Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman Stories

On one occasion she was infuriated about a flattering but accurate story in the British tabloids about her shopping habits. She was determined to find out who had leaked the information and ordered all the staff to write what Scientologists call a "knowledge report," outlining any involvement in the incident. Both Tom and Nicole read and re-viewed the statements by the staff before signing off on them. Staff could be forgiven for thinking that it was like being back at school. The culprit was Nicole's personal shopper, who did not face the same strictures as household staff.

All staff members, whether or not they were Scientologists, had to sign an eight-page confidentiality agreement in which they waived their First Amendment rights to free speech. A word out of place, however innocent, to a friend or family member about life on Planet Tom could lead to huge fines and legal fees. If a staff member ever dared reveal all on TV or in print, they faced huge financial penalties—$5 million for each broadcast and $1 million for every newspaper or magazine featuring an interview.

While the internal discipline and endless demands by their employers were irksome, most difficult was the constant transition from friend to employee. The Cruises, particularly Tom, wanted both service and companionship. When people were visiting the house, Tom and Nicole would treat their staff as friends, but as soon as the visitors left they expected them to return to their duties.

Holidays were most difficult, employees trying to do their jobs without looking as if they were working. Even when they had finished for the day, Tom liked his staff to hang around simply in order to have, as he put it, "a warm body in the house." This was a man who hated to be alone for a moment, a man with a desire for companionship that was almost tangible. In that regard his private persona bears remarkable similarities to former President Bill Clinton, brought up by an abusive alcoholic stepfather, who will spend all night carousing and chatting. It seems neither man ever wants to be alone

One question that was always on Tom's lips was, "Where is Nic?" He liked to know where she was and who she was with every second of the day. It was a constant refrain. "Was he a control freak, certainly," recalls one insider. "He was always checking up on Nic especially." In time she bridled under the constant attention—and inquisition.

Yet Tom, as boisterous and noisy as their Labrador puppy, was no match for Nicole's subtle feline skills. Whatever Tom may have wanted, Nicole always got her way in the end. Around Christmas or for her June birthday, for example, she would often consult with art dealer Barbara Guggenheim, the wife of Tom's lawyer Bert Fields, who provided much of the artwork in their home. Nicole was always keen to know about any interesting auctions of paintings or objects d'art and then ensured that her staff kept Tom apprised of what she wanted. She got it, too. Tom was a generous husband, always happy to please the woman he loved. "She was very manipulative," recalls an insider. "He always bowed to what Nic wanted."

If Nicole was traveling, often flying to Australia to see her parents, Tom's mother her or sisters came to stay; or his cousin, actor William Mapother, who had worked as a production assistant on Tom's movies, would hang out. While his mother's generous nature and irrepressible spirit added laughter to the normally subdued household, the arrival or her oldest daughter, Lee Anne DeVette, changed the domestic dynamic.

A few months before the couple adopted Isabella, Tom had hired his elder sister, a fellow Scientologist, to deal with the deluge of press clippings and serve as liaison with charities linked to Scientology. It was not long before Lee Anne, who was seen by others as rather tough and mean-spirited, clashed with Nicole. While Lee Anne, whose two-year marriage had ended in 1981, liked everyone to know that she was Tom's sister—and threw her weight around accordingly—

Nicole treated her with ill-disguised disdain, viewing her as a servant rather than a sister-in-law. It was not long before neither could bear the sight of the other. As one insider said, with emphasis, "Lee Anne hated Nicole. And she had every reason because Nic treated her like a second-class citizen. But she wouldn't stand up to Nic—no one ever did!"

Not that Tom needed much convincing. "Let's go to CC," he often said to Nicole, his shorthand for Celebrity Centre, the Gothic mansion on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood that was a hangout for Scientology stars. Even within the Hollywood elite, Tom and Nicole were special. They had their own private entrance into an underground garage, their own rooms for auditing, and, of course, dedicated waiter service. Scientology, it seemed, was truly an Orwellian faith in which all men were equal, but some were more equal than others. At Gold, in addition to their VIP bungalow and personal chef and butler, Tom had two motorcycles, a Mercedes convertible, and a motor home garaged in the compound, while Nicole had her own private garden

Certainly Tom had every reason to claim expertise about the secret inner workings of his faith. By then he had progressed to what Scientologists call "the Wall of Fire," or Operating Thetan III, where the secrets or the universe according to Hubbard were revealed At that time Scientology's creationist myth was a closely guarded secret, disciples told that the knowledge could prove fatal if they learned about it before they were ready

As Tom read this material, he learned that the next stage of his progress up "the bridge to total freedom" was to clear his body of these thetans......Like many other Scientologists who reach this level, Tom found the knowledge he had just received disturbing and alarming, as he struggled to reconcile the creationist myth with the more practical teachings contained in the lower levels of Scientology. This is not an unusual response.

Former Scientologists recall that, during this difficult time, Tom seemed uncharacteristically dazed and out of sorts, with dark rings round his eyes. "He went from a firecracker to a wet noodle," said one insider. It was recalled that around this time relations became "ugly" between David Miscavige and the Hollywood actor, Tom complaining that he had studied all these years and the whole faith was about space aliens.

The Queen and the Beard. Ancient history. Awful couple.

He was treated with kid gloves, carefully wooed back into the fold. A team of senior Scientologists worked diligently to "recover" him, calling the actor into the president's office at Celebrity Centre in Hollywood for auditing and counseling.

Whatever doubts Tom had, they did not seem to last too long; the actor has been described by his Scientology mentors as a "dedicated and intense" student. There was, however, a question mark about how sincere he was, a sneaking suspicion that he was reading a line from a film script rather than being himself. Longtime Scientologist Bruce Hines, who audited numerous celebrities, including John Travolta, recalls: "My sense was that he was just acting rather than being genuine." He was not the first, nor the last, to come away from an encounter with Tom wondering if his whole life was just an elaborate act.

During the heady first months of her romance with Tom, the Australian sailed through the entry-level courses of Scientology, reaching the level of Operating Thetan II. Not only had she learned how to self-audit, she was seen as a candidate to go through the Wall of Fire, to be admitted into the inner sanctum. Yet she hesitated, citing film commitments. Even though she was shooting the bittersweet drama My Life in spring 1993, David Miscavige wanted to probe her explanation a little further.

During the twenty-minute question-and-answer session with Hines, Nicole made it clear that she was perfectly happy and nothing was bothering her. Nor did she give the impression that she was hiding anything, either verbally or while using the E meter. When he proffered his report, saying that there was nothing wrong with her, Hines was accused of making a mistake and punished for failing to find a problem. It was clear that the point of the session had not been to help Nicole, but to find any difficulty to use as an excuse to "handle" her and pull her back into the fold.

As Hines now recalls, "They must've been concerned because from this point she started to drop out of Scientology. Obviously they blamed it on me. All they could say was that I didn't ask the questions right. And I still to this day don't think I made a mistake." While Scientology teaches that we are all responsible for our own actions, that clearly does not apply to celebrities

..........Even though Nicole was struggling to establish herself as an actress in her own right, on occasion she behaved like a full-fledged Hollywood diva. Ir the jet wasn't stocked with beluga caviar and all the trimmings, she appeared deeply irritated, exhibiting a jaded petulance that seems to be the prerogative of the super-rich—or immensely talented. Perhaps her attitude was born of frustration that her acting career was in a slump. At this stage Nicole was mostly known for her supporting role as Mrs. Cruise, rather than enjoying the spotlight in her own right.

Eyes Wide Shut :

When filming started in November 1996 at Pinewood Studios outside London, Kubrick, then sixty-eight, became the third wheel in the lives of Tom and Nicole, a delicately invasive and controlling presence in their work and marriage, which soon became one and the same. Kubrick worked with the couple separately, forbidding them to compare notes or discuss the movie when they were alone...

This intimacy inevitably changed the dynamics between man and wife, actors and director. While Kubrick encouraged the couple to come up with their own ideas for scenes, he seemed to indulge Nicole far more than Tom, jotting down her ad-libs and accepting her choice of music, Chris Isaak's "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing," for a sex scene between them. He described Nicole as a "thoroughbred" and Tom as a "roller coaster."

There remained the suspicion that, for all the mutual admiration, there was an element of humiliation involved in Kubrick's treatment of Tom. While Frederic Raphael recognizes but does not endorse the argument, he concedes that for Kubrick "breaking people and feeding them into his machine was maybe a reflex he could not resist." When Kubrick was rewriting the script, he would often fax Tom pages in the middle of the night, ensuring that his leading man was living his life according to the director's body clock.

