According to Richard Eden of the Telegraph, the UK publishers Macmillan, "caved in to pressure from Tom Cruise and abandoned plans to publish Andrew Morton's controversial biography of the Hollywood actor."
The first three chapters introduce the reader to Tom Cruise's history, early family life and stardom. Starting with a lead role in the school play, to his first film hit 25 years ago, Risky Business.
His Young Life
His relationship with his abusive father was not an easy one. When Tom was almost 12 his mother took him and his siblings on an eight hundred mile journey, leaving in the early hours of a spring morning in 1974, to get away from her husband, Thomas Mapother III. The struggles that Mary Lee faced as a single parent only seem to have deepened Tom Cruise's respect for her.
Scientology
The main focus of the book is the religion that Cruise was introduced to during his first marriage to Mimi Rogers. Many unknown details of the secretive Scientology sect are uncovered in the book, which Scientologists claim are untrue.
- Andrew Morton claims that Suri, Tom Cruise's daughter was "conceived like Rosemary's Baby".
- He says that Nicole Kidman "feared blackmail" from the Scientologists over tapes made in 'auditing' sessions.
- He names Cruise as the number two man in the cult after the leader David Miscavige.
He also claims that the organization have gone to extraordinary lengths to recruit Tom Cruise and to keep him. Providing a luxury private suite complete with servants to cater to his every whim, in the grounds of the secret scientology nerve center, known as Gold, hidden deep in the Californian desert, and going so far as to plant a whole meadow of flowers there for Tom and Nicole to run through.
According to Mr Morton, Tom's rise to super stardom is due to the help and advice given to him by David Miscavige, to rising through the ranks of Scientology and being surrounded wholly by Scientologists.
The breakup of his marriage to Nicole Kidman was, according to Morton, due to the frantic work schedule that the Cruises had, much of which was spent on different sides of the globe. He also says regarding Nicole, "not only was she married to one of Scientology's poster boys, but her father was a psychologist, which automatically made her a Potential Trouble Source". Apparently they wanted her gone, and whether his religion helped him or not, it wasn't long after that they split up.
The book takes the reader from film to film and from woman to woman, and by the end one is left feeling that they know quite a lot more about Scientology, but not much more about Tom Cruise that hasn't been said in the tabloids and popular magazines.
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