Tom Cruise Had Spielberg's Family Doctor Picketed By Scientologists

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 end of a paragraph on Tom Cruise being "fired" by Redstone, is this:

Spielberg felt the actor's antics had hurt his own movie, 2005's War of the Worlds. Far worse, though, had been an episode when Spielberg told Cruise the name of a doctor who had prescribed medication to a relative and the doctor's office was subsequently picketed by Scientologists.

The Cruise dismissal, however, was nothing compared to the sudden firing of Freston as Viacom's C.E.O., two weeks later....

Vanity Fair has stringent fact checkers. To repeat "when Spielberg told Cruise the name of a doctor who had prescribed medication to a relative and the doctor's office was subsequently picketed by Scientologists."

The sentence begs the question, what kind of doctor and medication? Could it be psychiatric? Cruise and Scientology have a well-documented opposition to psychiatry, and now it seems Spielberg has a documented dislike of Cruise.

Comments

[boycottrightwingthings]

06:50 AM on 12/03/2007

Gee, what kind of religion lets you change your wives like you do underwear. First Mimi Rogers, then the beautiful and elegant Nicole, and now amazon Katie from Dawson's Creek, who was happy to drop her somewhat of a loser fiancee (from those idiotic American Pie movies) to hook up with the "big fish" Cruise. He should have stayed with Nicole, for that time he had some credibility and the publicist that he had then wouldn't let him spew his "religion" all over the place to look like the idiot that he really is. I don't think that Tom is that talented, or good looking. He looks like a little wharf rat to me. The talent pool in Hollywood sucks badly, I rarely, rarely go to movies anymore. Why waste good money. The only way Tom Cruise can get attention anymore is to make a fool out of himself. And we are ALL getting sick of it.

[1will]

02:52 AM on 12/02/2007

What is it with Scientologists kissing old men on The Huffingtonpost lately? First it was Travolta now Cruise.

[Notapathetic]

08:17 PM on 12/01/2007

I HATE Tom Cruise! All my friends on this site know him personally, but I know him even better than all of you guys!!

We all know him really well and we all hate him and we hate his religion and we hate his movies and we hate his teeth and we hate his friends and we hate hate hate everything about him!!!

Why? Because!, that's why!! I hate him because I read that some other people hate him. Only really smart people know that it makes sense to hate people if you hear someone else say they hate him.

Hate him-hate him-hate him! AHHH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!! WHEEEEEEEEEE!!!! HEY, WHAT ARE THOSE PEOPLE IN WHITE DOING WITH THE NETS???

AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-!!!!!

[sculptor]

03:17 PM on 12/01/2007

Nothing said about Tom Cruise surprises me anymore. For instance, if a tabloid headline blared "Tom Cruise a Cannibal!" I'd think to myself "oh yeah, him." At a certain point strange behavior simply becomes the norm and Tom has certainly past that point with me. Of course, at that point one's perception of the person is changed. Since I found his behavior so abnoxious, for me this translates into avoiding films simply because he is in them. I assume others share these feelings and this probably explains the career arc we are seeing.

[Maeeve]

02:42 PM on 12/01/2007

Doesn't any one remember that L Ron Hubbard began scientology to win a bet with Isaac Asimov? L Ron bet Isaac that he could get some people to believe any bullshit he came up with.

[PaleMail]

06:53 AM on 12/01/2007

Poor Katie. She hooked-up with one weird dude.

[watchingthings]

05:52 AM on 12/01/2007

Tom Cruise needs to take a cruise through a cat 5 hurricane in a 40 ft. boat. If scientology is so good, it will see him safely through anything. He once said anything is possible with scientology if one totally believes in it.

[DrPhreak]

02:40 AM on 12/01/2007

What suprises me is that I've never really heard anyone mention the connection between L Ron and Jack Parsons. Jack was a rocket scientist for JPL back in the mid-century, and was heavily into the occult as well...to the point of personally knowing Aleister Crowley and such. L Ron was his personal scribe, and was pretty deep in that as well. Why hasn't anyone picked up on this and used it against the Scientologists?

"Sarah Elizabeth Northrup (aka 'Betty'), began living with Parsons after his wife, Sarah's half-sister Helen Northrup, left with Wilfred Smith. Sarah Elizabeth Northrup later married L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology and sometime magickal partner of Parsons. Parsons and Hubbard participated in a ritual known as the Babalon Working which is famous in occult circles — loosely, it was an attempt to summon a living goddess and change the course of history. They were aided in this work by Sampson Bennetts of the Rosicrucian Order and his wife Sara Melian Gabriel, a well known spiritualist from India."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons

[Purcy]

11:27 PM on 11/30/2007

Ask me if I care if Tom Cruise pickets ANYONE??? What trivial crap!!!

[kellygrrrl]

09:58 PM on 11/30/2007

Someone let the Powerful Xenu know about the "limb lengthening" procedure.

[felixtkatz]

08:08 PM on 11/30/2007

DOES THE NAME "JUDAS" SOUND FAMILIAR?

[Javani]

07:39 PM on 11/30/2007

Cruise's ecstatic behavior attendant to War of the Worlds goes beyond kissing the director, but all of his appearances related to the movie. Remember his couch jumping? It also coincided with a new openness about his religion, something celebs don't usually talk about much, wisely.

Cruise's ecstasy arose from the subject of the movie. With the aliens buried underground, global destruction, etc., these are close to core creation myths of his religious beliefs, and as the Hollywood/reality division is thin, the film can in a strained way could be said to confirm those beliefs.

I read a rumor that Cruise had the script changed to confirm these myths. Instead of the aliens taking off from Mars and attacking earth like D-Day (remember in Wells' book contemporary astronomers could see the blast-offs on the Martian surface) the alien attackers were buried deep underground long, long ago, likely in the days of Xenu, only to arise millions of years later near the era of L. Ron Hubbard.

[KarenZipdrive]

07:20 PM on 11/30/2007

I didn't like Tom Cruise from the minute I saw him. Tiny men with off-center teeth just don't do it for me.

[fahrenheit451]

06:48 PM on 11/30/2007

Does anyone know of a public-figure $cientologist who isn't seemingly crazy?

Seriously-look at the track record:

Kirstie Alley
Tom Cruise
That Dharma and Greg chick
John Travolta
Isaac Hays (after quitting South Park)

[totalliberal]

06:25 PM on 11/30/2007

The little guy that really "needs" psychiatric help, won't take it.