Or when Kubrick filmed a scene in which Tom's character was knocked to the ground by a gang of drunken college louts who accused him of being gay, was this a wink to the audience being aware of the rumors circulating about the actor? Even Raphael is not sure, noting that in the novel the chanting youths accuse the doctor of being Jewish. It was Kubrick who changed the insult.

This ambiguous relationship played out most explicitly when Kubrick filmed the sex scenes involving Nicole and her navy lover. Noticeably, the six-day shoot was the only time in the marathon production that Tom was definitely not needed on set. Not so his scriptwriter. In a knowing aside, Kubrick told Raphael that Nicole had agreed to take off her clothes and he would be filming on a closed set for the next few days. "Might be a good day to happen to drop by the studio, if you wanted to," he told him. Raphael declined, feeling that it would be "cheap" to take advantage of the situation

The man chosen to play the lover of Alice's dreams was Gary Goba, a twenty-nine-year-old Canadian model who had never acted before. When he auditioned, he thought it was for the job of an extra who would be wearing a naval officer's uniform. Instead, in December 1997, he found himself naked on the closed set in front of an equally naked Nicole Kidman.

Over the next few days, with barely an introduction, the two strangers performed fifty or so sexual positions, with Kubrick filming from the shadows all the while. The director wanted his naked star to explore every sex act, apart from oral sex, which he dismissed as a cinematic cliche.

"We just tried to do stuff that we had never ever seen before in movies," recalled Goba. "Sometimes she would come up with an idea or I would or Stanley would." In the scene that actually made it into the movie, Nicole is lying on her back wearing a summer dress while Goba caresses her and lifts her dress over her breasts to reveal her body. "Leave [the dress] up there and have those hands continue on down, and, like, grab her tits, kiss them if you want, hands all the way down her body and end up between her legs," said the director.

Goba, trying to be sensitive to Nicole, rested his hand on her thigh, knowing that it could make little difference to Stanley, as her other leg was shielding what his hand might actually be doing from the camera anyway. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Gary, you've got to get right in there!" Kubrick instructed.

"I couldn't believe it," says Goba. "I just couldn't believe it. I think he was having fun with it. It was a joke for him, but I think he went a little far for her because as the days went on, she would be like, 'Okay, cut!' Like this is getting too intimate, but he just let it go. It was like he was trying to have things done to piss her off—or the opposite. It was weird. He was laughing. He thought it was so funny."

It was as if he were enjoying the relentless humiliation of another man's wife—and the unspoken emasculation of her husband—by playing out explicit scenes that would inevitably end up on the cutting room floor.

In one scenario, Nicole had a wig glued over her private parts and Kubrick ordered Goba to perform oral sex on her. "He really wanted me to go for it," recalls Goba. "I did and he was like, 'You've got to really push in there and really move your head around,' and I'd see him laughing and she would be like, 'Oh God, Stanley!' So I was really grinding away in there, with my mouth on her patch—and there was hair in my mouth, too, and I'd be pulling one out."

As Nicole's biographer James L. Dickerson caustically observed, 'The most damning evidence against Kubrick lies in the relentless manner in which he pursued the sex scenes between Nicole and Gary Goba. He asked Nicole to do things that he knew damned well would never make it onto film. It was abusive behavior cloaked in a mantle of professional necessity."

While Nicole is not so censorious, she concedes that she only allowed herself to be used in this way for Kubrick. "He didn't exploit me. I certainly wouldn't have done it for any other director and, yes, it was a little difficult to go home to my husband afterward." It seems that when she did go home, she did not say much about the day job— as per Kubrick's standing instructions.

Only after he saw the finished movie a year or so later was Tom aware of some of the intimate scenes played out between his wife and Goba. "Yeah, who the fuck was that guy?" he later said to USA Today. (The newspaper removed the expletive.)

Cracks were beginning to appear in the marriage. Nicole bridled more and more at Toms controlling behavior, finding fault in everything he did for her. His constant love notes became irritating, the endless gifts of flowers a bore.

Romantic gestures like spontaneously taking her to their favorite London restaurant, the Ivy, or for a weekend away to the Cipriani Hotel in Venice with dinner at Harry's Bar no longer made her heart sing. "She was an unhappy wife," noted an associate. "She was constantly wrestling with the fact that she did not love him anymore."

For his part, the more he tried to woo her with gifts, the more she pulled away. 'There came a point where nothing Tom did pleased her," recalls an associate. 'Tom adored Nic. I have never known a man who was so loving and giving. But that love was not reciprocated by Nic."

Nicole's disgruntlement with her husband was increasingly played out through their friends. For example, Tom's buddy Emilio Estevez, best man for his first marriage, was no longer as welcome as he once was, and on the odd occasions Tom saw his old school friend Michael LaForte and his wife, Fran, Nicole seemed ill at ease and distracted, as though the rough-talking New Jerseyan was not quite socially acceptable.

However, in the company of her girlfriends like actors Naomi Watts and Rebecca Riggs, she was a different person, smiling, relaxed, and full of fun, happy to sing and dance the night away at places like the Buffalo Club in Santa Monica. Curiously, if she went out on her own, she would often take the couple's driver Dave Garris, who had worked for them since Days of Thundery along for company. If they went to the movies, she would even allow Garris, who has been described as a Tom Cruise wannabe, to choose the film they were going to see.

As she pulled away from Tom, by necessity Nicole became much less involved with the children's upbringing than her husband. When she was away filming or, increasingly, flying to Sydney to spend time with her parents and sister, it could be days before she would phone to see how Isabella and Connor were coping. Those who saw the family close up concluded that Tom was much more comfortable and enthusiastic as a parent. The actor was in constant—and controlling— touch with the youngsters and their nannies no matter how busy he was.

In keeping with Hubbard's theory that children were small adults, Tom never babied his children, striking a balance between mentoring and nurturing. Unsurprisingly, Tom was an energetic, noisy dad, always chasing, joshing, playing with the children, his hearty laugh echoing through the normally quiet house. Thankfully, after a stage in which Connor gave Bella terrible bites, the youngsters bonded, Tom appreciating the differences in their characters: Connor bright but mischievous, Bella assertive but playing by the rules. As soon as Connor was walking and talking, Tom took him off on boys' adventures..

When Nicole won a leading role in the comedy Practical Magic, it came as no surprise that she left the children with Tom in London while she flew to Los Angeles in January 1998 to rehearse her part. A couple of weeks after beginning work, she was rushed to the hospital for surgery to remove what was officially described as a benign ovarian cyst. Given that her mother had a history of breast cancer and that Nicole had her own gynecological difficulties, it was a worrying time, Tom flying out to the West Coast to be at his wife's side. She recovered sufficiently to continue work on the movie

An illicitly recorded telephone conversation between the increasingly distant couple, published in March 1998, gave the world an insight into their fractious marriage.

Celebrity photographer Eric Ford, who recorded the conversation, was subsequently fined and jailed, but in the meantime everyone could listen in to the Cruises uncut and in private. Away from the glamour and smiles of the red carpet, they were revealed as a tired and spoiled married couple getting tetchy with each other. During the chat, made on a car phone, Tom is clearly more conciliatory, Nicole unwilling to be soothed. Noticeably, the love notes and flowers are now weapons in a war of emotional attrition rather than tokens of affection

Others who witnessed Tom and Nicole's daily life were more frank. "To me," says an associate, "their marriage wasn't a 'happy marriage,' but it was one that had found a certain groove, and they went with it. Tom chased after Nicole, who was always unobtainable, and that cycle continued. I think he was in love with her up until the end, but that she had grown out of love with him and was unhappy in the marriage. She seemed so much more mature than he was. He's a jock; a guy's guy. He isn't sophisticated. She is. I believe she loved him when she met him, but she outgrew him. He seemed happier in the marriage than she was and she was always finding fault with everything."

