Holmes faces Cruise, Scientology in fight for Suri

A helicopter believed to be carrying actor Tom Cruise arrives at the airport in Reykjavik June 30, 2012. Actress Katie Holmes has filed for divorce from her superstar husband Tom Cruise, ending a six-year marriage that produced one daughter and captivated celebrity watchers worldwide. The source said Cruise is out of the country filming a movie in Iceland.

Credit: Reuters/Ingolfur Juliusson

(Reuters) - Actress Katie Holmes faces two strong adversaries in her legal fight for sole custody of 6-year-old daughter, Suri, as she battles estranged husband Tom Cruise and his Scientology religion, experts said on Monday.

The "Dawson's Creek" actress, 33, made headlines last week when she filed for divorce from "Mission: Impossible" actor Cruise after nearly six years of marriage and one child.

While Holmes, Cruise and representatives for both have remained quiet about the reasons for the high-profile split, speculation in the media is that Suri, now at the age when she begins a formal education, and the Church of Scientology, of which Cruise is a key member, are central to the breakup.

"What's interesting is that there's three players in this case - the mother, the father and this very controversial concept of Scientology," said New York-based divorce lawyer Lubov Stark.

"The daughter is in the middle of this whole divorce. She seems to have been raised in Scientology up to this age, so if the judge comes in and gives custody to Katie Holmes, she can change (Suri's) religion," Stark said.

The Church of Scientology was founded by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, and it describes its practices as a religion. The organization believes man is an immortal being whose experience extends beyond one lifetime, and it has attracted followers including Cruise and John Travolta.

But some observers - including media mogul Rupert Murdoch - liken it to a cult. Critics think the group coerces followers to think like they do, and they accuse Scientologists of harassing people who seek to quit.

On Sunday, following last week's news of Holmes' divorce filing, Murdoch took to Twitter and called Scientology "a very weird cult" and Scientologists "creepy, maybe even evil."

SCIENTOLOGY AND THE MEDIA

"Scientology is a potentially unsafe, if not dangerous, organization," said Rick Ross, a New Jersey-based expert on cults and controversial movements who has served as an expert witness in court cases.

"I've received complaint after complaint over the years from former members."

Ross said Holmes' custody battle could hinge on whether Cruise decides to fight Holmes for custody of Suri and how much information comes out about Scientology practices, which the Church may not find in its interest.

Representatives for the Church did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Ross said it is unlikely the Church would get directly involved in the custody battle as it could bring negative publicity, but he believed members could leak information to "intimidate or discredit" Holmes.

Lawyer Stark said custody proceedings will differ substantially depending on whether they take place in New York, where Holmes filed, or California if Cruise can get the case moved to the state in which he resides.

In California, Stark said the courts presume joint custody, leading to a greater likelihood a judge would give both Holmes and Cruise the ability to make decisions for Suri.

"If the judge says they should have joint custody in California, then Katie would not have the ability to take Suri out of this religion altogether," said Stark.

In New York, the courts look at the best interests of a child and who's going to make decisions and care for the youngster. In that case, a judge might be asked to consider Cruise's religion, although the possibility appears remote.

"Religion can always come into it, but it's rare for a custody battle," said Josh Forman, a matrimonial attorney and partner at Chemtob Moss Forman & Talbert in New York.

Like Ross, Forman believed any negative publicity from a long trial might lead to a private settlement.

"I don't think it would be very good for Tom's career if he is seen as having a huge, dragged-out custody battle with Katie. I think they should really settle, and I see this as settling."

By Piya Sinha-Roy

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Cynthia Osterman)
LOS ANGELES | Mon Jul 2, 2012 8:49pm EDT

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/03/entertainment-us-tomcruise-katieholmes-idUSBRE85S16M20120703

Katie Holmes steps out smiling in public for the first time since filing for divorce from Tom Cruise

The couple had been arguing over their daughter’s indoctrination into Scientology and Sea Org was reportedly the last straw for the Catholic-raised Holmes

Charles Guerin-Morgan Dessalles/ABACAUSA

Katie Holmes leaves the New School on Seventh Avenue amidst a swarm of fans on Monday.

Katie Holmes emerged from seclusion Monday, shedding remnants of her life with Tom Cruise — including her wedding ring.

In her first public appearance since she filed for divorce Thursday to save her 6-year-old daughter from the clutches of Scientology, a smiling Holmes surfaced in New York to tape a TV spot.

