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Enemy of the People: Tom Cruise
The Sunday Times, 18 July 1999
It is a task destined to daunt even the most daring showbiz correspondent. Your mission, should you accept it, is to get an interview with Tom Cruise without promising ever in your life to say a bad word against him.
Warning: all tapes of your interview material will self-destruct 30 seconds after you're finished listening to them. Or else he'll sue. Seriously.
When it comes to paranoia, the star of Mission: Impossible and Eyes Wide Shut turns in a virtuoso performance. The title of his new film is particularly apt, given that the crew members on set were warned not to look him in the eye.
Even builders at the Los Angeles home he and Nicole Kidman are having constructed were apparently told to turn their backs when the precious pair visited. This is the sort of attitude that makes sane people wonder what Kidman and Cruise have to hide.
[snip]
But then they also see themselves as tacit missionaries for one of the world's wackier - and more alarmingly successful - cults: the self-styled Church of Scientology. Cruise was born a Roman Catholic and was once tempted to become a monk, which may explain his flirtation with celibacy. According to his first wife, Mimi Rogers, he wanted to "maintain the purity of his instrument".
It is easy enough to understand why he was attracted to a "religion" dreamt up by a secretive multi-millionaire. But Mr Cruise Control is inclined to freak if people poke fun at his faith, even though it is one of scientology's main tenets that we are all actually aliens, called Thetans (it's reassuring to know that even aliens study the Greek alphabet). When Mel Gibson tried to have a bit of fun at his expense, Cruise went ballistic.
Perhaps he just did not like the idea that he comes from the same planet as the rest of us. We tend to agree.
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