It was not just her husband she found fault with. Nicole often seemed bored or disenchanted with her life as a Hollywood star, expecting a luxurious lifestyle as her birthright. During publicity for Practical Magic in the fall of 1998, Warner Bros, arranged for a private G5 jet to ferry her around. It was, as far as she was concerned, a given, not a privilege. "She had no sense of wonderment about the world," recalls an associate. "So many wonderful things happened to her, but she had an enduring sense ol boredom like some 1920s dapper. She never delighted in anything.*'

Whatever the state of their marriage, that summer was artistic business as usual—Tom working on the money-spinning blockbusters, Nicole choosing low-paying art projects. When Tom finally finished work on Eyes Wide Shut in June 1998, the couple decided to stay on in London, renting another luxurious house in central London. Tom worked on preproduction for a sequel to Mission: Impossible, which was scheduled to be filmed in Australia, while Nicole tried her hand at the theater, earning a modest five hundred dollars a week to star in The Blue Room at the fashionable Donmar Warehouse Theatre.

She would play five characters, ranging from a Cockney harlot and a politician's mistress to an unfaithful wife. The role involved simulating sex five times and appearing naked, albeit briefly, in front of the audience. Nor was Nicole the only one to take her clothes off; her costar, Iain Glen, had to perform a naked cartwheel across the stage each night

In public, both Nicole and her stage partner Iain Glen were keen to emphasize that their respective partners—Glen was married at that time to actress Susannah Harker—were "secure" about watching them have sex onstage. Tom was so "secure," in fact, that he came to see the play more than twenty times. Perhaps he was wholly admiring of his wife's work and absolutely comfortable watching her act out having sex with Iain Glen over and over again.

Certainly Glen, who first met Tom when he watched them perform the play at a preview, implied that they were all mates together. "He was such an extraordinary bundle of brilliant, positive energy. You couldn't have a more enthusiastic and generous person as a friend."

Behind the scenes, it wasn't quite so convivial. The handsome Scotsman, who was considered for the role of James Bond, was a talented stage and film veteran who refused to be impressed by Tom's achievements. Glen, who was the same age as the Hollywood star but six inches taller, looked down on Tom, belittling his ability while flirting with his wife.

The general consensus of those in Tom's circle was that the Hollywood actor was pleasant to the Scottish thespian—but only through gritted teeth. "Tom and he did not get on, whereas there was real chemistry between Iain and Nicole. She always laughed at his jokes." Those who watched the trio in action could not help but admire Tom's sangfroid in the face of considerable provocation. As one associate said bluntly, "Iain Glen was a dick who had no respect for Tom and who would openly flirt with Nicole. Tom refused to show any agitation, as he was a real gentleman."

Nicole, who reveled in the adrenaline-fueled rush after nightly performances, hanging out until the early hours at the members-only Soho Club, chatting, laughing, and carousing. For the first time in their marriage, rumors and whispers raced around London about Nicole, claiming that she and Iain were involved in a passionate offstage romance. The gossip was hardly helped by Glen's breezy attitude in interviews.

Once the play finished its London run at the end of October, Nicole and Iain flew to New York, where the show was scheduled to open on Broadway in mid-December.

Unlike his counterpart, Iain Glen was not used to walking the red carpet or, for that matter, wearing a suit. So Nicole arranged for the fashion house Prada to lend him a suit and pair of shoes for the big occasion. When he demurred about sending them back, Nicole generously bought them for him. Her largesse extended to inviting Iain, his wife, Susannah Harker, and their child to Telluride for Thanksgiving, as well as flying them to Sydney to join her family for the millennium celebrations.

Although Tom played the gracious host, Glen's constant put-downs and disrespect infuriated him. If it had been his choice, they would never have been invited in the first place.

As with Kubrick, Tom was all about putting on a show. Tom would regularly visit Nicole backstage, though it was noted that there was little conversation or other interaction between them when they were alone. As soon as photographers were around, it was camera, lights, action, the couple kissing, canoodling, and pawing each other to the point where observers were thinking, "Just get a room." Once the photographers were gone, the emotional lights went off and the couple reverted to their normal world of silence and distance

In early 1999, Tom received an invitation he could not refuse. It was from Scientology executives, politely requesting that he undertake the rigors of what is known as the Potential Trouble Source/Suppressive Person course. The course is designed to anchor an individual's faith while pinpointing those in his life who create problems and difficulties—Suppressive Persons, who stop a Scientologist from achieving "wins" on his journey up the bridge. The Potential Trouble Source in the sights of the Scientology hierarchy was Nicole Kidman.

Alarm bells had been ringing ever since they had read a December 1998 interview in Newsweek, where she described her faith: "There's a little Buddhism, a little Scientology," she said. "I was raised Catholic and a big part of me is still a Catholic girl." That was not good enough. Not only was she married to one of Scientology's poster boys, but her father was a psychologist, which automatically made her a Potential Trouble Source. Even though, as a celebrity, Nicole was treated with kid gloves by Scientology leaders, the storm clouds were gathering.

Shortly after Kidman's Newsweek interview, senior Scientology leaders, including David Miscavige, Ray Mithoff, and others, discussed their strategy to keep Tom firmly in the fold. The fear was that a lukewarm Nicole could fatally compromise Tom's commitment to his faith

In early 1999, Tom dutifully attended rigorous auditing sessions with Marty Rathbun, Scientology's inspector general.

Tongues were kept wagging that same month when Nicole gave an interview to writer Tom Junod, who had flown to Sydney, where she was rehearsing; Moulin Rouge while Tom, also in Australia, worked on Mission: Impossible II Clearlv she enjoyed Junod's company, taking him around to local bars, showing him the Svdnev Harbor bridge, which her grandfather had helped build, and ending up in his hotel bed with Junod, fully clothed, next to her.

Just then the phone rang; it was Tom seeking the whereabouts or his wife, as the children were waiting tor her in a Chinese restaurant. ..Nicole to interject with, "I'm afraid so, darling. I'm afraid I'm right in his bed at this very moment."

While Junod insisted he had only been enjoying a "flirtation," it was perhaps a sign or his security that Tom, who had seen his wife make love onstage with a man he didn't particularly like and have sex with a complete stranger for six days straight, seemed to take the unusual news in his stride. In fact, he singled out Nicole for special praise when he accepted his Best Supporting Actor award for Magnolia at the Golden Globe awards ceremony in Hollywood. "Her generosity, her support, her sacrifices, her talent—she inspires me," he told the audience.

Nicole's sister, Antonia, was bv his side when he walked the red car-pet, as Nicole was busy filming Moulin Rouge. During the lengthy shoot, rumors inevitably circulated that Nicole was having an affair with her new leading man, another Scotsman, Ewan McGregor. The fact that she got on equally famously with his wife, Eve, and that Tom was on set as much as his schedule allowed, to see his wife and children, was lost in the shuffle.

Indeed, Connor and Bella became used to seeing their mother, dressed in high heels, fishnet stockings, and a tight corset, making them supper in their trailer in between rehearsing her song and dance routines. Notably, even though Tom insisted on filming Mission: Impossible II in Australia so that he could be close to his wife, no one recalled her ever visiting him on set.

Nicole remained his elusive object of desire, playing a role on film, and perhaps in life

There was a price to pay. The long and intense rehearsals took their toll, Nicole twice cracking a rib during a dance sequence and then, in April 2000, badly tearing some knee cartilage. She flew to Los Angeles, where noted surgeon Neal ElAttrache, the handsome brother-in-law of Sylvester Stallone, operated. Nicole saw him frequently afterward for consultations about her injury and the two became friendly.

While Nicole and Tom seemed to be growing apart as a couple, professionally they were more entwined. Nicole signed up for six future projects,. First out of the blocks, though, was The Others. As executive producer, Tom cast his wire as the lead in his latest project,

It is a creepy, disturbing film, and Nicole, still enjoying the afterglow of Moulin Rouge, rebelled. Her husband insisted that she set her doubts aside. It was a shrewd decision, Nicole giving one of her best, and possibly most revealing, screen performances as an obsessive and overwrought mother.

As her biographer James Dickerson perceptively noted, How odd it was that Tom would choose this story for Nicole, for, in its own way, it seemed to mirror their marriage, down to the smallest detail." It was a sentiment Tom agreed with. When he watched her performance as a cold, neurotic, frigid mother who is suffocating yet unkind to her children, he remarked to his circle that she was perfect for the part. It was not said with affection

Suddenly it was over: Out of the blue Tom was gone. She faced the new year—and the rest of her life—without the man she thought loved her beyond measure. Yet the husband who had once smothered her in red roses, love notes, and adoration did not tell her face-to-face, , that their ten-year marriage was over. Nicole learned that she had been written out of the script of Tom's life from a go-between, his lawyer.