EX-SCIENTOLOGIST: HOW I ESCAPED THIS CULT AND WHAT KATIE IS UP AGAINST NOW

Holmes sits in the back of her luxury car without a ring on her finger. (Steffman,Turgeon/Splash News)

 

Along with the Cartier diamond-studded wedding band that she had been wearing as recently as last week, Holmes was also free of some other Cruise baggage:

- She returned to her premarriage mouthpiece, Leslie Sloane at BWR, sacking the publicist she had worked with since 2007.

- She fired her husband’s security team, which had guarded her as recently as last week, TMZ reported. According to the website, the bodyguard and driver had worked for Cruise for years, even before he met Holmes, and had followed her every move while in New York.

- The actress was convinced Cruise planned to prep their young daughter Suri for an early entrance into the ultrazealous Scientology group called Sea Org, leaving her no choice but to cut ties, TMZ reported.

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise back in 2009. (Angel Fernandez/AP)

Seemingly relishing her newfound independence, Holmes smiled at photographers as she breezed into a taping of Lifetime’s “Project Runway: All Stars” show at Parsons The New School of Design in Manhattan.

“She did great,” show judge Isaac Mizrahi told People.com after the six-hour shoot, for which Holmes acted as a guest judge.

Holmes was surrounded by a new group of self-selected handlers, a clear sign the beautiful brunette is making a major break from the Cruise-controlled, Scientology-centered world she’s inhabited for the last 51/2 years.

PHOTOS: A LOOK BACK AT TOM CRUISE AND KATIE HOLMES' ROMANCE

Raised a Catholic in Ohio, Holmes fired Sloane in 2005, just months after meeting the “Top Gun” star, paving the way for Cruise’s Scientologist sister, Lee Ann DeVette, to take over as the couple’s public rep.

The “Dawson’s Creek” star later hired respected West Coast publicist Ina Treciokas in 2007 to restore some sanity after DeVette’s disastrous run, but the return to Sloane sent an obvious message.

“It happened in the last week,” a source close to Sloane told the Daily News of the rehiring.

Cruise boards a helicopter to take him from Reykjavik to his film location in Iceland on July 2. (Uffe Kongsted/FameFlynet)

 

Holmes, 33, pulled the plug on her much-maligned marriage with a surprise filing that seeks sole legal custody of Suri, the couple’s only child.

Her paperwork, filed anonymously, cited “irreconcilable differences” and stated that the union broke down more than six months ago — language necessary for Holmes to use New York’s new no-fault divorce law.

Cruise, who has been in Iceland filming his new movie “Oblivion,” a $140 million post-apocalyptic science-fiction epic, was said to have been blindsided by his spouse’s flight.

Mystery men who may be from Church of Scientology sit inside white Cadillac Escalade shadowing Holmes. (Richard Harbus for New York Daily News)

 

He turns 50 on Tuesday. People magazine reported that he had been expecting his wife to come visit him for his birthday.

Just three weeks ago, Cruise happily told the magazine he was “blessed” to be able to “live (his) dream and have the family that I have, the wife and children that I have.”

Cruise was said to now be planning to file for divorce in California, where Scientology is more accepted and where experts say he’d have a better chance at getting at least partial custody of Suri.

The “Mission: Impossible” megastar has hired Los Angeles legal ace Dennis Wasser to handle what is shaping up to be a contentious child custody battle.

Wasser repped Cruise in his first two divorces, from Mimi Rogers in 1990 and Nicole Kidman in 2001. Both wives were 33 when they went to splitsville.

Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News

Men who got out of white Escalade.

Holmes, whose father is a divorce lawyer, tapped New Jersey-based prenup specialist Jonathan Wolfe along with Michael Mosberg at Sheresky Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan, the Manhattan firm that repped Christie Brinkley’s ex-hubby Peter Cook.

The final deciding factor for Holmes was her fear that little Suri would be ripped from her clutches and inducted into the hard-core Scientology priesthood known as Sea Org — despite the church’s denial that she was a candidate, TMZ reported early Tuesday morning. According to reports and sources interviewed by The News, parenting issues and fears about Sea Org weighed heavily on the actress who lived in Cruise’s shadow for much of their time together.

“I think it is more than plausible (Sea Org) wanted Suri,” Marty Rathbun, a former high-ranking Sea Org member who defected in 2004, told The News. “The educational process has been geared more and more toward getting kids to go into the Sea Org earlier and earlier, at around 10, 12 or 14.”

He said Suri is at the age now where private tutoring and “casual” indoctrination could set the stage for her eventual move to Sea Org’s base in Hemet, Calif.

