of the interview:

"I have too much to do," Holmes said. "I'm a mom and an actress with a play to do every night. I can't pay attention to all that noise."

About her meeting with Tom:

"When I met Tom I was completely in love and, yes, I admired him growing up – he's Tom Cruise! … When I met him, he was so warm and I thought, Wow! You can be a superstar and a human being. He made me feel so amazing”.

Also check out T-Magazine web site, featuring video interviews of Tom and Katie.

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.

Stifling Myths

The UK Newspaper The Guardian has an article on "How Scientologists Pressurise Publishers", based initially on The Complex pulled out of Amazon U.K. stock.

The article in fact is not that bad but contains a few inaccuracies and omissions.

"Several times they've taken legal action to try and stop websites revealing their teachings"

It would be more exact to write "Several times they've taken legal action to try and stop websites posting their copyrighted material"

"The Church of Scientology set up a campaign called Operation Freakout to discredit her."

Makes it sound as if the operation was actually carried out. It wasn't. It was only a project that remained on paper.

"the Church falsely told the FBI she had sent them two bomb threats"

"Falsely" seems to be here the author's opinion, because there never was any definite proof one way or the other. See my page about the Cooper Bomb Threat myth at http://bernie.cncfamily.com/sc/cooper_bomb.htm

"The court cases went on for some years and eventually the Church won. Armstrong filed for bankruptcy and fled to Canada. The Church filed further lawsuits against him in the 1990s and into the new century. There have been numerous other examples of Scientology trying to suppress criticism."

This is incorrect and I am surprised that a journalist who supposedly has researched the CoS comes up with such a myth. Armstrong settled his case and received $800,000 as part of the settlement. He fled out to Canada with the money and joyfully breached the agreement 131 times. He can't go back in the US where he is now wanted by the law.

"numerous other examples of Scientology trying to suppress criticism"

That may be, but the examples provided on the article do not really support that claim. The complain being made against The Complex is for libel, not criticism. The examples given about "legal actions against web sites" were for copyright, not "revealing their teachings". Operation Freakout was never enacted, and there is no proof that the bomb threat accusation against Cooper was false. As for Armstrong, he is wanted in the US for what amounts to stealing $800,000 from the CoS, not because he is a critic.

There is hope, however, that David V. Barrett, author of this article, eventually corrects these innacuracies. Indeed, he writes:

"Because of the unbiased descriptive stance of my books on new religious movements, anti-cultists have accused me of being a "cult apologist"."

This always is an honor, because "cult apologist" is the term anti-cultists use for moderate onlookers who don't share their frantic and paranoid views on cults and actually check facts.

So how about it, David? Search the issue a bit deeper, and you may find that things are not just as simple as what is presented on the many so-called critical web sites that mostly repeat from each other the same myths until they become "true".

The Money Trail

Mark Bunker is relaying the call for donations of the WhyWeProtest forum.

Really, I am surprised that WhyWeProtest will try to pull that one again after the enturbulation.org fiasco, where it seems that LE, the site admin, ran away with the donation money after he completely shut down the forum.

I am also surprised suckers would fall for it again when Anonymous obviously cannot provide upon request (as most reputable charities do) reports outlining amount of donations and expenses.

At the time, I already blogged about the fact that I found strange Anonymous was demanding money at all, supposedly for maintaining a web site, something that millions of people around the world do for free. Apparently I was not the only one having my doubts about it, as can be seen on an August YouTube video entitled "Enturbulation.org donation scandals".

OGs do not have a brilliant record on this topic either.

Money issues was at the core of the conflict between critics that eventually led (with the CoS' help) to the demise of Bob Minton. One of the criticism that was being made at the time was that Patricia Greenway used Minton's money to buy for herself a luxury sport car rather than investing it in that turd called "The Profit" as she should have.

In another notorious case, the same OG that now complains about LE above had the guts to ask people for donations after he lied about the treatening post he made against the CoS and which he falsely claimed for two years they faked. To my knowledge, these donations have not been reimbursed either.

Not speaking about the case of Jerry Armstrong, who accepted a $800,000 settlement from the CoS then ran away from the US (where he is now wanted by the law) and breached the terms of his settlement 131 times.

Even has of now, money issues continue to create problems. There is a critic in ARS who is regularly blamed by his own fellows for having tried to cash in on his activism through sale of anti-Scientology items. This sounds strange, knowing that Andreas Heldal-Lund himself is selling anti-Scientology artifacts for profit too. The only difference is that he makes it sound as if the profit from sales goes to some charity, whereas it merely goes to another anti-cultist, who probably returns him the favor in another form.

So, if you feel like donating, please do if it's spontaneous movement from the hearth. It's good for your karma, even if later on you will finally realize it is all bunk. But don't be naive. Due to Anonymous' anonymous nature, what you donate will be lost forever, with no control as to what is exactly being done with the money.

At least, after the Magoo fiasco, I doubt it will be used again to finance free oversea trips for "non-leaders" of Anonymous, and I am sure Mark has now grown enough hair on his wise beard to beware of geeks bearing gifts. It might even be that the reason he now promotes the WhyWeProtest donation campaign is because he feels guilty the money has been previously spent for such futile purposes.

However, I am not against Mark continuing to sign autographs on boobs. Lots of boobs, and please film them all and put them on YouTube!

Chat Interview

From time to time I receive requests for interviews.

In the past, this was done through e-mail, since, being pseudonymous, I don't accommodate telephone or live interviews.

Recently, though, I did a chat interview, which I think gives a more spontaneous feel than e-mail interview, close to a real live interview.

