Tom Cruise Played Into David Miscavige’s Hands When He Joined Scientology
Tom Cruise played into David Miscavige’s hands when he joined the Church of Scientology. Cruise was supposedly “lured” into the religion by the Scientology leader, according to Miscavige’s father — Ron Miscavige — who released the book Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me.
According to a bombshell report by Daily Mail, Ron Miscavige claims that his son pulled out all the stops to reel Cruise into the religion. He characterized their relationship as one of “brotherly competitive spirit, each trying to outdo each other.”
Ron Miscavige said his son saw “the potential” in Tom Cruise being a member of Scientology back in 1990. The actor was married to Nicole Kidman at the time when they were studying courses and auditing at the Sea Org base, which is a secret organization at the elitist level in Scientology.
Ron goes into detail about how his son “checked out” Cruise while he was filming Days of Thunder and that he shared photos of Cruise skydiving with top executives of his Scientology staff.
“The time they spent together obviously left David deeply impressed with the PR potential that Cruise could lend to Scientology. And to Dave,” Ron said.
Cruise’s first visit to the Scientology Gold Base in Hemet, California, was in early 1990, Miscavige was on “pins and needles” and orchestrated “every detail for maximum impact,” an excerpt from the book reads.
Files on Cruise were kept in his given name, Thomas Mapother, to avoid leaks that it was the A-list star.
EXCLUSIVE: How David Miscavige lured Tom Cruise into Scientology with a ‘charm offensive’ https://t.co/JcNppiujZx
— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) May 3, 2016
The book mentions, however, that Miscavige did take issue with Cruise being married to Mimi Rogers since her father, Phil Spickler, was booted out of Scientology years prior. Cruise and Rogers divorced in February 1990.
According to the book, “David desperately wanted to get matters under tighter control – that is his control, and one of his top lieutenants had arranged to bring Tom to the base for a stay and some auditing.”
A welcome dinner for Tom Cruise was lined up by David Miscavige that was fairly elaborate. It didn’t go over well with Miscavige when Cruise arrived four hours late due to scheduling problems. When the actor showed, he just wanted to go to bed, which made Miscavige “hit the roof.”
In a short period time David cooled off, and the two men “hit it off” when they went to a shooting range on a hill located at the compound. They purportedly “had a great time.”
It was soon after that when Cruise gave Miscavige an automated clay pigeon shooter to replace his manual one.
As the book states, “David immediately called for a complete renovation of the shooting range and had work crews up day and night for three days totally redoing it, including adding a bunker for the new launcher.
“The purpose was solely to impress Tom Cruise.”
The estranged father of Scientology leader David Miscavige previewed new memoir on ’20/20? https://t.co/t29WklqlLQ pic.twitter.com/QKAAoUnkC8
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) April 30, 2016
Ron Miscavige does write, “…did not see them interact much but I have been told that they developed a sort of brotherly competitive spirit, each trying to outdo each other.”
The elder Miscavige writes that they had street car races all around L.A., and they were always trying “to beat the other to their destination.”
Ron goes on to reveal in the book that his son had an “obsession with winning at all costs,” and that’s what led to their eventual estrangement.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ron Miscavige paints a very dark picture of life at the 500-acre Scientology compound at Gold Base and abandoned the religion altogether in an “escape” plan. He spoke on ABC’s 20/20 last Friday on the horrors surrounding it, which have been refuted by the church. The church had members of Scientology tell ABC that when Ron played in a band with them, he was an “embarrassment,” “lazy,” and used racial slurs.
David Miscavige tried getting the release of his father’s book stopped due to allegations that he’s a draconian leader of the church. He threatened the publisher with a lawsuit on grounds of defamation.
[Photo by AP Photo/Isaac Brekken]