“The whole purpose for being a tutor for the kids is not education; it’s to get them on to be full-blown zealots at an early age. The thought process is to turn them into zealots,” he said.

He recalled watching Cruise’s adopted son Connor, now 17, when he visited Scientology’s Los Angeles-based Celebrity Center in 2001, around the time of Cruise’s split from Kidman.

Connor was 6 years old back then, the same age Suri is now, and Rathbun said he casually introduced the curious tyke to an E-meter — the electronic device that acts like a lie-detector test in Scientology counseling sessions called “auditing.”

“I showed him the E-meter, and he was playing around with it. Tom was thrilled, and the next thing you know, they started doing indoctrination with him, within a matter of days,” said Rathbun, author of the book “What is Wrong with Scientology?”

“They were talking to him, telling him what it’s about, maybe reading to him, translating it to a language he could understand,” Rathbun recalled.

Sea Org, started by L. Ron Hubbard aboard a ship in the 1960s, has often been compared to a boot camp and criticized by ex-Scientologists for its military-like conditions. According to the official Scientology website, Sea Org members sign “a one-billion-year pledge to symbolize their eternal commitment to the religion.”

Connor Cruise, who was homeschooled by his dad’s stern Scientologist sister Cass Mapother, posted a Twitter message Monday that appeared to be a declaration of loyalty.

“La Familia Always. Friends Come And Go, But Family Is Forever,” the message read.

Reports suggest Holmes signed a prenup that would give her $3 million for each year of marriage and a $3.5 million home in Montecito, Calif. Cruise has reportedly amassed a fortune of more than $275 million.

By Cristina Everett , Henrick Karoliszyn AND Nancy Dillon / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Monday, July 2, 2012, 11:53 AM

Updated: Tuesday, July 3, 2012, 1:53 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/katie-holmes-feared-tom-cruise-send-daughter-suri-intense-scientology-organization-article-1.1106324#commentpostform

 

What Scientology Scandal? Days After News Corp. Split, Murdoch Gets Even Richer

Last week, when News Corp. announced its decision to separate its publishing and entertainment businesses, analysts predicted a big win for investors.

Well, one particularly high-profile shareholder is already reaping the benefits of the company’s split.

Murdoch: still making money, no matter what.

Chairman Rupert Murdoch made over $136 million today thanks to his shares in the media giant. News Corp. stock was up 1.91% at close of market after an initial dip when word of the spin-off hit headlines on Thursday.

News. Corp’s split is a rare piece of good news in what has otherwise been an annus horribilis for Murdoch, his family, his company and his reputation.

The phone hacking and bribery scandal that forced his News of the World tabloid to fold isn’t over yet: the UK’s Leveson Inquiry into press ethics is ongoing.

The media kingpin made the news over the weekend for weighing in on another permanent headline fixture: Tom Cruise, who has been served divorce papers by wife Katie Holmes. Murdoch took to Twitter, branding Cruise’s Scientologist leanings “creepy” and describing the cultish religion as “maybe even evil.”

His comments provoked an outcry both from Scientology devotees and everyday Twitter users who wondered if he wasn’t, perhaps, guilty of throwing stones from a glass house. Others on the social network noted that Murdoch has made millions off Cruise, who starred in ‘Rain Main’ and ‘Minority Report’ among other 20th Century Fox films.

Murdoch’s $136.43 million net worth boost makes him one of Monday’s big winners on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires index, which tracks the gains and losses in major public holdings of a select group of the world’s richest.

Others making a killing on the market today include two of the wealthiest people on the planet, Mexican telecoms mogul Carlos Slim and investing oracle Warren Buffett, up $575.5 million and $192.5 million respectively.

Today’s gains represent little real change to these two tycoons, worth $69 billion and $44 billion apiece. Both see their fortunes rise and fall daily, often to the tune of $1 billion or more.

Monday’s losers on the Real-Time index include casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who was down just over $224 million as the markets closed. The conservative Las Vegas Sands chairman and Mitt Romney supporter has faced accusations in recent days of encouraging prostitution at his Macau properties. He has denied the allegations, brought up in an ex-employee’s lawsuit.


News Corp. COO Chase Carey Endorses Rupert Murdoch

Katie Holmes Divorcing Tom Cruise, Scientology And Taxes

Photos: Top Billionaire Scandals of 2011


By Clare O'Connor
7/02/2012 @ 5:40PM

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2012/07/02/what-scientology-scandal-days-after-news-corp-split-murdoch-gets-even-richer/