A Tom Cruise bio is about to drop upon us. St. Martin's Press is thrilled. Tom Cruise is maybe less thrilled. The thing is unauthorized. Also possibly unwanted and unappreciated. In fact, its title is "Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography." The author is Andrew Morton, same Brit gent who unwrapped Princess Diana and Monica Lewinsky, of whom you may have heard. He spent two years on Operation Tom Cruise. Talked to chums, teachers, even old girlfriends who were his young girlfriends ...

The mayor of the City of Light is to award Valentino with the Grand Medaille de Vermeil de la Ville de Paris, the equivalent of making him an honorary citizen of the French capital. Paris’ socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoe will pin the Grand Medaille on to the great couturier during the upcoming haute couture season in January, when Valentino will stage his final runway show. Among previous winners are the great fashion illustrator Erte, designer Gianni Versace, who was awarded the ...

Deep in the December issue of Vanity Fair is an interesting throw-away line about Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. Bryan Burrough wrote a lengthy article called: Showdown at Fort Sumner Two years after Paramount purchased DreamWorks, Hollywood is transfixed by one of the nastiest breakups ever. As Sumner Redstone and David Geffen went to war (over Steven Spielberg?), the author got it from both sides. The article is online, and on page 3 of the online copy, at the ...

Sunday night, Tom Cruise rewarded high-ranking members of the Church of Scientology with tickets to a private screening of his new movie, "Lions for Lambs." This is the provocative anti-war movie which he executive-produced for United Artists with partner Paula Wagner. I rather doubt that director Robert Redford, who's also a co-star, and Cruise's other co-star, Meryl Streep, had any idea that the screening room at the Museum of Modern Art and the cocktail party following was full of Scientologists, including ...

As she strolls down Dadabhai Naoroji Road in Mumbai, Aussie Marion Whitta gets a tap on the shoulder from a tall Indian fan. "I bought Dianetics (the first book of a post-modern faith called Scientology) in 1987 in Melbourne," he says. He is in a yellow polo shirt inscribed with the Scientology logo on the back. He walks with her for about 50 paces, interrupting the conversation she is trying to have with friend. He recounts the moment he first encountered ...

Critics aside, they say Scientology's detox center cures ills. By Art Carey Inquirer Staff Writer Within days of beginning treatment, Mike Wire noticed changes. His pain eased. His mood brightened. His sense of smell returned, sharper than ever. A retired millwright from Bucks County, Wire, 60, is among thousands of rescue workers, firefighters and police officers who developed an array of serious ailments after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Wire spent 21/2 ...

Could footage of Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg's execution in Tom Cruise's new film have been sabotaged by Berlin officials? Eldad Beck Published: 10.07.07, 19:44 / Israel Culture Berlin - What is causing the series of mishaps taking place on the set of a movie starring Tom Cruise in the role of Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg - the man who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler? Over the weekend the movie's production team confirmed that footage for the movie entitled “Valkyrie," shot some ...

Hollywood star Tom Cruise is planning to build a bunker at his Colorado home to protect his family in the event of an intergalactic alien attack, according to new reports. The Mission Impossible actor, who is a dedicated follower of Scientology, is reportedly fearful that deposed galactic ruler 'Xenu' is plotting an evil revenge attack on Earth. According to American magazine Star, a source said: "Tom is planning to build a US$10 million bunker under his Telluride estate." "It's a self-contained ...

She was open-minded enough about Scientology, if a bit dubious about some aspects of the life of its founder L. Ron Hubbard. Imagine Carol Tobin's surprise, then, when her hopes of a private jet and a Hollywood career with Tom Cruise were dashed as its adherents appeared to reject her Is it just cynical old me or is Scientology a load of old cobblers or, as we would say here in Ringsend, a load of bullshit? Oh, I can hear the ...

It's been a year since Tom Cruise's war of words with Paramount resulted in one of Hollywood's biggest splits - and, apparently, new days of thunder for the 45-year-old superstar. Previous to the much-publicized split, the 5-foot-7 actor was riding high. How high? Cruise has had seven consecutive films that made $100 million or more (a record he shares with Tom Hanks). He has won three Golden Globes, and has been nominated for an acting Oscar three times. He has worked ...

An alarming book, fresh demands for a ban and a rejection of those calls for a prohibition: the controversial Scientology organization has been all over the media, yet still aims to missionize Europe. Ursula Caberta expressed her opinion loud and clear: "Scientology is a dangerous, extremist organization which has declared war on Europe." As Commissioner for Scientology issues for Hamburg, Caberta is considered an expert on the subject. She has been observing the movement since 1992 and just presented her new ...

Last Sunday, the German Protestant Church's religious cult specialist called Tom Cruise the "Goebbels of Scientology." This comparison of the War of the Worlds actor and the head of the Nazi propaganda machine is only the most recent example of a German official having harsh words for the Church of Scientology. Last month, a German Defense Ministry spokesman said Cruise couldn't film his movie at military sites because the actor had "publicly professed to being a member of the Scientology cult." ...

The German Protestant Church compared the Hollywood film star Tom Cruise to the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels yesterday and claimed the actor was using his celebrity status to publicise the controversial Church of Scientology, of which he is a prominent member. The criticism of Mr Cruise, who is in Germany to make a film about an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, was the most vitriolic in a series of attacks on the actor over his membership of Scientology - regarded ...

