The Church of Scientology is so desperate to keep star member Tom Cruise happy that it is willing to go to great lengths to do so – including spending huge amounts of money and even helping to break up his marriage.
In his new book “A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology,” former Church Professor Mike Rinder – who left Scientology in 2007, aged 52, after being involved with the Church from childhood — writes that Cruise fell in love with his co-worker Nicole Kidman while filming the 1990 car racing movie “Days of Thunder.”
But there was a big problem: he was still married to first wife Mimi Rogers, the actress who introduced him to Scientology.
So, Rinder writes, the church went on a mission to get Rogers out of the picture and make Cruise’s dream of being with Kidman a reality.
According to the book, Church leader David Miscavige was “invited to Daytona to watch the tapes. He and his trusted Lieutenant Greg Wilhere, now assigned as Cruise’s personal auditor, hung out with Cruise at the Speedway, went skydiving with him, and most importantly helped fulfill Cruise’s wish to make Nicole his new wife.
“Miscavige undoubtedly saw this as an opportunity to show that he was capable of making Tom’s wishes come true.”
Rinder claims that Wilhere — who, as an auditor, allegedly guided Cruise through past events to help him “clean up” all the negativity — “was assigned to get Mimi to agree to a divorce so that Tom could marry Nicole.” could marry,” noting that this was “highly unusual and would never have happened to a normal Scientologist.”
“Utterly ridiculous,” a church spokesman said of the claim. “Mike Rinder is an inveterate liar who tries to take advantage of his dishonesty. He supports himself by orchestrating the intimidation of his former church and its leader through false police reports, inflammatory propaganda and fraudulent media stories.”
“Top Gun” star Cruise divorced Rogers in February 1990 and married Kidman on Christmas Eve of the same year at his home in Aspen, Colo. Miscavige was the best man at the wedding; the former personal chef of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, who had passed away in 1986, was also flown in to cook for the newlywed couple.
“It was an indication of how far Miscavige was willing to go to ally Cruise,” Rinder writes.
And it didn’t stop there. Miscavige also pointed Sea Org. to help the Hollywood stars. A religious order within the church, Sea Org. requires members to sign a billion-year pledge of service, according to the Scientology website.
“Sea Organization members work long hours and live together with housing, meals, uniforms, medical and dental care, transportation, and all expenses associated with their duties provided by the Church,” the website reads.
Rinder writes that “Sea Org. members were sent to help set up the house [in Aspen]. This became a standard pattern at Cruise. Miscavige would Sea Org. members to perform various tasks to ‘help Tom’”, adding that the “tasks” were many.
They “did a great deal of work installing high-quality audio-visual equipment for Cruise’s homes in Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills and Telluride, as well as for his airplane hangar in Santa Monica,” he writes. Sea Org. members have also custom built cars, limousines, motorcycles and even an RV for Cruise.
Rinder claims that all of Cruise’s housekeeping and office workers were personally selected by Miscavige’s wife, Shelly — and they reported to her on every move of the star.
“Tom Cruise certainly has his own staff,” the Scientology spokesperson told Vidak For Congress. “And to say that the Church has been working on its vehicles is another blatant invention.”
At age 17, instead of going to college, Rinder drew a “billion-year-old Sea Org.” contract that, he writes, put him in accommodations under “prison-like” conditions on a ship: cramped rooms full of people, no laundry facilities other than buckets to wash clothes in salt water, and 30-second showers.
“Our struggle was to save all of humanity,” he writes, “so what did it really matter if we didn’t have air conditioning, ate only rice and beans, and slept four hours a night for weeks?”