Are we ready to feel sorry for Tom Cruise yet? Perhaps the most maladroit celebrity since ... well, if not ever, then at least since Michael Jackson, Cruise seems incapable of doing or saying anything in front of cameras and tape-recorders that doesn't come off strange and/or weird. Take the blessed event of the birth of his daughter Suri by girlfriend Katie Holmes. Never mind the rumours about Scientology-dictated "silent birth." Here was the the birth of an innocent, and a ...

Sect-like groups are profiting from the misery in riot-stricken French suburbs to attract new recruits under the guise of offering humanitarian aid, warns an official report. Organisations including the Church of Scientology, labelled a cult in France, are targeting vulnerable residents in the country's poor, high immigration suburbs, it claims. France's official sects watchdog, the Interministerial Mission in the Fight Against Cults (Miviludes), said the situation called for "extreme vigilance". It said the activities of sect-like groups had increased in three ...

After a period of worldwide growth, the church is turning its attention back to expansion at its Clearwater headquarters. CLEARWATER - A global expansion by the Church of Scientology delayed construction of a flagship building in this city it considers its spiritual headquarters, church officials say. But after spending hundreds of millions of dollars from Madrid to Mountain View, Calif., the church is once again turning its attention to downtown Clearwater in a big way. The church plans to finish its ...

TOM Cruise fans have been accused of rigging a poll to save the star from ridicule over his bizarre antics. Some 15,100 out of 18,000 votes in a magazine's internet survey - 84 per cent - blamed the media rather than the Mission: Impossible hero for his poor image. But suspicious bosses found 14,000 of the pro-Tom ballots came from just 10 computers. Alexis Collado, a spokesman for the magazine, Parade, said: "One computer was responsible for nearly 8,400 votes, all ...

NEW YORK – For those of you who took Tom Cruise seriously when he said he was going to eat Katie Holmes' placenta, there's been a clarification. He was joking. Cruise told Diane Sawyer he was only kidding when he said in GQ magazine that he was going to eat the placenta and umbilical cord right after Holmes gave birth because they're "very nutritious." But several days later, there are stories on the Internet taking him seriously. Several reports about the ...

TOM Cruise's cronies seem to have put a lot of effort into skewing a Parade magazine poll in his favor. Parade.com recently asked online readers whether they thought Cruise was responsible for his disastrous public relations year or if it was the media's fault. A shocking 84 percent of respondents blamed the press. But Parade publicist Alexis Collado tells us: "We at Parade found this a little bit fishy, so we did some investigating. We found out more than 14,000 (of ...

Tom Cruise says Katie Holmes is now a fully-fledged follower of L Ron Hubbard. So what is it about the sci-fi writer's 'religion' that exerts such a hold? Sara Lawrence goes undercover to find out Sitting on a red velvet chair in the middle of a majestic, oak-panelled hall in East Grinstead, I have rarely felt more fearful for my sanity. On the wall in front of me, a creepy, larger-than-life-sized portrait of an old man seems to be staring straight ...

The Church of Scientology is buying Santa Ana's former Masonic Temple. SANTA ANA - Developer Mike Harrah is selling Santa Ana's historic downtown Masonic Temple, which he spent millions restoring as a performing-arts center, to the Church of Scientology. The sale has drawn the ire of some historic preservationists. The building is one of four that Harrah said he's selling to raise money to build his high-rise tower downtown. Church spokeswoman Marie Murillo said the building is being purchased for an ...

The owner of the former Masonic Temple is negotiating with the Church of Scientology. Proceeds will help fund his 37-story office tower. The developer who bought up and then rebuilt much of Santa Ana's downtown is negotiating to sell one of his prized historic buildings to the Church of Scientology. Mike Harrah spent $11 million to restore the four-story building, which features three theaters with ornate moldings, painted ceilings and enormous candelabra. Reborn as the Santa Ana Performing Arts and Event ...

(AP) Tom Cruise has been practically shouting from the rooftops about his love for his pregnant fiancée, Katie Holmes. But when their much-anticipated baby is born, the superstar dad probably won't say a word. Cruise, a longtime Scientologist who introduced Holmes to the faith, is likely to follow Scientology's practice of quiet birth. Followers believe the absence of talk and other noise in the delivery room is more healthful for mother and baby. No one's saying publicly where baby Cruise will ...

Santa Ana — The Church of Scientology is purchasing the 75-year-old historic Masonic Temple in downtown Santa Ana from entrepreneur Mike Harrah, both sides confirmed today. Escrow should close “within a week or so,” church spokeswoman Marie Murillo said. She declined to say how much the church will pay for the structure, which was restored several years ago and has been serving as a performing arts center. Harrah, who had previously denied he was selling it to the church, said he ...

The jailed owner of the Hemorrhoid Relief Centers of Pittsburgh is set to plead guilty today in Columbus, Ohio, to multiple charges in connection with his role as an orchestrator of one of the largest health care fraud cases in the United States. Markell D. Boulis, 45, a former chiropractor from Collier who ran seminars across the country designed to illegally boost revenue for chiropractic practices, has informed federal authorities that he will enter a plea in two federal cases in ...

