WASHINGTON — The State Department's annual survey of human rights conditions around the world will contain expanded, toughened language criticizing Germany for restrictions on the Church of Scientology and its members, administration officials say. The report, to be issued Wednesday, will chastise Germany for what a senior administration official called "a campaign of harassment and intimidation" against the controversial church. He said the United States, seeking to protect religious freedom, has urged Germany through diplomatic channels "not to prosecute people for ...

Movies: The success of the film, targeted by conservatives because it stars Scientologist Tom Cruise, eases studio fears about releasing other films featuring members of the movement. Despite the much-publicized boycott in Germany of "Mission: Impossible" because its star, Tom Cruise, is a Scientologist, the film grossed about $24 million, considered a huge success for the important German market by Hollywood studios, and ranked eighth in Germany for 1996. The results could help assuage the Hollywood studios that are preparing for ...

Europe: Open letter to Kohl draws analogy to treatment of Jews before World War II. Politicians respond angrily. BERLIN — A running battle between German government officials and the Church of Scientology escalated this week, with 34 prominent Americans from the entertainment industry denouncing Germany for allegedly treating Scientologists as it treated the Jews in 1936, and the German foreign minister accusing the celebrities of "falsifying history." "It's out of the question that there's persecution of Scientology in Germany," Foreign Minister ...

When L. Ron Hubbard penned his ground-breaking book, Dianetics, a shot rang out in Hollywood. The book, now available in more than 32 languages, has sold over 16 million copies since 1950. It has also attracted legions of famous followers to its Church of Scientology in Hollywood and its castle-like Celebrity Centre located in the heart of Tinseltown. During John Travolta's Golden Globe acceptance speech, for example, the church member — long rumored to be gay — thanked L. Ron Hubbard ...

Lawmakers are looking at barring its members from teaching, police work, other government jobs. HAMBURG, Germany — As the politicians see it, Germany, is being threatened by an evil plot to infiltrate business and government. "A giant octopus . . . that will stop at nothing in its desire to spread its blind ideology" is how Labor Secretary Norbert Blum has described the plot against Germany. Claudia Nolte, another member of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Cabinet, warns, "They aim at world domination ...

The star of Phenomenon claims the movie is close to real life and says he can cure people with his bare hands — but is it just cult fiction? In John Travolta's latest movie, Phenomenon, the once disco-dancing star plays an ordinary man who is miraculously given supernatural abilities. It sounds like fantasy — but in real life John believes he, too, has weird powers. Behind that famous smile, the 42-year-old gentle family man is an obsessive cult follower who claims ...

THE Church of Scientology has attacked what it called "religious apartheid" in Germany after a Bavarian move to bar its members from public service and calls to boycott Tom Cruise's latest film because the star is a Scientologist. In a communique issued in Bonn, the church said "officially-sanctioned religious apartheid" was "the result of years of unsubstantiated emotional propaganda against the Church of Scientology and other religious minorities in Germany". It was "incredible" and "blatant hypocrisy" that the Christian Democratic Union, ...

(CNN) — Actor Tom Cruise may have a movie blockbuster in the United States, but in Germany, the star of "Mission: Impossible" faces a controversy that could hit where it hurts: the pocketbook. Germany's problem is not with the movie plot or dialogue. It's with the star and his religious beliefs. Cruise is a member of the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology, a credo that critics say is steeped in science fiction more bizarre than any cinema plot. Opponents of Cruise's ...

[...] Mission: Stop Scientology: Germans youths picketed cinemas throughout their country on Thursday to protest Tom Cruise's movie "Mission: Impossible" because the American actor is a member of the Scientology religion. The protests–organized by the normally placid youth wing of Helmut Kohl's Christian Democratic Union–are a token of the growing political pressure against Scientology in Germany, where recruiting has been active. The pickets came after Paul Stefan Mauz, a Christian Democrat member of parliament, claimed that Cruise was a "high-ranking" Scientologist ...

WHY DID LISA Marie Presley and Michael Jackson get married? Love, if you believe her press release, the one pledging to "dedicate my life to being his wife." Or, according to speculation from Hollywood, Jackson is rehabbing his image and simultaneously consummating the ultimate entertainment empire merger. But another possibility is circulating among the conspiracy-minded former members of the Church of Scientology. It's an astounding theory — that the church itself helped arrange the Presley-Jackson union. But these defectors say that ...

