A controversial new documentary ‘Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief’ claims the church facilitated Tom Cruise’s breakup with his then wife Nicole Kidman. The Alex Gibney documentary, which premiered on HBO on Sunday, has interviewed a slew of high-profile former members including ‘Crash’ director Paul Haggis.
In the documentary, a former member claims that the church did not like it when Cruise fell in love with Kidman while shooting 1990s “Days of Thunder”. Kidman was seen as trouble because her father was a psychiatrist, a profession which the church does not believe in. Cruise apparently “drifted” from the church during the marriage. He was unreachable on the set of the couple’s joint thriller “Eyes Wide Shut.”
The documentary claims that desperate to get Cruise back in fold, Miscaviage enacted a plan to “facilitate the break—up” by stirring up his paranoia. Soon, says one member, Cruise requested a wire-tap on Kidman’s phone because he was concerned that she was confiding in non-church members about their problems.
The documentary also claims that church turned the couple’s two adopted children Esabella and Connor against Kidman to help Cruise win their full custody. Former Scientologist Leah Remini, who left the church in 2013, said it was a brave attempt. The church has called Gibney’s work a “bigoted propaganda piece” with “at least one major error every two minutes.”