The parting in the first weeks of 2001 was blunt, brutal, and businesslike. No mess, no fuss. Now she knew what Mimi Rogers must have felt like. As one of his first lovers, Diane Van Zoeren, had put it, "When he was done with you, he was done with you." Tom in love—or in love with the idea of being in love—and Tom out of love were stark opposites.

While Nicole was away from their home at Pacific Palisades, a moving van took away all his personal belongings, the actor hiring five cottages at a Beverly Hills hotel for himself and his entourage.

As Nicole sat in her study, twisting a white handkerchief sodden with tears and rubbing her knee injured during the filming of Moulin Rouge, the telephone on her desk was a mute, reproachful reminder of what she had lost. She might have resented her life in a cocoon of caviar and control, might have pulled away from her husband, but this sudden rupture tore at her heart and her spirit.

With the dawning of 2001, it certainly seemed that her days in Hollywood were numbered. If the exodus of staff and friends was not enough of a clue, the belligerence of Tom's lawyers expunged any doubts. They told her she would never make another movie and recommended she buy a one-way ticket back to Sydney. She knew they were projecting the anger of their client; hell had no fury like a scorned Tom Cruise. Meanwhile, the mass media screeched with stories for the split and speculated that she had had dalliances with other men.

Things got worse when the shock jock Howard Stern announced that Tom had hired the notorious private investigator Tony Pellicano, known as the "celebrities' thug," to investigate Nicole's behavior.

Perhaps it all began in the summer of 2000, as Tom sat through a private screening of the Spanish movie Abre los ojos, about the relationship between Sofia, a beautiful dancer, and a rich publishing tycoon. As with Nicole ten years before, he was enticed by the screen presence of the leading lady, twenty-seven-year-old Penelope Cruz. As he watched the title credits, he was on his cell phone trying to buy the rights to remake the film in English. Later that summer, when he met the film's director and screenwriter Alejandro Amenabar in New York, Tom said that he wanted Cruz to reprise her role for the English version, to be called Vanilla Sky.

.......While Tom was filming Vanilla Sky in New York, Nicole completed work on The Others and returned to the U.S. from Spain just before Christmas. In spite of their hectic filming schedules, the couple was together to celebrate Paula Wagner's fifty-fourth birthday in New York on December 20. Guests reported that as Tom moved from table to table, laughing with friends and signing menus, a silent and sullen Nicole sat on her own, making little effort to speak to other revelers

From this date forth, Tom's story and the actual events differ markedly. In his court filing, Tom claimed that the couple separated in December 2000, presumably while Nicole was in Spain finishing filming. His camp made it clear that they went their separate ways on December 21, the day after Paula Wagner's birthday party and the day before their daughter Bella's seventh birthday. (It was thought, wrongly, that his choice of separation dates was influenced by California law, where a marriage lasting ten years or more is classified as a "lengthy" union. While a "lengthy" marriage ruling can affect the size of alimony payments, it does not affect the division of assets. California is one of nine "community property" states where from day one of the marriage all assets are split equally. With houses around the world, private jets, and a reputed $450 million fortune to be split fifty-fifty, alimony was never going to be an issue for Tom and Nicole.)

On the day that Tom says they separated, they flew home to Hollywood. A couple of days later, on Christmas Eve, they hosted an intimate party at their Pacific Palisades home to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary. By the accounts of those present, both Tom and Nicole, given their private heartache, put on Oscar-worthy performances, dancing to their favorite songs and gazing lovingly into each other's eyes.

They were even said to have renewed their wedding vows during the evening While this may be open to question, what is incontestable is that the Cruise entourage then decamped to Las Vegas for the Christmas holidays. Tom even arranged for the Big Shot ride at the Stratosphere Hotel to stay open late so that Nicole and the others could enjoy the thrilling experience.

Just to confuse matters further, at the time Tom said that they had separated, Nicole later claimed that they had sex and she conceived a child. Finally, if Tom paid a lawyer to tell her their marriage was over in December, why was he in her company at all during Christmas?

As soon as the family returned from Las Vegas, Tom was back on the set of Vanilla Sky, now filming in Hollywood. It did not take long for the media to get wind of the couple's troubles, especially as Tom had now moved into a hotel. Their behavior at the Golden Globes ceremony in Hollywood on January 21 gave the gossip further credence. Both Tom and Nicole presented awards at the ceremony, but they arrived in separate cars, Nicole escorted by her father, Antony, and sat at separate tables.

With the National Enquirer about to break the story, publicist Pat Kingsley issued a statement on February 5 confirming that the marriage was over.

Tom refused to consider any kind of marriage guidance or counseling—not even the Scientology counseling he and Mimi Rogers had gone through at the end or their brier marriage.

Two days after the media announcement, Tom filed for divorce in the L.A. Superior Court, citing "irreconcilable differences" and stating, "I do not believe professional counseling or the assistance of any mental health professional, lapse of time, or any other factor will change this breakdown." Publicly, he remained tight-lipped about the breakdown. "Nicole knows why" was all he would say

Meanwhile, Nicole was suffering, barely able to leave their home. She had started working on a new film, Panic Room, in mid-January, but dropped out within the month, ostensibly because of her knee injury. "Even though there were strains," said Nicole's friend, Australian director John Duigan, "the final breach was sudden and jarring."

Nicole was sufficiently aware of Pellicano's bullying reputation to ask her lawyer Bill Beslow, a New Yorker who had handled divorces for Mia Farrow, Tatum O'Neal, and Sarah, the Duchess of York, for advice. He recommended that she bring in her own man to handle countermeasures. So it was that Richard DiSabatino, a Hollywood private eye who first got into the business

On a subsequent visit he swept her phones and installed an encryption device so that she couldn't be wiretapped. "'We tried to keep one step ahead," he recalls. Realizing that Pellicano was a resourceful opponent, however, Nicole would say things during phone conversations with friends and family like "Tom, are you listening?" or "Am I saying what you want me to say, Tom?"

For all her bravado, this was a woman on the edge. She was bruised, angry, but above all bewildered, obsessed with the reasons behind Tom's rapid exit from her life.

Not only had she been informed by an associate that the marriage was over, but when she called him in January to ask him why, all he would say was, "You know why." He repeated his mantra even when she yelled at him: "You fucking bastard, don't you realize I'm pregnant?"

She pleaded with DiSabatino to find out why her husband had left her, adamant that he was the father of her child. DiSabatino was blunt, telling her that if Tom wasn't going to tell his own wife, he had no chance even if he tied him down and tortured him. "Even then you only have a fifty-fifty chance of success of getting information out of Tom," he said.

With Pellicano digging for dirt, DiSabatino needed to know if there were any skeletons in his client's sexual cupboard. He sat her down and asked Nicole point-blank if she had been fooling around with another man. "She looked me in the eyes and said absolutely not," he recalls. She admitted that the only person who came close to any type of inappropriate relationship during their marriage was the actor Iain Glen and that "Tom had known all about it."

Meanwhile a parade of men—and often their partners—publicly denied any romantic attachment to the Australian star. A persistent rumor concerned her Moulin Rouge costar, Ewan McGregor. "I can't believe people are saying there was something going on between us," Nicole said. "Ewan is a lovely guy and he's a friend. We spent a long time on Moulin Rouge. During all that time Ewan's wife, Eve, was there and she's a mate of mine. It's absolutely crazy."

Another candidate was Nicole's close friend Australian actor Russell Crowe, because Tom had reportedly been angry to discover a series of e-mails between them.

Of more interest to Hollywood insiders was her friendship with orthopedic surgeon Neal ElAttrache. ElAttrache was married to actress Tricia Flavin, whose sister Jennifer was Sylvester Stallone's wife, After tearing her cartilage during the filming of Moulin Rouge, Nicole began treatment at the clinic in May 2000, returning often for physical therapy.

There were rumors all over Hollywood that ElAttrache had become overly friendly with the injured actress.

In March 2001, Stallone contacted journalist and former NYPD detective John Connolly, who had just published an article in Premiere magazine about allegations of sexual harassment against Arnold Schwarzenegger, now governor of California. Stallone, who loathes the former bodybuilder, was eager to hear more unpublished scuttlebutt about Schwarzenegger and offered inside information on his brother-in-law's friendship with Nicole Kidman in exchange. "It didn't come off," says Connolly. "It was all getting too crazy and I didn't want to get stuck in the middle."

