Showing posts with label Scientology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scientology. Show all posts

Friday, January 18, 2013

Global 2013: Nicole Kidman Speaks Out About Scientology

Português: Nicole Kidman no American Music Awa...
Português: Nicole Kidman no American Music Award (2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nicole Kidman on Connor and Isabella's Scientology: "I Respect Their Beliefs"

Nicole Kidman has no problem talking about peeing on Zac Efron in The Paperboy or filming rough sex scenes with John Cusack, but when it comes to matters of off-screen controversy, the Oscar-winning actress clams up. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kidman is asked about that most taboo of topics -- her ex-husband Tom Cruise and the religion that’s become synonymous with his name: Scientology.

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/nicole-kidman-speaks-scientology-selena-gomez-steps-man-004000700-us-weekly.html

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Thursday, July 5, 2012

Global 2012: Tom Cruise Tops Our List Of Hollywood's Highest-Paid Actors

Adam SandlerCover of Adam Sandler
Weekend word that Katie Holmes has filed for divorce from her husband of five years, Tom Cruise, left many unanswered questions. Who will end up with Suri? Was Scientology to blame? Why did Holmes file in New York instead of California? And how much money will the actress walk away with?

Now add this to the mix: by our count Cruise earned $75 million between May 2011 and May 2012, making him the highest-paid actor in Hollywood.

That money is going to play a crucial role in the divorce proceedings. Especially considering Holmes is asking for sole custody of Suri.

Cruise and Holmes reportedly had a prenup that will cover alimony, but according to divorce attorney Jeff Landers, prenups almost never include the cost of child support. In New York, child support is based on a formula: 17% of the couple’s total income, with each person paying a proportionate amount. But that doesn’t mean that Holmes is going to earn $9 million in child support alone.

“There are caps,” says Landers. “After $400,000 in earnings it’s up to the judge’s discretion.”

Still, the divorce is likely to hurt Cruise financially, and possibly career-wise.  Rumor has it that one of the causes of the divorce is that Holmes wants to distance herself and her daughter from Scientology. The religion has long been a passion for Cruise, and sometimes a P.R. problem. His career first started to falter back in 2005 not just because of his couch jumping antics but also because of a very awkward interview he did with Matt Lauer in which he talked about Scientology and his mistrust of psychiatry and psychiatric drugs.

If Cruise is once again forced to discuss Scientology in public, it could hurt him at the box office.

But for right now, the actor is (at least professionally) on top of the world. Last fall’s Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol earned a whopping $700 million at the box office worldwide. Cruise got a nice chunk of the film’s profits. He also got paid well for the upcoming sci-fi film Oblivion, which is scheduled to hit theaters in April. Expect Cruise to do all he can to keep the divorce as amicable and quiet as possible.

Cruise’s huge year puts him $38 million ahead of the two actors who tied for second place on our list: Leonardo DiCaprio and Adam Sandler. We estimate that each star earned $37 million between May 2011 and May 2012.

The two couldn’t be more different. DiCaprio now focuses exclusively on adult-themed movies, and he gets paid well to appear in them. When the films score, they score big, like 2010′s Inception, which grossed $825 million at the global box office. But not every DiCaprio film is a guaranteed hit. Last year’s J. Edgar, which was directed by Clint Eastwood, failed to impress financially or critically. The film earned $80 million globally and failed to score any big Oscar nominations.

DiCaprio is now taking a page from Brad Pitt‘s playbook with a showy, low-paid role in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming film Django Unchained. If the movie is a big hit, DiCaprio will earn a bunch off of the movie’s profits.

Sandler, at the other extreme, delights in making movies that critics find painfully dumb but that a certain audience loves. Take Jack and Jill: The 2011 film earned terrible reviews and 10 Razzie awards for how bad it was.

But  it didn’t flop at the box office. The film earned $150 million on a budget of $80 million. That’s not enough for Sony to earn back the movie’s production budget from box office receipts, but include DVD money and TV sales, and the studio could break even on it.


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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Global 2012: Is the church's controversial Sea Organization what drove Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes apart?

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in Sunnyvale, CATom Cruise and Katie Holmes in Sunnyvale, CA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Following the news that Katie Holmes reportedly blindsided Tom Cruise by filing for divorce last week, the burning question is what went wrong between the couple, whose relationship at one time was so passionate that Cruise was literally jumping up and down on national television about it. Numerous reports link the split to Cruise's devotion to Scientology, stating that Holmes, 33, became concerned for the welfare of their 6-year-old daughter, Suri, as the girl's involvement with the controversial religion was set to increase. Holmes' divorce papers, seeking sole custody, spoke volumes.

According to TMZ, Holmes is divorcing Cruise in part because she believed he planned to send Suri away from home to a hardcore Scientology association known as Sea Organization. "Sea Org, as it is known, is where the highest levels of Scientology are taught and kids as young as five can be sent to live there ... without their parents — and our sources say Tom is a big fan," states the website. "The Sea Org has been often compared to a boot camp and several ex-Scientologists (including Oscar winner Paul Haggis) have been outspoken against its military-like conditions."

The official Scientology website has a different description for the group, which it calls "the singularly most dedicated Scientologists," who "have committed their lives to the volunteer service of their religion." Established in 1967, the Sea Organization once operated from a number of ships, but today the majority of the 5,000 members are based on land — though they still "wear maritime-style uniforms and have ranks and ratings." The Scientology boat Freewinds — on which Cruise celebrated his 42nd birthday during a party that cost an estimated $300,000 — is operated by members of Sea Org.

