going-clear-scientology-hollywood-and-the-prison-of-belief-by-lawrence-wright-2

and had a high-end gym constructed that was mainly for the use of Cruise and himself.
When a ood triggered a mudslide that despoiled the couple’s romantic bungalow,
Miscavige held the entire base responsible, and ordered everyone to work sixteen-hour
days until everything was restored to its previous pristine condition.
In July 1990, Cruise’s involvement with the church became public in an article in the
tabloid Star. (Cruise himself didn’t admit his aliation until two years later, in an
interview with Barbara Walters.) The fact that the information was leaked, probably
from a source within the church, was at once a great embarrassment for Miscavige and
a relief, because Cruise’s name was now nally linked irrevocably in the public mind
with Scientology. He oered an unparalleled conduit to Hollywood celebrity culture,
and Miscavige went to great lengths to court him. At Thanksgiving, 1990, he ordered
Parman to cook dinner for Cruise’s whole family. Miscavige even arranged for Cruise to
place some investments with the Feshbach brothers—Kurt, Joseph, and Matthew—three
Palo Alto, California, stockbrokers. They were devoted Scientologists who had made a
fortune by selling short on the stock market. According to Rathbun, when Cruise’s
investments actually lost money, the Feshbachs obligingly replenished the star’s account
with their personal funds.
Early on, Cruise and Miscavige shared a powerful sense of identity with each other.
They were both short but powerfully built, “East Coast personalities,” as Parman
diagnosed them. They shared a love of motorcycles, cars, and adventurous sports.
Miscavige was bedazzled by the glamour surrounding the star, who introduced him to a
social set outside of Scientology, a world Miscavige knew little about. He had spent most
of his life cloistered in the Sea Org. He was thrilled when he visited Cruise on the set of
Days of Thunder, and the actor took him skydiving for the rst time. Cruise, for his part,
fell under the spell of Miscavige’s commanding personality. He modeled his determined
naval-ocer hero in A Few Good Men on Miscavige, a fact that the church leader liked
to brag about.
Just before Christmas, 1990, Sinar Parman was told that Tom and Nicole were going
to get married, and that he and a Sea Org pastry chef, along with their wives, would be
cooking for the wedding party. Parman was assured that they would get paid for their
trouble; in the meantime, they should buy some civilian clothes suitable for a cold
climate. Parman went shopping and put everything on his credit card, along with a
Christmas present for Cruise. Then Cruise’s private jet ew them to Telluride, Colorado,
where the wedding took place. They spent three days preparing meals for guests.
Cruise’s auditor, Ray Mitho, performed the ceremony, and David Miscavige served as
best man. Afterward, Parman was informed that Miscavige had changed his mind about
paying for his services and the expenses incurred. Parman was left with hundreds of
dollars charged to his credit card, which he struggled to pay o on his Sea Org salary—
fifty dollars a week at the time.
At rst, Tom and Nicole seemed like the ideal Scientology power match. They were
intelligent, articulate, extraordinarily attractive people. At Gold Base, Tom reached OT
III. He would have spent a considerable amount of time after that self-auditing in order
to exorcise his body thetans. Although Nicole didn’t share Tom’s obvious enthusiasm for