[...] RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's played a top gun and secret agent. But it's his latest role, anti-Nazi war hero that's landed Tom Cruise in hot water. Germany is boiling over his religion. Filming began outside Berlin today, for a movie starring Cruise, as Count Klaus von Stauffenberg, a famed colonel who tried to kill Hitler. Back in 1944, Stauffenberg and his coconspirators were executed here at the defense ministry building. Cruise was planning to shoot scenes at the ...

IT was Hollywood, so it was bound to follow the script. Two minutes after walking through the ornate gates of the world famous Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre, an exquisitely renovated 1920s chateau-style, former hotel overlooking Los Angeles, I came face-to-face with my first Scientologist. He was impressive, tall, broad-shouldered and impeccably groomed with a set of blindingly white teeth. He looked like an actor who'd play a secret service agent.

ARTHUR and Lawana Beals knew their son Gary was in trouble. He had been tormented for years by voices in his head but he had always shunned their advice to seek psychiatric care. On March 15, 1989, the 32-year-old broke. Grabbing a butcher knife, he stabbed Lawana before turning the knife on Arthur. Bleeding from her injuries, Mrs Beals tried to defend her husband before fleeing the house and calling police. Arthur Beals was dead by the time authorities arrived. Three ...

THE Church of Scientology last night denied the Sydney man who was allegedly stabbed to death by his psychotic daughter after refusing her psychiatric drugs was a top recruiter for the church. A man with the same name as the dead father is listed on the Church of Scientology's "Honour Roll" in the 2002 Impact magazine which glorifies members worldwide for their efforts in "signing more than 20 members to the church" or for donating $US20,000 ($23,200) or more. The man's ...

WITH the Packer wedding over — and guest Tom Cruise embrolied in a "religious" controversy — Scientology is once again on the agenda, writes Jill Singer. SCIENTOLOGY is being talked about again because of certain prominent supporters. Germany is reluctant to have Scientology's most famous adherent, Tom Cruise, play one of its country's greatest heroes. Valkyrie, the planned film, centres on Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg's heroic role in attempting to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The problem for Cruise is that Germany is ...

Tom Cruise may suit up nicely as an American flying ace or an acrobatic crime buster, but when it comes to portraying Germany's most beloved anti-Nazi, Germans would prefer a different actor, bitte. Cruise is due to play German officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, celebrated for trying to kill Hitler in 1944, but the German Defense Ministry has warned that if Cruise gets the role, Ministry sites will be off-limits to the filmmakers. The reason? Because Cruise, as the Defense ...

SHOCK and grief turned to horror when Joe Higgins helped pull the body of his brother and fellow firefighter, Tim, from the rubble of the World Trade Center. "We found him about three weeks after Sept. 11, and later, there was a bunch of us on the pile one night and I looked up," Joe was saying. "I saw this haze of dust was like a rainbow - red, blue, yellow tiny particles - and I said to the guys, 'You ...

“I'm not here converting these men and women to Scientology. And I've got to tell you something—I've been a Scientologist 20 years. In Sacramento I, more than any other Scientologist, got new people into Scientology, me personally. I'm very good at converting people, if I want to.” Jim Woodworth is the director of the New York Rescue Workers' Detoxification Project, and he is bristling at the suggestion that his program is an arm of the Church of Scientology. He insists that ...

This week a BBC reporter was shown screaming in fury after being hounded by Scientology fanatics. Here, a Mail writer tells how he, too, was the victim of a vicious cult smear campaign. The voice at the end of the line was trembling. "Is that Mr Bracchi?" "Yes, it is," I replied. The caller could not have been more relieved. I was supposed to be dead. Someone had started a rumour that I had been killed in a fire. The same ...

Two City Council members who attended Tom Cruise's fund-raiser for a controversial 9/11 "detoxification project" didn't pay the $6,250-a-ticket entry fee, but officials said they acted within the ethics rules. City Council members Joe Addabbo (D-Queens) and Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens) both turned up at the glitzy Manhattan affair Thursday night for the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, co-founded by Cruise and linked to Scientology. Addabbo is chairman of the council's Civil Service and Labor Committee. Emergency responders who underwent the ...

Tom Cruise rolled into Manhattan under extraordinary security last night for a Hollywood-style fund-raiser to benefit his controversial project to help 9/11 responders. The diminutive Scientologist, accompanied by his wife, Katie Holmes, pressed the flesh with supporters inside a $6,250-a-ticket benefit in Chelsea. Reporters were barred from the West 18th Street fund-raiser, which resembled a Hollywood premiere, with scores of security men and paparazzi. "He said how grateful he was to everyone for supporting the project," said Pat Bahnken, a party ...

NEW YORK (CBS) — Some call it a cult concoction while silver screen celebrity Tom Cruise swears by it – a Scientology program called the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project. City Councilman Hiram Monserrate said the program worked for him. "The fact is that this is a program that has helped over 700 rescue workers," Monserrate said. "A program that I have personally visited, participated in and spoken to dozens of rescue workers that today feel better. "Shame on anyone ...