"As volunteers and members of a religious order, Sea Organization members work long hours and live communally with housing, meals, uniforms, medical and dental care, transport, and all expenses associated with their duties provided by the church," states the Scientology website. "They also receive an allowance to purchase personal items, as all of their other expenses are fully covered by the church." Minor children are permitted to voluntarily join with the consent of a parent and schooling is provided, but the children also work. However, the website emphasizes: "The Church of Scientology adheres to all child labor laws and no underage Sea Organization members are permitted to perform tasks or to work hours longer than permitted by law."

Although Scientologists deny there is any wrongdoing in relation to the group, there have been numerous reports stating that conditions for children within the organization — who, according to the Scientology website, are made to sign "a one-billion-year pledge to symbolize their eternal commitment to the religion" — are less than optimal. "Crash" screenwriter/director Haggis, who was a member of the church, has said that allegations of abuse of the children were partially behind the reason he left Scientology after 34 years. In a 26-page article in The New Yorker, he said he heard about horror stories from men and women who joined Sea Org before turning 18. “They were 10 years old, 12 years old, signing billion-year contracts — and their parents go along with this?” Haggis said. “Scrubbing pots, manual labor — that so deeply touched me. My God, it horrified me!” In the same article, a former employee claimed to have worked 15-hour days as a teenager, seeing her parents only two times between the ages of 12 and 18. Another said he earned $17 a week for his work, and resided in living quarters that were so lacking that his room didn't even have a door knob.

Outside of that, the website Ex-Scientology Kids, which was started by three women who had grown up in the church but later left, has a forum where many people share stories of mistreatment. Additionally, in 2010, a former Scientologist named Keryn (she didn't disclose her last name) went public with her story, claiming she was a "child slave" for Sea Org in the 1960s. Her mother was a high-ranking Scientologist and at the age of 12 Keryn started working on one of the church's ships, where the church's elite followers stay and study, before her grandmother helped her escape at the age of 13. "When we were on the ship, we had people working 20 hours a day, seven days a week," she told Australia's ABC News. "A lot of the children hadn't seen their parents for months, and their parents were on the same ship." She also alleges that she saw a 6-year-old boy chained up by the leg in a ship's hold for days. "He was fed, but he was chained," she said.

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/inside-scientology--is-the-church-s-controversial-sea-organization-what-drove-tom-cruise-and-katie-holmes-apart-.html

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Saturday, June 30, 2012

Global 2012: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes to Divorce: The Signs Were There

Tom Cruise & Katie HolmesTom Cruise & Katie Holmes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Last week, Tom Cruise took daughter Suri and son Connor to an awards ceremony in New York. Meanwhile, Katie Holmes was on the other side of the planet in Taiwan. The official reason was to promote an ice skating event.

Now that Holmes filed for divorce on Friday, according to People, Holmes' Taiwan trip seems more like a warning sign than anything else.

In recent months, the couple was rarely photographed together, even when the two were in the same city. Back in New York this week, Holmes was photographed all over town with Suri, wearing matching outfits, going to see the movie Brave, eating ice cream, all without Dad.

Tom, also in New York, was busy filming his new movie Oblivion and wrapping up his promotion of Rock of Ages. Even though he credited Katie for his interest in doing Rock of Ages (and apparently gave her his bejeweled codpiece), she didn't show up at the movie premiere.

What has been spotlighted, particularly in the Daily Mail, is Holmes' recent style. The usually impeccably dressed actress has been photographed looking like, well, a down-to-earth mom. Untucked button-downs, jeans, loosely wet knotted hair -- none of which would raise alarm bells unless you were a superstar known for a meticulously managed makeover since her marriage began more than five years ago.

According to Life & Style, the couple hadn't been spotted together since early April. (Bear in mind, the publication also claimed Holmes was pregnant again.)

The magazine points to their very different lives, as Cruise traveled around the world hopping from film projects, and his wife stayed under the paparazzi microscope with daughter Suri, working on smaller projects.

But another stressor on the relationship could stem from Cruise's devotion to Scientology -- it's long been blamed for his split from Nicole Kidman -- and the serious allegations of his mistreatment of lower-ranked members of the religious group, as this New Yorker article pointed out.

If Holmes thought her marriage to a superstar would be a boon to her career, she was wrong. Since their union began about six years ago, her professional life has taken a backseat to being a wife and mother. That may have been her choosing, but a recent interview with Cruise in Playboy suggests an unsettled Holmes.

Cruise praised Holmes' creative endeavors but also inadvertently hinted at a marked distance between them. "One week I said to her, "You've been up in the middle of the night. Is everything okay?" She smiled and then threw this thing on my desk and said, "I wrote this script."

Consider the fact that her husband, a producer, didn't notice she was writing a script, and the idea that he hadn't questioned her latenight busy work until it was done, and it paints a picture of a less than intimate union.

It also suggests Holmes wanted more from her career than just being known as a superstar's wife.

It's something Cruise's second ex-wife, Nicole Kidman, was all too familiar with.

When asked in an interview with Vanity Fair whether women could have both marriage and career, she said of her marriage to Cruise: "I think I had to choose. I think (the marriage) would have come down to it. I suppose it wasn't meant to be."

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