Ministers from the Church of Scientology set up a bright yellow tent in front of the SUB on Monday to give massages, administer stress tests and answer questions about their religion. Marcy Sergeant, one of the ministers, said Scientology is different from other religions because it gives practical ways to deal with life's problems. "It's not stress management. It's not a trick thing," she said. "It's all about understanding. If you understand something, you can control it, and then you're not ...

Silent births, purification programmes, claims that humans are an exiled race from outer space called Thetans... welcome to religion, Scientology style. The claims made on behalf of the controversial cult have been prolific over the years, not least because its most famous torchbearer, Hollywood star Tom Cruise, is never far from the headlines. But what exactly is the Church of Scientology? What does it teach and what makes it so popular among the Hollywood jet set as well as 10million people ...

The battle between Tom Cruise and Scientology and its foes is heating up. Cruise and Scientology have been in the news lately because of an allegedly censored “South Park” parody of the religion — and now Scientology and the “Top Gun” star are being blamed for a woman’s death. “Thanks, Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology, for your expert advice on mental health,” blasts an ad in LA Weekly. The ad goes on to say that a woman was killed ...

We have a new cartoon-blasphemy scandal. No, it’s not Islamists burning down Kentucky Fried Chicken stores in Pakistan because a few Danish cartoonists had the gall to draw the prophet Muhammad. Now it’s Scientology versus the popular and hilarious cartoon television programme South Park. And the Scientologists, like the Islamists before them, are winning. South Park is a potty-mouthed series created by two young iconoclasts, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. It features a group of nine-year-old cardboard cut-out pals whose adventures ...

In searching your online edition for drug-related articles, I noticed that a number of them are press releases from the Scientology organization. These articles are a good example of how Narconon combines scientific, medical fact, blended with founder L. Ron Hubbard's fanciful theories on drug abuse. The press releases" you're picking up are released on several newswires by Scientology's Public Relations office. Of course, they hope that mainstream publications will print them. The main use of these pieces is within Scientology's ...

Isaac Hayes, the wonderfully gifted singer who sang the theme from Shaft, reached No1 with Chocolate Salty Balls in 1999. The song was one of a number that Hayes performed while playing the school Chef in the US cartoon series South Park. Among the other Chef tunes, the Christmas song stands out, with its seductive lyrics, which I believe ran: I’m gonna lay you down by the Yule log I’m gonna love you right Baby, I’m gonna deck your halls And ...

Isaac Hayes did not quit "South Park." My sources say that someone quit it for him. I can tell you that Hayes is in no position to have quit anything. Contrary to news reports, the great writer, singer and musician suffered a stroke on Jan. 17. At the time it was said that he was hospitalized and suffering from exhaustion. It’s also absolutely ridiculous to think that Hayes, who loved playing Chef on "South Park," would suddenly turn against the show ...

A group affiliated with the Church of Scientology has forged close ties with several influential members of the Arizona Legislature as part of a nationwide battle against the mental-health industry. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights has courted key lawmakers with trips to glitzy Scientologist events in Hollywood. And, observers say, it has been the force behind more than two dozen bills in Arizona in recent years, including measures to restrict prescriptions of Ritalin and mood-altering drugs. One of the measures ...

San Francisco's North Beach, the city's bohemian quarter, has said "no" to chain stores through zoning laws to preserve the quirky, colorful character found in its cafes, clothing shops, bookstores and nightclubs. Now, some merchants and the supervisor whose district includes North Beach are eyeing a new land-use restriction to block a real estate acquisition being considered by the Church of Scientology, whose religious marketing practices strike some as inconsistent with the neighborhood's live-and-let-live ways. "I think it is a real ...

The faded little downtown area of Clearwater, Florida, has a beauty salon, a pizza parlor and one or two run-down bars, as well as a bunch of withered bungalows and some old storefronts that look as if they haven't seen customers in years. There are few cars and almost no pedestrians. There are, however, buses — a fleet of gleaming white and blue ones that slowly crawl through town, stopping at regular intervals to discharge a small army of tightly organized, ...

2TheAdvocate.com, USA - February 8, 2006 - www.2theadvocate.com - Narconon Louisiana-New Life Retreat plans to open a drug rehabilitation center on a 12-acre site in Denham Springs. Narconon paid $750,000 to Claude and Janice Penn Jr. at 35059 Bend Road, according to Livingston Parish Clerk of Court records. The rehabilitation center is expected to open at the beginning of March, said Cathy Davis, a spokeswoman for the center. Narconon is a nonprofit that tries to eliminate drug abuse and addiction through ...

Even before I start writing this column, and pretty much regardless of what I say, I know I am going to tick off the Scientologists. I know this because I have ticked them off already. A few days ago, I visited their new anti-psychiatry museum in Hollywood, thinking, correctly, that it would offer an intriguing window into the thinking of a notoriously secretive organization. With a name like "Psychiatry: Industry of Death," the exhibit was not exactly going to be coy ...