Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography pdfdrive com

Dawson’s Creek. Now there was a resounding silence. Noticeably her friend
since kindergarten, Meghann Birie, who was seen as a levelheaded influence on
Katie, was totally out of the picture. Tom’s sister Lee Anne DeVette sent letters
to their local church, Katie’s former school, and even the local newspaper asking
them to respect the family’s privacy and not discuss Toledo’s famous daughter.
While Toledo was proud of Katie Holmes, it seemed TomKat was a toxic
subject. Local Catholic priest Father Mike Brown was typical, shying away from
any comment about Katie’s involvement with Scientology. “Scientology affects
just one family here, and I want to respect their privacy,” he said.
As with Tom, then Nicole, so did Scientology quickly cocoon Katie Holmes
inside circles of control. Lee Anne DeVette’s demands for silence from the
residents of Katie’s hometown were just the beginning. Very quickly Katie was
integrated into life on Planet Tom, even the most casual observer noticing her
transformation from vivacious young actress to a modern-day Stepford wife. A
Web site called
FreeKatie.net
, dedicated to “the movement to liberate Katie, a
young, gifted actress held captive by forces we may never understand,” did a
roaring business in T-shirts, trucker hats, stickers, and coffee mugs bearing the
message
FREE KATIE
.
First to go was the name. Tom preferred Kate, so Kate it was. Her appearance
was next. The girl whose sparkling green eyes had intrigued the director of
Dawson’s Creek now looked as if the lights had been switched off. “My family
can’t lie to save themselves,” she once said. “We always get in trouble. Our eyes
give everything away.” As she did the publicity rounds for Batman Begins,
interviewers remarked on her hollow and lifeless eyes. Writer Robert Haskell
noted that her eyes “focused on nothing in particular.” Other interviewers
nicknamed her Katie “Dead Eye” Holmes.
It was not just her eyes but the rest of her face that came under close scrutiny.
An eruption of sores and marks was blamed on Scientology’s Purification
Rundown, a process designed to purge the body of toxins through vitamins,
exercise, and prolonged periods in a sauna. In fact, the marks were cold sores—a
condition that afflicts the Holmes family and in Katie’s case was brought on by
stress.
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

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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. It was a reminder
that Tom was ever present even when he was not physically there.
Tom was also represented by Katie’s official new best friend, Jessica
Feshbach Rodriguez. She was her Scientology handler, a member of the elite Sea
Org who had been transferred from her higher spiritual mission to accompany
Katie on her promotional tour for Batman Begins during the summer of 2005.
Not only was Jessica brought up and educated in Scientology, she was from a
wealthy family of bond traders who had donated millions of dollars to their faith,
her aunt managing a Scientology center in Florida. Her presence was a sign of
the importance Scientology placed on rapidly converting Katie to their cause.
When Katie spoke, Feshbach monitored her words. Or uttered them for her.
During an interview with writer Robert Haskell, when Katie found herself stuck
for words to describe how she felt about Tom, Jessica was on hand to help. “You
adore him,” she prompted. Katie soon found her way back on track: “I feel so
lucky and so—like I’ve been given such a gift.” When a journalist asked Katie
about the widespread skepticism concerning her new romance, Jessica replied
for her. “The truth is, we don’t read that stuff because it’s just rude.” Others on
the tour recall Feshbach as being condescending to staff, suspicious of the
publicity process, and often disruptive in interviews.
Jessica was a central figure in the new team quickly placed around Katie.
Within weeks the actress’s stalwart professional advisers and personal friends
were cast into outer darkness. At the beginning of June, her agent at CAA,
Brandt Joel, was fired and replaced by Tom’s men at the same agency, Rick
Nicita and Kevin Huvane. Her longtime manager, John Carrabino, who also
represented Renée Zellweger, was next. When Renée accepted a Screen Actors
Guild award for her role in Cold Mountain, she singled out Carrabino for special
praise. “Everybody needs a John Carrabino. I’m lucky to hear your words of
wisdom.” Wisdom that Katie no longer required. Last to go was her publicist of
nine years, Leslie Sloane-Zelnick, replaced by Tom’s sister and ardent
Scientologist Lee Anne DeVette.
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,”
comparing it to the ill-fated match between Liza Minnelli and David Gest. Their

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comments were remarkably similar to those of Sofía 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.”
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? Still,
the suspicion remained that while they were gaining a son, they were losing a
daughter.
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. McPherson, who suffered psychiatric problems after a car accident in
Florida, died of a pulmonary embolism while in church care in Clearwater,
Florida. She was apparently dehydrated and had cockroach bites on her
emaciated body. As a result, 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. The criminal
charges were eventually dropped and the death formally ruled an accident.
Lisa’s death led not only to a protracted civil 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

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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. She had
given permission to Scientology to isolate her from seeing her family again, or
any other “sources of potential spiritual upset,” 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 Sofía Vergara had feared would happen to her.
Everything that had alarmed Sofía, 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, the fairy-tale
wedding, and the childhood dream. It was a world away from the proposal by
Chris Klein, who had asked Katie’s father’s permission and proposed in the
family home.
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. Sad,
too. A voice from the past, saying farewell to her old life.

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