The debate about the father of Nicole's child soon became academic. On March 16 she was rushed to the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women's Health Center, suffering from heavy bleeding and sharp abdominal pains similar to those she had experienced with her ectopic pregnancy a decade earlier. Doctors told her that she was about three months pregnant but had miscarried; in fact, without Nicole realizing it, the fetus had died several weeks earlier.

Nicole phoned Tom to break the news. He sent flowers but did not visit her in the hospital

Shrewdly,DiSabatino advised her to save some of the fetal tissue in case DNA tests were ever needed to prove the baby's paternity. A story was leaked to the National Enquirer about her decision to store the DNA.

It was a brilliant move, putting Tom's camp in a no-win position. In order for Tom to refute Nicole's version of events, he would have to take her to court to prove that the "World's Sexiest Man" was not the father of his wife's child. Even Pellicano, who had a soft spot for Nicole even though he was working against her, acknowledged that Tom had been outmaneuvered

As Nicole reconnected with Catholicism, she feared that Scientology would attempt to discredit her. If she needed any reminder of the danger, a story in the National Enquirer said that Nicole had made a number of taped confessions during her Scientology auditing sessions in which "she bared her soul" and suggested that these personal details might be used against her

Soon the red roses and love notes that he had once showered on Nicole started arriving for Penelope, who much preferred his thoughtful, seemingly spontaneous gestures to lavish presents of jewelry. "Penelope is someone to whom gifts don't mean a lot," Tom said later. "She doesn't really want jewelry or big gifts. She likes written notes and a letter or a phone call at a particular time while she's away."

As in the early days of his romance with Nicole, Tom kept his new love in the background until his divorce was finalized.

By April, Nicole was ready to throw in the towel. According to DiSabatino, "Nicole was talking about settling. Tom gave her a figure that was half of what she eventually got. She called me over to the house and said she was going to settle. I begged with her not to settle for that price—if she hung in there she would get so much more." In the end, wiser counsels prevailed and she decided to wait.

In July he took a break from filming his latest movie, Minority Report, directed by his friend Steven Spielberg, to fly her on board his private plane—now named Sweet Bella rather than Sweet Nic —to a private island near Fiji in the South Pacific. Originally the island's owner, Canadian entrepreneur David Gilmour, had offered the private use of the Wakaya Club resort to Tom and Nicole— As it was, Nicole and her children, as well as her friend actor Russell Crowe used the resort for the first week, Bella and Connor staying on to join their father and Penelope Cruz for a further two weeks.

Penelope's arrival certainly surprised Nicole, the actress later complaining to a friend, "He flat-out swore to me up and down that there was nothing going on. He obviously had her waiting in the wings."

A few weeks later their Finances were settled, Nicole winning twice the original otter. While he retained their compound in Colorado, Nicole kept the houses in Pacific Palisades and Sydney, Australia.

It was a relief, too, for Penelope, who could now appear in public with her lover. First, though, she wanted him to meet the other man in her life, flying her father, Eduardo, to Los Angeles to see her and Tom. For all her spiritual exploration, Penelope was very family oriented, and her father's approval was important to her.

As for Penelope, she was delighted, as Nicole had been a decade earlier, that she no longer had to be kept in the shadows. As her personal assistant Kira Sanchez said, "Penelope has told her friends she's mighty relieved it's all out in the open. She told Tom she didn't like skulking around."

On November 16, 2001, Tom sealed the final financial settlement in his divorce with Nicole. He was now working from a fresh slate, withdrawing into the intimacy and security of his own family and the family of Scientology. His sisters and their children moved into his new Hollywood home; his mother was a regular visitor, and, in time, like Penelope, would start taking courses at the Celebrity Centre.

While Penelope studiously read Scientology texts, attended auditing courses, and, according to at least one report, even took the Purification Rundown, she was never entirely committed. "I have great respect for all religions, but I do not intend to join any of them at the moment," she said tactfully. She did, however, join Tom's diplomatic mission to spread the Scientology gospel in Europe and was by his side during his lobbying campaign in Washington during the summer of 2003.

It seems that Eduardo Cruz became increasingly alarmed by his treasured daughter's involvement with a group that concerned the Spanish government. he spent time trawling the Internet for information about Scientology but did not know where to turn for advice. He was concerned that his famous daughter could be drawn into what he considered a cult—and, like so many others, be lost to him and his family forever.

Eventually he e-mailed an organization devoted to helping cult members and their families. It was only after a long exchange of correspondence that officials realized that they were dealing with Penelope Cruz's father.

Whatever family sentiment—or disapproval—was expressed about Penelopes attachment to Tom Cruise and Scientology, it became immaterial in December 2003. While Penelope was filming the Italian movie No?i ti muovere, her father suffered a heart attack, his daughter rushing to his bedside in Madrid. The six weeks she spent in Spain as her father recuperated seem to have grounded her again in her family and her Catholic faith.

In the new year she was noticeably absent when Tom attended the Golden Globes, where he was nominated for his performance in The Last Samurai, The couple announced their breakup in March 2004.

They had zero sexual chemistry in "Eyes Wide Shut." Yeah, they were SO in love and sexually attracted to each other.

Thankyou book troll. Have missed you. Hope you are well.

If this account is remotely accurate I wonder when Tom had any time to do gay stuff. Again, if this is accurate, Tom might have had a masseur or a trainer who provided extras ... but so what ? His life was overwhelmingly straight. I think if there was anything negative that Nicole could have leaked she would have indeed done so during or after the divorce ...

Stunning actress Sofia Vergara was shooting the final scenes of a bloody family revenge movie, Four Brothers. While on the set with former boyfriend Mark Wahlberg, the Colombian-born model received an intriguing invitation to join actor Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, at the pre-Oscar party they were hosting in Los Angeles.

On a balmy Tuesday evening in February 2005, Sofia walked up the steps of the Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art, where the party was already under way. She was wearing a black-and-white print silk dress and chunky turquoise jewelry that offset her olive skin and dark hair, but even more striking than her looks was the absence of a man on her arm.

Tom Cruise arrived as part or a perplexing trio, making his entrance alongside his former girlfriend, Penelope Cruz, and her new boyfriend, actor Matthew McConaughey. Cruise was smiling and waving patiently as Penelope showed Matthew off to the cameras. Hollywood heartthrob Tom Cruise without a date: Now, that was a story. It was not, however, a story that would last for long. There was a plan in place. Inside the party, Tom had eyes only for one person: Sofia Vergara. As soon as he spotted the Colombian beauty, he left Penelope and Matthew and introduced himself. He was charming and friendly, frequently flashing his famous megawatt smile.

Caught up in the moment, she accepted his invitation to go for coffee at Jerry's Famous Deli in Hollywood. It was a classic late-night celebrity hangout, Sofia had gone from party outsider to talk of the town.

The next day, Sofia faced a blizzard of phone calls, text messages, and e-mails from the remorselessly romantic Mr. Cruise, who sent her flowers, notes, and chocolates. She was flattered and excited—as were her friends, giggling over his texts and admiring the bouquets he sent her.

Naturally, Vergara's publicist, Karen Tenser, was delighted, eager to see her client's name in the headlines with a star of this magnitude. Sofia was cooler. She took Tom's wooing in her stride, airily dismissing him as "the shortest guy she had ever dated." After all, the shapely Ms. Vergara—at five feet, seven inches the same height as her new beau—had already dated some very eligible bachelors. Her first boyfriend had been Latino superstar Luis Miguel, the South American equivalent of a young Frank Sinatra. Nonetheless, Tom's charm offensive was working.

Sofia agreed to delay her return to Montreal, accepting Tom's offer to hang out at his Hollywood home. She brought her son, Manolo, born when she was eighteen, along, too. Manolo played with Cruise's children, Connor and Isabella, and was thrilled when Tom took him out on the back of his trail bike. If this relationship was going to work, both Tom and Sofia knew that their children would lie at the heart of it.

This book is certainly not flattering to Tom Cruise. Much of this section at least must have been sourced by Kidman or her people. Cruise comes across as a boob and a Scientology toady. Kidman doesn't look so good either but at least she seemed to keep Scientology at arms length and after the divorce she didn't waste any time before she walked away from them.

The interesting story about Tom Cruise isn't that he might be a repressed gay, or that he's self-obsessed movie star who spent oceans of money on himself. Hollywood has a long history of this type of behavior. The real story is his slavish and mindless devotion to Scientology - a toxic and bizarre origination that has almost zero credibility.

