Watching Tom jump up and down like a man possessed, former Scientologist Peter Alexander recalled his own behavior. Like Tom, he had reached the level of Operating Thetan VII, where man is ostensibly on the cusp of becoming a superman. “The jumping on the couch was directly attributable to the fact that he is not in touch with reality,” Alexander said. “No normal, sane man would react that way to a love relationship because he would have a sense of himself and a sense of where he was in reality. When you are on OT VII you lose that sense because part of you is still in that hypnotic trancelike state.”
Just forty-eight hours later, Tom’s faith was front and center in a publicity merry-go-round, the actor effortlessly switching from soap opera to soap box. The man who had already claimed to be an authority on education, human rights, religious freedom, detoxification, and drug rehabilitation added another arrow to his quiver. Cruise unveiled himself on national TV as an expert on postpartum depression. The target of the attack was actress Brooke Shields—the woman who had starred in his first movie, Endless Love.
In an autobiography published a few weeks earlier, Shields had recounted taking antidepressants to help her cope with postnatal depression. Cruise used the platform of an Access Hollywood interview to berate the actress for using antidepressants. “I care about Brooke Shields because she is an incredibly talented woman—[but] where has her career gone?”
It seemed that War of the Worlds was going to miss out on more publicity. “These drugs are dangerous. I have actually helped people come off them,” Cruise said. “When you talk about postpartum depression you can take people today, women, and what you do is you use vitamins.” This was an article of Tom’s faith, that mental illness should be treated with vitamins and not clinically developed drugs.
Shields, appearing in a musical in London, later responded to Cruise’s criticism in a wry op-ed piece in The New York Times. Articulating the feelings of many outraged women and doctors, she wrote: “I feel compelled to speak not just for myself but also for the hundreds of thousands of women who have suffered from postpartum depression. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Mr. Cruise has never suffered from postpartum depression. . . . Tom Cruise’s comments are irresponsible and dangerous. . . . Tom should stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them.”
Watching the furor was a previously stalwart ally who was less than pleased with Tom’s recent performances. Just as Tom Cruise had a well-deserved reputation for focus and drive, War of the Worlds director Steven Spielberg is known not only for his creativity but for his intense dedication to his films. Spielberg did not seem pleased by the way his old friend’s couch-jumping antics and attack on Brooke Shields were derailing the expensive publicity machine for the movie. From this time on, Spielberg’s friends noticed that he spoke of Tom in the past tense.
Spielberg had first met Tom on the set of Risky Business in 1983. Both men prided themselves on their focus and commitment, singing each other’s praises in public. When it looked as if Minority Report was going to be canned because each man was asking for too much money, it was Spielberg who picked up the phone and convinced the younger actor to reduce his fee. Nor did he have a problem with Tom’s faith. While he had not looked very deeply into Scientology until the group pitched a tent on the set of War of the Worlds, he had always found Scientologists to be personable and polite, making good eye contact and showing interest in the other person. He liked to tell a story about how a former Scientology boyfriend of his now-wife, Kate Capshaw, had given her a test using the E meter to see if she was having an affair with the Hollywood director. While she had passed the Scientology test, she left him shortly afterward for Spielberg.
Even when Tom and Steven Spielberg were joined by David Miscavige during the filming of War of the Worlds, Scientology was not on the menu during lunch, when they discussed the merits of flight simulators. When Tom did mention his faith, it was in the context of helping one of Spielberg’s children who was having reading difficulties. The actor suggested that Spielberg take the youngster to a Scientology center in Hollywood. Spielberg did so, but when he was informed that his son would have to be taken off his medication in accordance with Scientology principles, he declined their offer of help. In the mythology surrounding Cruise and Scientology, this story was transposed into a yarn in which Spielberg mentioned the name of the psychiatrist treating one of his children, and within a matter of days the psychiatrist supposedly found himself being picketed by Scientologists.
