Former Scientology Fellow Claims Tom Cruise "personally administers punishments"
Actress Leah Remini, who premieres this month the third season of the series 'Leah Remini and Scientology', reveals that the actor is the second most powerful person within the organization
Leah Remini, a 48-year-old actress and former member of the Church of Scientology, is not afraid to point directly at Tom Cruise for his role within this community. "[He] has personally administered punishments to senior members of the church," says the interpreter, who since his departure from the religious movement has dedicated himself to telling everything that happens inside one of the most secret churches in the world.
"People think Tom is an innocent victim in all this. Most Scientologists are, but he is not in the same category as the average Scientologist," Remini said in an interview with the US news portal The Daily Beast. "Tom is aware of the abuses that occur in Scientology. He has been part of them," she adds.
The actress, known for her role as Carrie in The King of Queens, left the organization in 2013 and has since dedicated herself to denouncing abuse within this community. He first published his memoirs in 2016, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology (whose translation can be summarized in Surviving Hollywood and Scientology), and on November 27 he premieres the third season of his series Leah Remini and Scientology, which is based on in the statements of other former members of the church and their experiences in it. The show, which airs on the A&E television channel, won an Emmy Award for best informational series in 2017.
"Scientologists are told that Tom Cruise is saving the world, so he is considered a deity within the church. He is the second most powerful person after David Miscavige: the savior of the free world," says the New Yorker .
Tom De Vocht, a former member of the church's internal police force, quoted by The Daily Beast, supports Remini's claim and assures that Miscavige and Cruise "are cut from the same pattern." "They have very similar personalities, both tend to look at their navels. It is better not to look at them badly or speak badly of them, and above all it is better not to be better than them in any way," says the exactor. Miscavige was the best man at Tom Cruise's wedding to Katie Holmes in 2006.
Karen Pouw, a spokeswoman for the church in the United States, has expressed her rejection of Remini's statements in ET Canada: "That interview is a publicity stunt to promote her fake reality show. As long as the entertainment media continue to print Leah's lies Remini, your anti-religious fanaticism is going to have a voice. "
When Remini left the organization five years ago, she told Ellen DeGeneres that she had done it because she had finally "opened her eyes", and that even though it had been difficult and lost many friends "who were no longer allowed "Talk to her or her family, she didn't regret her decision.
"When I was 16 I was working for a Scientologist in my late 40s who had sex with a 16-year-old friend. In the church they handled it internally. All abuses are settled within the church, since it is an act of enmity within the organization file charges against another member, "said the actress during a question and answer session on the social network Reddit.
This isn't the first time a former Scientology member has talked about Tom Cruise, either. Other former followers of the religious movement have said about the actor that the breakdown of the marriage between the interpreter of Mission Impossible and his second wife Nicole Kidman, who was not a member of the church, was induced and the adopted children of the couple were "reeducated" , Connor and Isabella, to turn against their mother.
Scientology has detractors and defenders within the ranks of Hollywood. Among the former there are many who, without having expressed themselves totally against it, have admitted having abandoned this religion for different reasons. Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley, did it in 2012; Paul Haggis, writer of One million dollar baby, published in 2009 a public letter in which he explained the reasons for his resignation and the writer William Burroughs, one of the main figures of the Beat Generation, was in the organization at the beginning of the years sixty and abandoned it, considering that it does not admit any critical discussion.
Among the stars who have expressed their support for this religion and its organization are John Travola, Juliette Lewis, Elizabeth Moss, Kelly Preston, Jason Lee, Giovanni Ribisi, Kirstie Alley, Jenna Elfman and Erika Christensen.