It was not long before Cruise casually suggested that Sofia join him on a trip to what he calls "CC," the Celebrity Centre in Hollywood. When she arrived, David Miscavige, the diminutive head of the church, was there to greet her and show her around. He was charming and attentive. She was given some Scientology literature to leaf through. It was a pleasant introduction to the world of Scientology.

But it was on this trip that Sofia realized something else: Tom was never alone. Everywhere he went, he was surrounded by Scientologists. They were at his home, they were in his car, they were at the restaurant. They were never short of smiles, but she found them "powerful and authoritarian."

At the end of February, when she returned to Montreal to complete filming, Cruise bombarded her with calls. He was obsessed with the new woman in his life.

After she flew back to Hollywood in early March 2005, the couple spent every moment together. If they were not at his home, they were at the Celebrity Centre. Sofia even took her mother, Margarita, along for a look around the palatial Scientology mansion. Unlike her daughter, this devout Catholic was not given an armful of literature as she left. All conversion efforts were focused on Sofia—they had been ever since she first met Cruise.

Although they had known each other only for a matter of weeks, the relationship had become so intense that marriage looked like the logical next stage. One friend told me: "She met his children, there is no doubt he was auditioning her for the part of his wife. If she had been interested she would today be the next Mrs. Cruise. Was it going to go further? No doubt about it. He wanted to marry her—that was the idea." The "audition" was going according to plan. Cruise had found a feisty, athletic, adventurous woman.

The winning factor was that she had a child. Vergara had a proven track record; she could provide him with exactly what he was after. They could be together forever—Scientology's poster boy and first lady.

As the days passed, however, Sofia started to connect the dots, and didn't much like the pattern that was emerging. As affectionate and attentive as Tom was, she found his world cloying and suffocating, and was never quite sure if his actions were motivated by passion or were part of a well-practiced performance.

She felt she was being followed or watched and that her phone calls were being monitored. It was as if he and Scientology were trying to take over her life. Certainly her longtime manager, Luis Balaguer, and his team thought their days were numbered, fearing that they would be replaced by management chosen by Cruise.

It was made clear that if their relationship were to continue, she would have to renounce her Catholic faith and convert to Scientology. For Tom, this was supremely important. It would be unacceptable for Hollywood's and Scientology's leading man to be married to anyone other than a member of his faith. "She was fundamentally terrified by Scientology," recalls a friend. "She sincerely believed that she would be struck down by God and burn in hell if she joined. That is what she said." The lighthearted frivolity that had characterized her early discussions with friends was replaced by their genuine concern for her well-being. "Her friends got scared for her," admits one of her close circle.

Sassy, street smart, and obstinate, she proved immune to the blandishments of Cruise and Scientology. Her friend said, "Sofia comes from Colombia, where the women have balls. There is no sense you can control her. If you know her, it makes perfect sense. . . . She had plenty of opportunity to hitch her wagon to Hollywood and to Tom. She is not swayed by that—she is her own person."

Instead of impressing her, all this drove her away. Tom's constant "love bombing"—the endless texts, calls, and e-mails—was too much. She saw it as a performance to serve the higher purpose of his faith.

On Easter weekend—March 27, 2005—she and Tom had arranged to go to Clearwater, the Scientology center in Florida. Instead, she stood him up, packing a bag and "disappearing" for a few days. For five days he left messages and texts, but she resolutely refused to return his calls. Even now, the location is kept secret in case she needs to use the same bolt-hole again.

Sophia admits that she likes Tom as a friend and found their affair "fun," having seen him in action she has a very clear vision of who he is and how he operates. "You have to have respect for his beliefs and trying to get his religion out there in any way possible," notes a close member of Sofia's circle. The bottom line was that she was not prepared to sacrifice herself or her faith to further her career— or to become the next Mrs. Cruise.

Sofia was savvy enough to see the consequences of the game being played. It seems that Tom, for all his protestations of love and affection, saw it as a game, too, albeit a game with high stakes. Even before the blooms on Sofia's flowers from him had faded, Tom was already sending bouquets to a new girl—a wholesome, wide-eyed actress from America's heartland

In early April John Carrabino received a call from the office of Tom Cruise. The request, which came out of the blue, was for a meeting between Hollywood's leading man and Katie Holmes

If her manager was surprised by Tom Cruise's invitation, Katie Holmes was ecstatic. She had dreamt of meeting the Hollywood action man since she was a little girl growing up in Toledo, Ohio, her childhood crush a long-standing family joke. She told her three older sisters that she would marry him someday and live in a beautiful mansion where she would start the day by sliding from her bedroom into her own swimming pool. Even in 1996, when she snagged the part of Joey Potter, a teenage girl growing up in a suburban town, for the hit teen soap Dawson's Creek, her crush continued.

..... her star was rising. That is what probably appealed to Tom. When his office called Katie's manager, they said the meeting would be about work and should take place as soon as possible. They said Tom had been interviewing actresses for weeks in search of a leading lady to play Ethan Hunt's fiancee in Mission: Impossible III. It was Katie's big chance, but she seemed to be one of many, and it did not take long for rumors to start circulating that there was more to this auditioning process than met the eye. It was the choice of candidates that gave rise to this story.

It was said that the list included Jessica Alba, who had split from her fiance the previous year, as well as Kate Bosworth—she, too, had split from her boyfriend, actor Orlando Bloom, back in February. Next was Scarlett Johansson; she was single but had expressed a keen interest in older men. The word among gossip columnists was that Cruise might be looking for more than just a leading lady for a film: There was a gap in his own life that needed filling

Katie Holmes was on the same list as the rest of them. While she may have been excited, Cruise had cast his celebrity net wide. She did fit the bill, but so did many others. What really mattered was whether she passed the test.

As soon as Carrabino called Katie about the meeting, she flew to L.A. from New York, where she had been living. That was around April 11, 2005—less than three weeks after Tom's frantic pursuit of Sofia Vergara. Katie would not be seen again by friends or family for over two weeks. She seemed to have disappeared. The time she spent with Cruise that fortnight was all-transforming. It was the period that separated her from the rest of the women who had tried out for the role.

As with the first meeting between Tom and Nicole Kidman, the connection was immediate and powerful. He took her on her first motorcycle ride, to the beach at Santa Monica. "It was amazing and fast," she recalled later. "I was in love from the moment that I shook his hand for the first time."

As Katie was not cast for Mission: Impossible III, it was clear that she had made a different kind of connection. Soon after their meeting, a limousine filled with chocolates and flowers arrived at Katie's place. In a generous gesture, he apparently had her own car cleaned and repainted. Courtship was something Cruise had mastered—it was only weeks since he had been doing the same thing for Sofia. Just for good measure, he also presented Katie with a copy of a Scientology handbook

Sorry- he's just creepy, candy, love notes, pansies and all.

Their first proper date was a sushi dinner held in one of his parked private jets at Santa Monica airport. It was a taste of things to come— not just because of the luxury, but because they were not alone. Cruise's close circle of Scientology friends joined them throughout the dinner. It is impossible to know exactly who attended—but it is likely the guests included church leader David Miscavige and the tall, watchful figure of Katie's designated new best friend—Jessica Feshbach Rodriguez. Katie would be seeing more of these people than she could possibly have imagined.

It seems that she passed her social audition. Tom was eager to introduce the young actress to his children, Isabella and Connor, who had been playing with Vergara's son, Manolo, a few weeks before. Katie flew back to New York with a sparkle in her eye. A few days later, in a Starbucks on Waverly Place, not far from her SoHo apartment, she was overheard gushing to a friend about her new love. "He introduced me to his kids!" she whispered. "And he's taking me to Rome on a private jet this weekend."

Tom picked Katie up in New York on April 23 and flew her to Italy to stay in the $3,500-per-night suite in the Hotel Hassler in Rome. He had arranged for the double bed to be scattered with red rose petals, He took her to the same restaurant where he and Penelope Cruz had dined just over a year before. They were spotted by the paparazzi. And this became their first appearance as a couple who were head-over-heels in love.

It was a picture that would become very familiar in the following months. Back in the U.S., Sofia Vergara saw the images of Tom and his latest love on television. Only then did she fully recognize her own narrow escape.

Spontaneity was alien to Tom Cruise. He knew about control and command, about calculating and calibrating the odds. There was no risk in his business. As one friend, choosing his words carefully, told me: "He is meticulous and particular. Just like Martha Stewart."

