Ascendant young actress and Girlfriend of Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes (Batman Begins), 26, has announced she's converting to the Church of Scientology, where she will be, coincidentaly enough, a coreligionist of Mr. Cruise.
The pair have been turning up all over the place, separately and together, professing their love, devotion and career synergy. Just in the last week they paired for the opening of Batman Begins, with Cruise mugging and signing autographs like his hand was about to fall off; Cruise announced his involvement with Mission: Impossible 3, and parodied his own earlier Holmes-related exuberance on Oprah during a Tonight Show visit.
Today Cruise is Tokyo for the premiere of his new film, Steven Spielberg's remake of War of the Worlds, and Holmes, who grew up with a picture of Cruise on her bedroom wall, is in London promoting Batman Begins, where she said she's "excited" about her lessons in Scientology, a religion founded in 1955 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.
When asked by Entertainment Weekly if he plans to propose to Holmes, Cruise said, "It's gonna happen, man. It'll happen."
One wonders if the Scientology was a stipulation, and if in fact Cruise is in love with the pliability rather than the person.
But he told EW, "Listen, the thing you've got to know about Katie is that she's an incredibly bright and self-determined woman. She makes her own decisions."
Cruise's ex-wife Nicole Kidman was reportedly very uncomfortable with his dedication to the church, contributing to the end of their ten-year marriage.
Here is Beliefnet's discussion of Scientology, which sounds an awful lot like a more expensive version of Hindu and early-Buddhism to me.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Mark Saleski
depressing.
2 - Eric Olsen
quite so - is he going to eat this girl alive?
3 - Eric Berlin
It's interesting that both Cruise and Holmes get very sketchy about how the couple (add quotes there if you want) met. Rumor has it that the meeting took place at a Scientology Center.
4 - Eric Olsen
what's a good Catholic girl doing at a Scientology center?
5 - Mark Saleski
maybe she heard that scientologists dig plaid skirts.
6 - Eric Olsen
plaid skirt=Theta
7 - Eric Berlin
According to Mike Walker of the National Enquirer (via The Howard Stern Show), the meeting at the Scientology Center was set up by Cruise's and Holme's publicists. Thus, the consistent inability to ably handle the common question, "So, how'd you two lovebirds meet?"
8 - Eric Olsen
I'd be happy to meet some young hottie who had a poster of me up in her room - I mean if I wasn't happily married and everything
9 - Brooke Lee
Mirror mirror on the wall; who's the fairest of them all?
I think Tom Cruise and his mirror have hypnotic powers.
Did ya see his Australian interview? He was down right fussy.
10 - Eric Berlin
EO -- agreed!
11 - Eric Olsen
no Brooke, do you have a link?
12 - Todd Fox
It's Serious! Tom Takes Katie Home to the Mothership!
13 - Todd Fox
Here is the link
14 - Brooke Lee
I just saw a blurb on VH1's Best Week Ever, but here's a link to the transcripts
15 - MJ
Cruise needed a naive woman to brainwash and convert to his own beliefs
If only she were mature enough to have her OWN beliefs
16 - David
Can Cruise not find a woman shorter than himself?
17 - Tim
It is only a publicity thing. Cruise is totally gay.
18 - Mark Saleski
i think that weird lady from poltergeist is too old for him.
19 - Eric Olsen
classic Mark!
20 - The Theory
I thought "Scientology" was just another term for "Satanism"
21 - Eric Olsen
I believe our Satanic friends would object
22 - Maud
he is ridiculous, and she is pathetic
and yet they make more money than I will ever see in my whole life !
23 - Mark Saleski
favorite scientology moment: in the movie repo man, when the character "lite" gives otto the book that'll "change his life".
it sure looks like "Dianetics", but upon closer inspection, it's "Diuretics".
24 - Eric Olsen
for those bloaty times
25 - YQuiet
Unfortunately, Scientology has proved to be quite a bit more nefarious and dangerous than just a dumbed-down version of Buddhism. A very good overview of some of the problems and abuses that have come from Scientologists can be found at http://www.xenu.net/