Exclusive A former cult security guard blows apart the star's squeaky clean image with claims of shocking abuse HOLLYWOOD megastar Tom Cruise has been sensationally named in a multi-million dollar lawsuit in the United States alleging receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of illicit perks from the controversial Scientology religious cult. The 32-year-old Oscar winner is alleged to have turned a blind eye to the use of slave labour to build him a gym, an apartment and other gifts ...

No one would ever accuse the Church of Scientology of not being vigilant about its press coverage, especially when it comes to its famous Hollywood members. One of the latest cases in point was the 2,000-word response in Premiere magazine after a recent story about Scientology's ties to the entertainment industry. This was followed by the publication of a 16-page booklet dubbed "Premiere Propaganda." "Premiere's reporter was not interested in writing a fair story on the church. Instead he went out ...

There is a story that Steve Tisch, producer of the 1983 coming-of-age classic Risky Business, the film that would eventually vault Tom Cruise into the warm aerie of megastardom, likes to tell. After a tough day of shooting, Cruise approached Tisch, his partner Jon Avnet and the film's director, Paul Brickman. It seemed Cruise was concerned: He felt that his costar, Rebecca DeMornay, a newcomer who had snatched the part of sexy hooker Lana from Michelle Pfeiffer, was miscast. Things just ...

Kate Ceberano and Nicole Kidman join Scientology, the fastest-growing religion in the world - and one of the weirdest Showbiz types find religion - in a church founded by sci-fi writer by Terry Bourke Two showbiz babies are the latest celebrity recruits to the strange Scientology sect. And one is the centre of anger among Elvis Presley fans. The innocent babies know nothing of the controversial cult which will rule their lives - but their parents do. Partners Tom Cruise and ...

HOLLYWOOD (Special) — The U.S. National Dyslexia Foundation is unhappy with a recent statement by Tom Cruise that Scientology has cured the movie star of the reading impairment affliction, columnist Marilyn Beck reports. Joyce Bulifant, executive vice-president, says "Dyslexia is not a disease that can be cured. Research at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Hospital has shown that the dyslexic brain is shaped differently and perceives things differently. Building self- confidence is extraordinarily important for a dyslexic, and if Scientology ...

Tom Cruise hits the accelerator and slides onto a deserted stretch of Sunset Boulevard behind the wheel of a car so hot, so space-age sleek, that you can't find one anywhere — not in a Porsche showroom, not in the Malibu Colony, not in the hippest Hollywood parking lot. [...] If anyone has a good theory about the source of Cruise's steely determination, it's Kidman. They're a yin-yang couple, with her playful, relaxed manner contrasting with her husband's earnest intensity. "I ...

And now, the next Walt Disney Studios— the Church of Scientology! That is, if entrepreneurs connected with the Hollywood based cult can muscle into the film business with their proposal to homogenize films by tailoring them to the tastes of the unwashed masses. It all began last July, when Future Films, a new, eccentric studio, began running ads in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter touting its revolutionary ideas. No one knew what to make of it all. The grand concept, to ...

Scientologists believe they are saving the world from insanity, war and crime. "Saving the world is an understatement," said former member Kenneth Wasserman. "Saving the universe" is more like it, he said. This intense sense of purpose explains why some Scientologists are willing to work 12-hour days for $30 a week. Others pay up to $800 for an hour of counseling, and one couple brought a $35,000 counseling package. Critics say this sense of mission has another consequence: Next to saving ...

Winnipeggers should steer clear of the Church of Scientology and its many organizations, which include a drug rehabilitation program called Narconon, a U.S cult expert said yesterday. "There are far safer programs," Cynthia Kisser, executive director of the Cult Awareness Network, said in an interview from Chicago. "Narconon is more likely to do harm than good." The Sun reported Sunday about 60 Winnipeg teenagers have been hired to sell pepperoni and T-shirts door-to-door to raise money for Narconon. However, a Narconon ...

Last June, the Los Angeles Times published a damning series on the Church of Scientology. Scientologists responded by extracting a few good things the writers had to say about their organization and putting those quotes in foot-high letters on billboards all over town. On May 6 of this year, Time magazine published a cover story on Scientology. It had even fewer good things to say, and now the church has responded with an even more aggressive counterattack. Scientology's campaign of daily ...

I ARRIVED FOR MY APPOINTMENT AT THE L. RON Hubbard Life Exhibition Hall a few minutes early. Unlike in other commemorative mausoleums, such as the Nixon Library and Birthplace, you're not allowed to walk around the Hubbard by yourself. Instead, you must sign up for an hour-and-a-half guided tour. Possibly they don't trust the unassisted viewer to fully reap the museum's rewards, though it might also be a matter of security. The presence of a young guard dressed in the Church ...