Since I posted the raw bit (i.e. whole uncut interview) and thus is a bit longish, you will find it as an entry in my old blog at http://anotherlookatscientology.blogspot.com/2008/12/chat-interview.html.

The interview was done by Brian Theobald, reporter with the online GLBT magazine EDGE Publications.

As for most of the interviews I did in the past, I do not know what was made of it.

The Complex - And Other Paranoid Rumors

There are rumors currently that Tom Cruise helped censor a critical book in the U.K.. The claim is made that Amazon U.K. retired the book after he visited them.

This does not make a lot of sense.

Why would the CoS send their highest profile celebrity on a mission when a simple letter from their lawyer would do (which is most probably what happened)?

Why would Cruise bother about a book in the U.K. when it is still being sold in the U.S. where the libel laws are different?

Did Cruise use his tremendous OT powerz to guess the book would come out at the same time of the probably long planned visit to Amazon for the 10th anniversary of the movie store?

Nah - it just does not jive. It's silly, and Shawn Lindseth rightly wrote in a wonderfully written and hilarious article yesterday:

"Cruise is innocent - we think we can explain things right away here. Tom strangely stopped by the Amazon offices to show off his new Valkyrie movie. Seems like a weird choice until you realise that later in the day he’d also let the employees of a local mom & pop grocery store sneak a peak. Then he went to two gas stations and an unimpressed toll-taker, all allegedly with a projector in tow, but we digress."

Anyway, if you still long to hear the non-existent wise beard of John Duignan, you can head to this site, where you will be graced with a vocal rendition of the first four chapters.

Don't expect to be enthraled, though, according to a Scientology critic himself:

"Holy Xenu, this is the most boring story on scientology I heard so far. The female voice reminds me of Delta air (Sung). Always went to sleep before take off."

To me it reminds me of the movie "The Profit", a so-called critical film that was so bad even critics dished it off when it was leaked. Like for this book, though, the producers tried to boost sales claiming harassment and letting loose all kinds of wild rumors.

Just as for paranoid anti-Scientology claims, sensational harassment rumors is not enough to sustain the success of a book. If the content of the book is not worth it, it will eventually take the plunge.

Feel My Finger

Barbara Schwartz has a tread running in ARS about Travolta successfully giving a touch assist to Marlo Brando.

I am not convinced that the fact Marlo Brando told he feels better demonstrates anything, but this is not the point I want to make here.

I remember while "moonlighting" during my time on staff in Belgium that I gave a series of touch assist to the wife of my boss (in his presence). It did not seem to have much effect one way or the other (bad or good), but it did feel odd to repeatedly tell the wife of my boss "feel my finger...".

Epic Sword Guy

"Mario was a friend of mine for a time and some. Let me enlighten you all a little about the guy. Mario was brilliant. Not just an intelligent guy, but the kind of down right scary intelligence that most just gawk at."

From http://www.forum.exscn.net/showpost.php?p=177099&postcount=320

Mario refers to Mario Majorski, the guy who got shot in front of the Celebrity Center by security guards after wielding two Samurai swords at them. There seems to be quasi unanimity between pros and antis to the effect that 1/the shot was justified as self-defense and protection and 2/the guy was nuts.

However, I found that the above-referred to article brings something interesting in the cast, and that is, that before "falling well off his rocker", Mario seemed to be an exceptionally bright character. His case reminds me somewhat of that of Philip Gale (brilliantly documented by Mark Ebner) who had an obsession with jumping off high buildings.

Valkyrie - Tom Cruise's Real Risky Business

(Based on the news print at
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/watercooler/story.aspx?storyid=102262&catid=82)

Tom Likes to take risks.

"Anything that's tough to do, I think, ends up being the most rewarding."

His house is adorned with a collection of bikes and airplanes, and he enjoys riding and flying them, even though some are perilous.

With Valkyrie, Cruise also takes risks, but it’s not risk for risk, it’s risk because he really feels for the movie:

"You have to take chances, challenge yourself," Cruise says, patting the propeller of the P-51, which is emblazoned with "Kiss Me Kate" on the nose. "You can't take movies because you think they're going to be huge hits."

That’s a thing I admire in him, in anyone. Do things because you feel it’s right, not necessarily aimed at results, even if the whole world is against you. Whatever the outcome, you’ll be a winner. You may win or lose your “external” bet, but even if you lose it, you will always have the inner satisfaction and rewards that you did the right thing. So whatever the outcome, you already won your "internal" bet, the most important of both.

That’s what happened to the hero of the film, by the way, and that’s what makes his grandeur. He did not succeed to kill Hitler, but what he did lives down history because he had the guts to at least try.

With Valkyrie, though, Cruise is really pushing it. There is an accumulation of factors that makes it indeed very risky business, and if he can pull that one, he can pull out anything:

1. Cruise couch jumping reputation, boosted by Internet activists who object to his adhesion and promotion of Scientology.
2. The fact that Cruise, a Scientologist, enacts the role of a German hero, and Scientology had more than its share of conflict with the German governement.
3. The fact that Cruise plays a Nazi, with a eye patch, which projects a somber image, even if the man is a hero.
4. The fact that unlike the Titanic, that story is not one that is generally known, and people may not be interested at the outset
5. More importantly, the fact that the film is scheduled to come on the day after Christmas. My guess is that people on that day would like to see an uplifting movie, not a somber conspiracy – plus the film is competing with a host of other films all seeking to vie a holiday family outing audience

Risky business indeed…