While the exaggerated gossip burnished the Scientology myth, the cooling friendship between the director and actor was a typical Hollywood tale—it was all about the bottom line. Spielberg simply feared that Tom’s behavior was affecting the potential audience for their film. As one of his longtime associates said, “What ended the friendship is that Steven saw him behaving not on the team. He knocked the movie PR off track by jumping on the sofa. Steven is focused on what he is working on totally and then he moves on. He is ruthless and dedicated to his craft. If someone lets him down, he doesn’t work with them again.”
If Spielberg disapproved of Tom’s behavior, it is not hard to imagine the emotions of Katie’s parents as they watched a man whom they had never met proclaiming his undying love for their daughter to Oprah Winfrey. This was car-crash TV, and they were the hapless passengers. At least her previous fiancé, Chris Klein, had asked Mr. Holmes for his consent before proposing.
Just a few years before, Katie’s family and friends had welcomed camera crews to Toledo as they chatted happily about Katie and her success on Dawson’s Creek. Now there was a resounding silence. Noticeably her friend since kindergarten, Meghann Birie, who was seen as a levelheaded influence on Katie, was totally out of the picture. Tom’s sister Lee Anne DeVette sent letters to their local church, Katie’s former school, and even the local newspaper asking them to respect the family’s privacy and not discuss Toledo’s famous daughter. While Toledo was proud of Katie Holmes, it seemed TomKat was a toxic subject. Local Catholic priest Father Mike Brown was typical, shying away from any comment about Katie’s involvement with Scientology. “Scientology affects just one family here, and I want to respect their privacy,” he said.
As with Tom, then Nicole, so did Scientology quickly cocoon Katie Holmes inside circles of control. Lee Anne DeVette’s demands for silence from the residents of Katie’s hometown were just the beginning. Very quickly Katie was integrated into life on Planet Tom, even the most casual observer noticing her transformation from vivacious young actress to a modern-day Stepford wife. A Web site called FreeKatie.net, dedicated to “the movement to liberate Katie, a young, gifted actress held captive by forces we may never understand,” did a roaring business in T-shirts, trucker hats, stickers, and coffee mugs bearing the message FREE KATIE.
First to go was the name. Tom preferred Kate, so Kate it was. Her appearance was next. The girl whose sparkling green eyes had intrigued the director of Dawson’s Creek now looked as if the lights had been switched off. “My family can’t lie to save themselves,” she once said. “We always get in trouble. Our eyes give everything away.” As she did the publicity rounds for Batman Begins, interviewers remarked on her hollow and lifeless eyes. Writer Robert Haskell noted that her eyes “focused on nothing in particular.” Other interviewers nicknamed her Katie “Dead Eye” Holmes.
It was not just her eyes but the rest of her face that came under close scrutiny. An eruption of sores and marks was blamed on Scientology’s Purification Rundown, a process designed to purge the body of toxins through vitamins, exercise, and prolonged periods in a sauna. In fact, the marks were cold sores—a condition that afflicts the Holmes family and in Katie’s case was brought on by stress.
Katie’s natural animation seemed replaced by a sort of deadpan elation as she recited the liturgy of love. “I’m thrilled. I’m so happy,” she told entertainment journalist Ruben Nepales. “I’m happy, so
I’ll just keep on smiling,” she said to Christopher Goodwin of Tatler magazine. At the end of one interview, a security guard entered the room carrying a Chanel diamond necklace, a gift from Tom. “He’s my man, he’s my man!” Katie exclaimed when she opened the package. Tom had used a similar technique during his marriage to Nicole Kidman, calling her or sending gifts or messages in the middle of an interview. It was a reminder that Tom was ever present even when he was not physically there.
Tom was also represented by Katie’s official new best friend, Jessica Feshbach Rodriguez. She was her Scientology handler, a member of the elite Sea Org who had been transferred from her higher spiritual mission to accompany Katie on her promotional tour for Batman Begins during the summer of 2005. Not only was Jessica brought up and educated in Scientology, she was from a wealthy family of bond traders who had donated millions of dollars to their faith, her aunt managing a Scientology center in Florida. Her presence was a sign of the importance Scientology placed on rapidly converting Katie to their cause.
