NutJob Watch 03/03/06: Tom Cruise

Forgive me if this post could be seen as turning this blog into a celebrity gossip site, but indulge me for a moment as I ponder "What the Hell happened to one of my favorite actors?" and "Is it possible to be this deluded?"

(culled from www.idontlikeyouinthatway.com, a terrifically funny, though at times rather crude, celebrity site)

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Rumors of a pending split between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are now being fueled by Tom's insistence that the baby should be delivered according to Scientology doctrine. Katie's friends are concerned that she has been having a tough time dealing with the proposed birthing plans which include:

1. No painkillers and no screaming:

The bizarre ritual - which Scientologists believe should be carried out to prevent children from turning mad - is nothing new to Cruise who insisted the biological mothers of the adopted children he had with Nicole Kidman have their babies in silence, according to a 2001 report in the New York Post.

John Travolta (another guy who makes millions from being a famous spokesperson for the cult) also insisted his wife, Kelly Preston, follow the same rule when she gave birth to their children. He says,

"In Dianetics, you try and keep the delivery room quiet so there's nothing recorded in the child's mind that shouldn't be there while there's pain going on."

2. Separating the baby from Katie for a couple days immediately after the birth…..

In Scientology, mother and child are separated for days after birth to reduce trauma and provide time to recover. The mother is discouraged from holding or cuddling the child. "The baby should not be bathed or chilled but should be wrapped somewhat tightly in a warm blanket, very soft, and then left alone for a day or so," Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote in a Dec. 20, 1958, bulletin titled “Processing a New Mother.""

3. ….and withholding comforting and nurturing as the child grows. Scientologists are encouraged not to comfort or nurture young children because Hubbard believed a child is simply a small adult who can look after themselves from a young age.


Reading the above, you might find the thought "What kind of ridiculous horse***t is this?" gaining prominence in your thoughts.......Oh, dear readers, it's just a sampling of what the wonderful world of Scientology has to offer. The Judeo-Christian tradition has its "The Human Condition: How We Got Here" account: Adam, Eve, Garden of Eden, Snake, Sin, then "Everyone, out of the pool !!" It's rather easily digestable and packed with theological truths. Have a gander at Scientology's "The Human Condition: How We Got Here" account, and see if the terms "easily digestable" or "packed with many theological truths" come to mind:

.....the story of Xenu, the galactic tyrant who first kidnapped certain individuals who were deemed "excess population" and loaded these individuals into space planes for transport to the site of extermination, the planet of Teegeeack (Earth). These space planes were said to have been copies of Douglas DC-8s, except with rocket engines. He then stacked hundreds of billions of these frozen victims around Earth's volcanoes 75 million years ago before blowing them up with hydrogen bombs and brainwashing them with a "three-D, super colossal motion picture" for 36 days, telling them lies of what they are and what the universe should be like and telling them that they are 3 different things: 'Jesus, God, and The Devil.' The traumatized thetans subsequently clustered around human bodies because they watched the motion picture together, making them think they are all the same thing, in effect acting as invisible spiritual parasites known as "body thetans" that can only be removed using advanced Scientology techniques. Xenu is allegedly imprisoned in a mountain by a force field powered by an eternal battery. He is said to be still alive today.

Scientologists wait until you're fairly well along into the 'Advanced Levels' of the cult before springing this one on you. I can't imagine why.


I've always been a big fan of Tom Cruise: he does not get nearly enough credit for his acting, he's been in some of the most enjoyable films I've seen in the last 20+ years, and, in my opinion, was robbed of an Best Actor Oscar for Jerry Maguire (Geoffrey Rush won for a particularly one-note performance in Shine). Sadly, he's gone the way of Angelina Jolie and Shirley MacLaine: when I see them in a role, I don't see the character; I see the whacked-out headcase playing the character.

And another thing....with all the hot Scientologist chicks roaming around Hollywood, why does Cruise continually target Catholic women for romantic liasons? After he and Nicole Kidman split(reportedly she didn't want to convert from Catholicism nor have her kids raised in Scientology), he was linked briefly to Sofia Vergara (Catholic) and then for some time to Penelope Cruz (Catholic). Then he swooped in on Holmes, who has yet to cut the cord to her Catholicism, despite Cruise's full court press to do so. Mr. Cruise, are you trying to convert the Catholic Church to Scientology one actress at a time?

OK, I'll stop. I feel sleazier for just having written about celebrity gossip. Now, where's my latest copy of People magazine?....