Daily Mirror

Tom’s pop-up preaching for movie chums

Actor’s on-set booth to plug Scientolog­y

- BY ASHLEIGH RAINBIRD Diary Editor ashleigh.rainbird @mirror.co.uk @arainbird

TOM Cruise is so devoted to Scientolog­y he set a booth up on set to try to convert the cast and crew on one of his films, according to a top Hollywood agent.

Michael Ovitz, who used to represent the 56-year-old, said he ignored warnings to keep quiet about his controvers­ial faith.

He says in his memoirs: “We advised our clients to keep their heads low and mouths shut. In those days, Tom

Cruise’s profile as a Scientolog­ist was minimal because we’d told him, ‘Keep your religion and your work separate’.

“I read Dianetics, by the founder of Scientolog­y, L Ron Hubbard, to better understand what we were up against and went to see David Miscavige, Hubbard’s successor, and explained we had a common interest: ‘We don’t want to see Tom’s name in the paper for anything but his career.’ “Spielberg told me that on the set of their 2005 film War of the Worlds Tom set up a Scientolog­y booth to proselytis­e.” Cruise has campaigned for Scientolog­y to be recognised as a religion in Europe. In 2013, he claimed ex-wife Katie Holmes filed for divorce because she did not want their daughter Suri involved with it.

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