In May 2005, a few weeks into his romance with Katie Holmes, he joined Oprah Winfrey in Chicago for her TV show, ostensibly to publicize his latest movie, War of the Worlds. Tom was an old hand at the publicity circus. Under the glare of the studio lights, he was in charge, affable and jovial but with a reputation for giving away only those personal details he wished to divulge.

As Oprah later observed, "Tom's usually very closed and has his own ideas about what he's going to tell you and not tell you." Oprah was an old hand at this, too, fully accepting her role as cheerleader for his new movie while trying to tease out some tidbits about his latest romance. Months after his marriage to Nicole, for example, the newlyweds had taken a seat on Oprah's sofa and told her how happy they were, while managing to plug their new movie, Far and Away.

Both Oprah and Tom knew the rules of the game. After all, they had been sparring with each other for years, professionally and socially. Indeed, at various times both Tom and her neighbor John Travolta had tried to recruit her to their faith.

Today, though, it seemed as though Tom had thrown away the rule book, leaving Oprah wondering what his game really was.

As soon as he walked into her studio, he put on a performance worthy of that elusive Oscar. In front of an audience of howling, near hysterical women, he dropped to one knee as though the Romeo from New Jersey were about to propose to the astonished talk-show host. He punched the air. He laughed hysterically. He leapt backward onto the couch, which is no mean feat even when not on live TV. Oprah shrieked at him, both in amazement and encouragement as he spoke, at times incoherently, about his new love. As Tom burbled about romance, red roses, and scuba diving, Oprah yelled, "You're gone!" some nineteen times

Oprah had uncovered an uncomfortable fact: Tom had known Katie for only a little over a month. Still, he seemed ready to marry her. Oprah, who had met the couple at her Legends Ball in Santa Barbara two days before the interview, later confessed that Tom's behavior left her mystified. During the interview, she was trying to decide whether this was real affection or a premeditated act. She said, "It was wilder than it was appearing to me. I was just trying to maintain the truth for myself because I couldn't figure out what was going on. I was not buying—not buying. That's why I kept saying 'You're gone, you're really gone.'

Tom's behavior on Oprah set the whole world talking. It was compared to the moment when Michael Jackson dangled his baby son over the edge of a hotel balcony. The phrase "jump the couch" even entered the language; it was named the Slang of the Year by the editors of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, who defined it as 'Tom Cruise-inspired slang meaning to exhibit frenetic or bizarre behavior."

Even if he seemed to be the picture of happiness, it was not normal behavior, certainly not for a man who had given new meaning to the phrase "Cruise control." He had acted out an erratic, uncontrollable, overpowering ecstasy, almost as if he were experiencing a heightened mental state.

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."

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.

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.

It would take a lot or practice to jump backwards onto a couch without without wobbling around. LOTS

I think one of the major sources must be one of Cruise’s ex-Scientology staff.

Rathburn, Katie Holmes’ “best friend” - they have all left the cult.

While the exaggerated gossip burnished the Scientology myth, the cooling friendship between the director and actor was a typical Hollywood tale—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."

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.

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," Their comments were remarkably similar to those of Sofia 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."

r48 Well it's a fun read and an interesting look into the weird and horrible world of Scientology ..

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?

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. , 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.

Lisa's death led not only to a protracted 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.

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 Sofia Vergara had feared would happen to her. Everything that had alarmed Sofia, 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

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.

By late October, Katie Holmes was front row center—she, Tom, and Sea Org disciple Jessica Feshbach Rodriguez guests of honor at the annual Patron Ball at Scientology's British headquarters, Saint Hill Manor. At first glance the black-tie evening seemed like a conventional social occasion. It was only when a video came on showing the violent destruction of the psychiatric profession as part of a campaign of "global demolition" that the zealous nature of the gathering became clear. Katie stood with Tom and applauded wildly as David Miscavige roused his audience with colorful rhetoric about the enemies of Scientology while rattling off rapid-fire statistics about the organization's successes.

It was a baptism of fire for Katie Holmes, who was surrounded by Scientology, completely immersed in it. Days before the Saint Hill event, Katie had severed one of the remaining links with her old life by firing Leslie Sloane-Zelnick, her publicist since the early days of Dawson's Creek. On October 5, Sloane-Zelnick had been replaced by Lee Anne DeVette, who wasted no time in announcing to the world that Katie was pregnant with Tom's child

...when Katie moved in with her fiance, she inherited an instant family, joining his mother, Mary Lee Mapother South, and younger sister, Cass Darmody, and her two children, Liam and Aden, in the sprawling Beverly Hills compound.

In an extraordinary about-face, Tom's mother had abruptly given up everything in 2005 to be with the son she doted on. Not only had she renounced her Catholic faith—she was a Eucharist minister—but also her husband of twenty years, Jack South, and her circle of friends in Marco Island, Florida. As a friend from her local Catholic church observed, "She left her faith and went to Scientology. I'm so sad I can't believe it."

When Tom's younger sister, Cass, went through a divorce in 2004, she and her two children came to live with him. Like her brother, Cass was dyslexic but insisted on homeschooling her two children in Scientology's Applied Scholastics

It was the manner in which she would be giving birth that caused the most comment. Hubbard's followers have adopted a ritual known as a "silent birth,"...............Staff inside Tom's compound needed no reminders of the need for quiet—and discretion. From the moment they were allowed through the high-security gates, they entered a world of controlled calm, with the emphasis on control. Staff were monitored by a German governess, everybody watching everyone else. They were encouraged to remain silent, and if they did speak it was in hushed tones. The daily cleaning crew, which started at dawn and left by eight a.m. so as not to disturb Tom and Katie, was under strict instructions to operate in silence.

The home itself had the feel of a tasteful but anonymous upmarket hotel suite or upscale private hospital. As one insider said, "The place was as quiet as you can get. It was unreal."

At the entrance stood a giant portrait of Tom and Katie, but their closeness in the picture was not reflected in the home. They lived in separate wings, with separate bathrooms, bedrooms, and sitting rooms, Isabella and Connor in their father's quarters. Ostensibly, they slept apart because of Tom's snoring.

..........Katie and Suri had left the hospital, Tom flying his precious cargo to his four-hundred-acre ranch in Telluride, Colorado, for their week of Scientology silence

Martin Holmes, was characterized as fighting a futile rearguard action to protect his daughter's interests. If he couldn't stop her from becoming a Stepford wife, at least he could ensure that she was a wealthy Stepford wife.

By the end of May, Katie's father and Tom had come to a $52 million prenuptial agreement, the deal reportedly ensuring Katie $3 million a year for every year of marriage as well as a $19 million trust fund for his daughter and grandchild whether the marriage went ahead or not. Marty may have lost his daughter, but Katie had gained a small fortune.

In June, as a telling counterpoint to the media madness engulfing Tom, Katie, and baby Suri, Nicole Kidman married country singer Keith Urban in a traditional white wedding in a Catholic church in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia. "For Nicole this is a spiritual homecoming, to the church and her faith," observed Father Paul Coleman, who married the couple. The conventional ceremony drew a line in the spiritual sand, the actress clearly and completely distancing herself from her former dalliance with Scientology,

On November 12, 2006, he and Katie tied the knot legally at a small, private, civil ceremony in Los Angeles. Six days later they married again in a fairy-tale castle in Italy in front of family and Hollywood celebrities while the media, ever the bridesmaid, waited outside........David Miscavige was best man, as he was when Tom married Nicole, and Katie's sister Nancy B lay lock, matron of honor.

After a "simple yet eloquent" twenty-minute Scientology ceremony, Most guests agreed that, apart from the ceremony, the most moving moment was when the blind Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli serenaded the assembled throng, although as a practicing Catholic he declined to attend the Scientology ceremony itself.....

Marty Holmes, put aside any misgivings to declare that his new son-in-law was "the right guy" for his precious daughter.

Later, the newlyweds flew to the Maldives for a scuba-diving honeymoon on board the luxurious yacht of Tom's friend and Scientology convert Jamie Packer.

Tom and Katie spent their first New Year's Eve as a married couple with two thousand other Scientologists at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, applauding enthusiastically as David Miscavige spoke luridly about the "global obliteration" of psychiatry, using "smart bombs" and grenades to exterminate the profession. Once again, comparisons to Nazi rallies sprung to some onlookers' minds

David and Victoria Beckham were obvious candidates, the most high-profile celebrities in Britain, with an avid following in Europe and the Far East. The actor first met England's former soccer captain David Beckham in 2003 after watching him play for his team, Real Madrid, during a visit to the Spanish capital.

