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dollars into the church—$3 million in 2004 alone. He was not simply a gurehead; he
was an activist with an international following. He could take the church into places it
had never been before. Whenever Cruise traveled abroad to promote his movies, he used
the opportunity to lobby foreign leaders and American ambassadors to promote
Scientology. Davis usually accompanied him on these diplomatic and lobbying missions.
Cruise repeatedly consulted with former President Clinton, lobbying him to get Prime
Minister Tony Blair’s help in getting the Church of Scientology declared a tax-deductible
charitable organization in the United Kingdom. Rathbun was present for one telephone
call in which Clinton advised Cruise he would be better served by contacting Blair’s
wife, Cherie, rather than the prime minister, because she was a lawyer and “would
understand the details.” Later, Cruise went to London, where he met with a couple of
Blair’s representatives, although nothing came of those eorts. In 2003, he met with
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of
sta, Scooter Libby, to express the church’s concerns over its treatment in Germany.
Cruise had access to practically anyone in the world.
That same year, Cruise and Davis lobbied Rod Paige, the secretary of education during
the rst term of President George W. Bush, to endorse Hubbard’s study tech educational
methods. Paige had been impressed. For months, Cruise kept in contact with Paige’s
oce, urging that Scientology techniques be folded into the president’s No Child Left
Behind program. One day Cruise ew his little red-and-white-striped Pitts Special
biplane, designed for aerobatics, to Hemet, along with his Scientologist chief of sta,
Michael Doven. Miscavige and Rathbun picked them up and drove them to Gold Base.
Rathbun was in the backseat and recalls Cruise boasting to COB about his talks with the
secretary.
“Bush may be an idiot,” Miscavige observed, “but I wouldn’t mind his being our
Constantine.”
Cruise agreed. “If fucking Arnold can be governor, I could be president.”
Miscavige responded, “Well, absolutely, Tom.” 2
IN 2001, Haggis was red from Family Law, the show he had created. His career, which for
so long seemed to be a limitless staircase toward fame and fortune, now took a plunge.
He began working at home.
Within a week, he started writing a movie script called Million Dollar Baby, based on a
series of short stories by F. X. Toole. He spent a year working on it, drawing upon some
of his own painful memories. He identied with the character of a sour old boxing
coach, Frankie Dunn. Like Haggis, Frankie is estranged from his daughter. His letters to
her are returned. He turns to religion, going to Mass every day and seeking a
forgiveness that he doesn’t really believe in. Into the coach’s dismal life comes another
young woman, Maggie Fitzgerald, an aspiring boxer from a white trash background. All
of the loss and longing he feels for his daughter is apparent in his mentoring of this
gritty young ghter, who has more faith in him than he has in himself. But Maggie is
paralyzed when her neck is broken in a ght. In a climactic moment, she begs Frankie