Is Tom on a Mission to Recruit the Beckhams to his Cult?

As Hollywood's Biggest Star Strikes up a New Friendship with Posh & Becks..

The Express/November 3, 2004
By Jane Fryer

At first blush it looks an unlikely friendship - the intensely private film star devoted to the Church of Scientology and the most photographed couple on the planet. But, as Tom Cruise and the Beckhams chatted and laughed while playing with Brooklyn and Romeo at Real Madrid's match on Sunday, the trio have clearly formed a genuine bond, cheering and whooping as the currently injured David's team trounced Spanish rivals Getafe 2-0.

Given Cruise's dress-down chinos and scruffy jacket, it seems this new-found A-List friendship springs not from a mutual love of high fashion but from the 42-year-old actor's passion for soccer.

Cruise, who played for his college team and hoped to make it as a professional before a knee injury put paid to his dreams, is said to have already told the England captain, "You are my hero", and met up with the pair during his stay in Madrid to promote his latest film Collateral.

Yesterday, a spokeswoman for the Beckhams confirmed: "Tom is a huge soccer fan and was one of a number of people invited to watch the match with them. We're unable to say exactly when and how David and Victoria became friends with Tom but they've met for dinner with him on a couple of occasions."

Cruise's overtures may well have come at an opportune moment. Scientology is famous for reaching out to people, particularly celebrities, who are wrestling with stress and inner turmoil.

And if anyone could do with a little help to lift their spirits, it is Britain's first couple of showbiz. And what could be more appropriate for them than to find guidance from the church that already ministers to some of the world's biggest stars?

After enduring a year of lurid claims about the state of their marriage and growing criticism of David's performances for England - especially after his admission that he deliberately fouled an opponent - it would be no surprise if the Beckhams had been receptive to any advice proffered by the famously evangelical Cruise as he shared their VIP box at Madrid's Bernabeu Stadium.

Quite how David and Victoria might have reacted if they learned the details behind the movement of which Cruise is the most high-profile believer, along with the likes of John Travolta, Priscilla Presley and Kirstie Alley, is another matter.

Doubtless, Cruise would have informed the couple that Scientology is not an ancient faith but was established in 1954 by science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard, and is based on the premise that we are all descended from aliens called Thetans, who were brought to Earth 75 million years ago by Xenu, an evil prince.

They would also know that the Thetans' enemies are Engrams, disruptive forces planted in our universe from other galaxies and responsible for all our problems.

Scientologists believe that by following a system of therapeutic cleansing known as "dianetics" we can drive out the Engrams, thereby resolving our problems and achieving our full potential and spiritual peace.

John Travolta even tried to persuade President Clinton to sign up for dianetics to help him get over the Monica Lewinsky affair. But despite several attempts, the Church of Scientology has failed to win recognition as a religion or as a charitable organisation.

In France, it is on an official list of sects and cults that are considered to be a danger to society and was severely criticised by a High Court judge in 1984.

Cruise was introduced to Scientology in 1989 by his first wife, Mimi Rogers (she grew up in the cult), and claimed it cured his dyslexia. The actor has been a zealous evangelist for the sect ever since.

Such is his devotion that he has already donated £10million of his estimated £150million-plus fortune and, in September, opened a new Church of Scientology in Madrid.

His split from Spanish actress Penelope Cruz earlier this year was reportedly blamed in part on tensions between the pair over his single-minded dedication to the movement.

Since he parted company earlier this year with his long-time personal publicist Pat Kingsley (who brilliantly steered Cruise's public persona for 14 years), he has barely stopped talking about Scientology.

Accompanied by his new publicist - his sister and fellow believer Lee Anne DeVette - he whips through the inevitable questions about his love life, dodges questions about his two adopted children from his marriage to Nicole Kidman and only really lights up when he starts eulogising about his devotion to the movement and the good it can do, particularly in the field of mental health.

Some will no doubt speculate that he parted with Kingsley because she was advising him to tone down his Scientology beliefs in public. US reports say Cruise is even "consolidating" his offices so that all his staff are Scientologists, while one insider has noted:

"Tom insists on having a certain microphone on his movies, which just happens to be patented by Scientology."

There is no doubt Cruise is sincere.

But some critics will feel he runs the risk of, at best, confusing and, at worst, turning his fans off with Scientology.

Certainly anyone who saw his recent interview with Michael Parkinson, in which he spent much of their discussion on the subject, would agree.

According to a Cruise insider, the star is equally unlikely to stay off his pet subject in private: "Tom is not the kind of guy who keeps his beliefs to himself. When you have a conversation with him, about pretty much anything, it's rare they don't come up fairly early on."

Unlike most traditional religions, Scientology does not regard material wealth as sinful (which might come as a relief to the Beckhams). A lack of riches tends to be presented as evidence of an overload of Engram negativity and in need of a dianetic workout.

The movement is estimated to make £160million a year worldwide from its members and has far more in its bank accounts. Not surprisingly, it is remarkably popular in Hollywood where people don't feel that material wealth or the idea that everything can be bought is anything to be ashamed of. You can buy a nice nose or bigger breasts, so why not buy a "better" personality?

Aside from the attraction of a starstudded congregation, Posh and Becks may be attracted by the system of dianetics - a series of courses that helps followers improve their personalities and rid themselves of painful memories.

They all cost money - some, thousands of pounds - and if you don't attain the required standards by the end, you have to retake the course and pay again.

When Hubbard was still working as a scriptwriter in Hollywood, he allegedly declared that the easiest way to get rich was to start your own religion.

Given that he had £410million in his bank account when he died in 1996, he may have had a point.

If it did work and allowed the Beckhams to put the Rebecca Loos and Danielle Heath allegations behind them and focus on their careers, it would surely be money well spent. But there is scope for conflict.

One insider says Cruise's beliefs may conflict with Posh and Becks' reported plans to attend marriage guidance counselling:

"He doesn't believe in therapy. For him, everything can be resolved with the tools he has learned from Scientology.

He's very firm on that and would definitely say Scientology was the way to go, not therapy.

"It's fair to say that anybody embarking on a friendship with him is likely to be having these conversations with him from the word go." A close neighbour in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, where David and Victoria have their luxury home, says:

"They're very interested in all sorts of spiritual things, like the Buddhist temples they got from Thailand, and they have a chapel in their garden.

"We don't see them at the local church, Great St Mary's, but they're more into Eastern religions - energy and Feng Shui and things like that."

Last May, in the wake of the Rebecca Loos scandal, the pair flirted with the other favourite faith of the A-listers.

Kabbalah, the 4,000-year old branch of Judaism, has been derided in many Jewish circles as "McMysticism" but David and Victoria were even spotted wearing the trademark £23 red string bracelet to protect them from the evil eye of jealous fans. Yet Kabbalah didn't do for them what it did for Madonna, Demi and Britney. Maybe it was because they didn't grasp the complex text of the 12th-century Zohar (on which modern Kabbalah teaching is based), or maybe it's because, according to a friend, Posh only wore the bracelet "because the red looks pretty with black".

Given that many regard Scientology as an esoteric belief system, it would be no great surprise if Posh were to look just a tiny bit glazed-over at the finer points of the philosophy.

But if her mind had ever started to stray, she could always have sought solace in the unique pleasure of being sandwiched between two of the most attractive men in the world.