More than that, he introduced them to his friend Scientology leader David Miscavige as early as 2004. Just six weeks after Tom and Miscavige opened a new Scientology center in Madrid, Miscavige flew back to Spain to spend time with Posh and Becks and their family. While he knows little about soccer, at the end of October Miscavige gamely sat through a match, watching David's team, Real Madrid, at the Bernabeu stadium in the Spanish capital. He joined David, who was not playing, his mother, Sandra, his wife, Victoria, and their two boys, Romeo and Brooklyn, as well as Tom in a box at the venue.

Tom gave the Beckhams introductory information on his faith. In October 2005, Victoria was seen reading a book, Assists for Illnesses and Injuries, by L. Ron Hubbard. It was thought that she was reading the self-help guide because her son Romeo suffered from epilepsy

For now, David Beckham was being courted not only by Scientology but also by another American conglomerate, Anschutz Entertainment Group, who wanted to lure him to Hollywood to play major league soccer for the Los Angeles Galaxy. When Anschutz finally got their man in the fall of 2006, David telephoned "his wise friend" Tom Cruise for advice, the actor encouraging him to head out west.

While Tom was guiding David's career, Katie was acting on Victoria's fashion tips. In October 2006 the duo went on a girls-only trip to Paris during Fashion Week, appearing in similar or complementing outfits, often chosen by Victoria, who had published a best-selling book of fashion advice, That Extra Half an Inch. They became friends and confidantes, Katie asking her to be her stylist when she did a shoot in December 2006 for the February cover of Harper's Bazaar. Even though Katie has her own fashion ideas—she's a fan of Marc Jacobs and Armani—it was noticeable that when she revamped her hairstyle in spring 2007, she appeared in a bob just like her English friend.

Although she was in love with Tom, the early illusion of romance had long been shattered. She had fallen for an image that had taken shape in her mind when she was a carefree teenager who boasted to her sisters that one day she would marry Tom Cruise. The reality was somewhat different,

Katie and Tom were living the lives of Hollywood royalty, always surrounded by people, never alone. At home there was a team of nannies and governesses to care tor baby Suri, Connor, and Isabella, cooks and housekeepers and gardeners to attend to her every whim.

She could be excused for beginning to feel isolated and alone, living separately from Tom in their new home in Beverly Hills, snatching the occasional hour with him as he focused most of his attention on promoting his film studio and his faith.

In other ways, he was ever-present, constantly phoning to check on her well-being and that of his precious daughter, asking about her sleep patterns and eating habits. The controlling behavior that had rankled with Nicole was now clearly apparent to Katie, who was much less of a prima donna than her predecessor.

Nor did it help that his mother and sister were living with them, the young mother, according to published reports, sometimes feeling constrained and "stifled" by the endless proximity to his relentlessly cheerful mother and his sister and children. She often went shopping in Beverly Hills just to get out of the house and be her own person for a time

While in public with her husband she was all smiles, clinging to his side, in private a rather different Katie was on show. She seemed constantly tired and rather forlorn, as if she were carrying a heavy emotional burden on her slim shoulders.

"Away from the cameras she was a different person," noted a business associate. "I wouldn't call her happy or acting like a woman in love—quite the opposite. She seemed so sad and depressed, not at all like a woman who was just married and looking forward to a new life. Every time I saw her, she was like this, listless and negative, just a very down person."

While baby Suri was an utter delight, it seemed to those who knew Katie that she was having doubts about the path she had embarked upon. With her acting career on the back burner, she appeared miserable, giving the impression that she was somehow now "trapped,"

When she took on her first film role since the birth of Suri, Tom vowed to be by her side during the six-week shoot of Mad Money in Shreveport, Louisiana.

In public, she was the perfect Hollywood wife, putting a brave face on her new life. "I have a husband and children I adore," she said, looking relaxed and happy by Tom's side. When David and Victoria Beckham finally arrived in Los Angeles in July 2007, Katie and Tom were waiting to welcome them with an exclusive A-list party at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The six-hundred-person guest list included cohosts Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, and Jim Carrey. Tom was going all-out to impress his British guests.

While he is clearly "one of the premier American actors of his generation," there is another dimension to Tom's appeal. What you see is not what you get. An actor who makes us feel sate and secure in an uncertain world. Yet his history suggests that the man behind the smile is altogether more edgy and threatening, Steven Spielberg recognized this quality when he directed him in Minority Report.

Spielberg instructed Tom not to smile for the role because he understood the iconography of the Cruise grin. On one occasion he burst into a characteristic smile and Spielberg found himself thinking, "I get it. He has that deliciously, indescribable magic that cannot be analyzed or replicated. He is in every sense a movie star."

He is a man of contradictions: an uncertain child waiting for an undeserved blow from his father, an adult searching for certainty and control. An alpha male who does his own stunts, lest there be a challenge he could not meet, seeking approval from the ghost of his bullying father.

Now a father himself, he clearly loves family life and yet crusades for a faith that routinely sets loved ones against one another.

A romantic who falls in love in a heartbeat and yet walks away without a backward glance. A certain, purposeful presence but a man who hates to be alone.

During a career spanning a quarter of a century, he has played pilot, doctor, secret agent, warrior, assassin, vampire, and war hero. Perhaps the most complex character he has ever played is Tom Cruise himself.

It's weird he didn't share a bedroom with Katie. Maybe he liked to watch porn and make phone calls. Maybe he just wanted some alone time - his life was so very public. Being a superstar must be a wild ride !!

A person can sign a contract saying pretty much anything. Doesn’t mean it’s enforceable.

“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.”

That’s not a contract that is legally enforceable.

Is Elisabeth Moss related to the Mapothers? They look alike.

I'm curious... is Tom like a divine being in their religion?

I wonder how Scientology is doing. Does anyone join anymore? A few years ago journalists were afraid to write stories like one ones on this thread because they would be endlessly sued. Is Scientology still a power to be feared?

Danny Masterson got away with raping 4 women, that story just disappeared completely, so it seems like they still hold quite a bit of power, though not as much as they once did.

Leah Remini has got to have caused problems. Scientology will either fade away or someone big will get indited.

Thanks OP/Book Troll. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

It has somewhat altered my feelings of the various principal characters, though I have yet to think it though enough to make a post of opinion.

Reminds me of the movie "Caught" from 1949.

Poor Barbara Bel Geddes marries wealthy Robert Ryan but her new life is not what she expected.

r68 - my impression also altered. But too much typing for a Friday night (and no one really cares) ...

And some people think that Tom isn't a good actor.

Is it possible to block the word cruise so that any thread that features it disappears forever from your forum view?

The Tami troll’s shellacking of the entire forum with his oily obsession is getting intolerable.

This thread inspired me to watch “Eyes Wide Shut” on Netflix this afternoon. It was worse than I remembered.

Mostly I watched it to see Christiane Kubrick’s paintings, which are prominently displayed in the movie. Gorgeous. And to see LeeLee Sobieski (WHET her? I heard she’s a professional dominatrix now).

The whole time it felt like I was watching a Roman Polanski movie. It was the oddest sensation.

It's surprising how long it took these women to realize that Cruise was nutso with his over the top behavior.

It all sounds like stalker behavior.

Thanks, OP, very interesting.

Is there anything in the book about Katie's Great Escape and how she did it, when she decided, how her father helped, etc?

Given what a control freak TC is, not to mention all the surveillance, Katie Holmes managing to get out with her daughter is a great story.

R75 The book was released in 2008, before Katie Holmes escape and divorce.

r73 - what does WHET mean? Thanks !!

[quote] .... r74 It's surprising how long it took these women to realize that Cruise was nutso with his over the top behavior.

Cruise was rich, generous, and extremely well-connected. That's a lot of stardust

It's DL slang for WEHT (What Ever Happebed To), R77. When typos are made here, many of them (cak, graxy) live on in infamy.

*happened

[Quote] And to see LeeLee Sobieski (WHET her? I heard she’s a professional dominatrix now).

I have a feeling she played one too.

Thank you for the read, book troll.

Why Nicole was shocked when Tom finally left her?! Apparently, she was unhappy during marriage and cheated on him constantly and threw it in his face !

R48 I believe it has since come out that Marc Headley was the source. He was one the first top people to leave when Tom was fast tracked to the top. He used to post under the name blown for good on cos forums.