When Katie spoke, Feshbach monitored her words. Or uttered them for her. During an interview with writer Robert Haskell, when Katie found herself stuck for words to describe how she felt about Tom, Jessica was on hand to help. “You adore him,” she prompted. Katie soon found her way back on track: “I feel so lucky and so—like I’ve been given such a gift.” When a journalist asked Katie about the widespread skepticism concerning her new romance, Jessica replied for her. “The truth is, we don’t read that stuff because it’s just rude.” Others on the tour recall Feshbach as being condescending to staff, suspicious of the publicity process, and often disruptive in interviews.
Jessica was a central figure in the new team quickly placed around Katie. Within weeks the actress’s stalwart professional advisers and personal friends were cast into outer darkness. At the beginning of June, her agent at CAA, Brandt Joel, was fired and replaced by Tom’s men at the same agency, Rick Nicita and Kevin Huvane. Her longtime manager, John Carrabino, who also represented Renée Zellweger, was next. When Renée accepted a Screen Actors Guild award for her role in Cold Mountain, she singled out Carrabino for special praise. “Everybody needs a John Carrabino. I’m lucky to hear your words of wisdom.” Wisdom that Katie no longer required. Last to go was her publicist of nine years, Leslie Sloane-Zelnick, replaced by Tom’s sister and ardent Scientologist Lee Anne DeVette.
Katie’s friends back in Toledo fared just as badly. Along with Meghann Birie, other friends lamented losing touch with the young actress. One old pal, speaking anonymously, described the TomKat relationship as “weird,” comparing it to the ill-fated match between Liza Minnelli and David Gest. Their comments were remarkably similar to those of Sofía Vergara’s friends, excitement giving way to unease. “It was exciting at first that Katie was dating Tom, but then when she started drifting away and I realized it was because we weren’t into Scientology, it got a little weird.”
It was not until the premiere of Batman Begins in June that Katie’s parents got to meet Tom. His famous smile was on overdrive, charming his future in-laws and, according to at least one report, he showed the couple around the Celebrity Centre. Here was a man who didn’t smoke, drink, or do drugs, and his mother even cooked a fried chicken dinner for them. What was there not to like? Still, the suspicion remained that while they were gaining a son, they were losing a daughter.
Days after that first meeting, Katie effectively wrote off her old life when on June 13, she put pen to paper and signed up with Scientology. Few religions expect their followers to sign legally binding documents to ensure their commitment, but Scientology is no ordinary religion. The contract had become fundamental to the church following the death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson in 1995. McPherson, who suffered psychiatric problems after a car accident in Florida, died of a pulmonary embolism while in church care in Clearwater, Florida. She was apparently dehydrated and had cockroach bites on her emaciated body. As a result, the church was indicted on two felony counts, criminal neglect and practicing medicine without a license, effectively putting Scientology practices and beliefs on trial. The argument was that she had not been taken to the hospital for treatment earlier out of fear that she would be put into psychiatric care, which Scientologists fundamentally oppose. Instead, she was given what Scientologists call the Introspection Rundown, where a “psychotic” Scientologist is isolated and audited frequently. The criminal charges were eventually dropped and the death formally ruled an accident.
Lisa’s death led not only to a protracted civil court case that resulted in the judge ordering an out-of-court settlement, but to the introduction of a contract colloquially known as “Lisa’s clause,” which said that new members or their families could not sue the church for death or injury associated with an Introspection Rundown. Katie Holmes signed a clause that ended with: “I accept and assume all known and unknown risks of injury, loss, or damage resulting from my decision to participate in the Introspection Rundown and specifically absolve all persons and entities from all liabilities of any kind, without limitation, associated with my participation or their participation in my Introspection Rundown.”
The contract fundamentally changed Katie’s human rights and those of her future children, requiring that if she or any of her children were ever to suffer from mental or terminal illness, they must turn only to Scientology’s treatments. She must never use psychiatric care or psychiatric drugs. If she suffered postnatal depression like Brooke Shields—or the one in ten other women who experience the condition after childbirth—she would be in the hands of Scientologists. She had bound herself to the Scientology mantra: “The spirit alone may save or heal the body.”
Concerned former Scientologists recognized the seriousness of Katie’s contract. A onetime Sea Org member took the initiative and sent Martin Holmes a copy of the Scientology contract, the first legal document that Katie had signed in her life without her lawyer father looking it over beforehand. The contract was a watertight promise to allow Scientologists full control over her life. She had given permission to Scientology to isolate her from seeing her family again, or any other “sources of potential spiritual upset,” during the Introspection Rundown. Not only had she lost her religion, there was the real possibility of losing contact with her family—like hundreds of Scientologists before her. Katie was experiencing exactly what Sofía Vergara had feared would happen to her. Everything that had alarmed Sofía, Katie seemed to accept.
Four days after signing the Scientology contract, Katie had another decision to make. In keeping with the very public nature of the romance, Tom proposed to her in Paris, at the top of the Eiffel Tower. After going down on one knee and reading her a self-penned two-page poem, he held out a five-carat yellow solitaire diamond engagement ring. The timing suggested that her conversion to Scientology had been a necessary proviso for Katie to get the ring, the fairy-tale wedding, and the childhood dream. It was a world away from the proposal by Chris Klein, who had asked Katie’s father’s permission and proposed in the family home.
Without having slept, Cruise called a press conference in Paris. This news could not wait. He announced he would be marrying Katie Holmes. “Today is a magnificent day for me; I’m engaged to a magnificent woman.” Halfway across the world, Katie’s friend Meghann Birie was leaving a movie theater in Toledo after watching Batman Begins when her phone began to bleep. It was a voice mail from Katie, excitedly telling her about her engagement. Even though she hadn’t seen Meghann since her whirlwind romance with Tom Cruise, it was thoughtful of Katie to tell her oldest friend before the news hit the wires. Sad, too. A voice from the past, saying farewell to her old life.
CHAPTER 12
It was just a typical day in the office for TV host Matt Lauer—a real-life rescue miracle, a car with a mind of its own, and the invasion of Earth by Aliens from Outer Space. Oh, and a cookie-tasting contest. On June 22, 2005, Matt left his Westchester home as usual at four-thirty in the morning, arriving in Manhattan to catch the
sunrise. On his way to the NBC studios in Rockefeller Center, he leafed through his notes for that day’s edition of the Today show. First up was a heartwarming tale about the rescue of Boy Scout Brennan Hawkins, who had been missing for four days from his camp in the Utah backwoods. Actress Lindsay Lohan would be talking about her latest movie, Herbie Fully Loaded, while actor Tim Robbins was slated to chat about his role in the science fiction drama War of the Worlds.
After the show wrapped, Matt was scheduled to prerecord an interview with Tom Cruise about the Spielberg movie. He was relaxed about the upcoming chat with Cruise; he had interviewed him several times in the past and found Tom, unlike some Hollywood stars, to be affable and professional. More than that, Matt was interested in the subject. He and his production team had seen and enjoyed the movie, and he was keen to explore the themes that visionary author H. G. Wells had raised in the novel on which the film was based. Matt was well prepared; after all, he had done the reading.
Before the interview, Lauer met Tom in his dressing room, where the two men asked about each other’s children. Tom was in top form, chatting animatedly with NBC’s entertainment reporter Jill Rappaport, as Lauer talked through the parameters of the interview with Tom’s sister and publicist, Lee Anne DeVette. Although Tom’s new fiancée was present in the studio, DeVette made it clear that Katie didn’t want to be brought on set like some prize exhibit; she would watch Tom from the wings. Other than that, Tom was happy to talk about anything; just fire away.
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