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

9
TC and COB
Great fame also imposes a kind of cloister on those who join its ranks. Tom Cruise
had been a movie star since he was twenty-one, with two popular movies in the
same year, The Outsiders and Risky Business. By age twenty-ve, he was the
biggest star in Hollywood, on his way to becoming one of the most famous movie
legends in history. At the same age, Miscavige had become the de facto leader of
Scientology. Each of these men assumed extraordinary responsibilities when their peers
were barely beginning their careers. Their youth and position set them apart. So it was
natural that two such powerful, isolated men would see themselves mirrored in each
other.
A number of Sea Org members who observed Cruise when he came to Gold Base
remarked that he seemed liberated to be in an environment where no one hassled him,
or took his photograph, or asked for autographs. There are cottages built for the use of
other well-known Scientologists, such as John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Edgar Winter, and
Priscilla Presley, so the base can sometimes feel like a secret celebrity spa. Once,
Miscavige had the entire Gold Base crew line up at the gate and salute Cruise when he
arrived. Cruise must have felt self-conscious about this display, because it happened only
once. People on the base have been directed not to speak to Cruise at all, unless spoken
to. In this way, Cruise tastes the life that Miscavige has lived for decades, one of
seclusion and deference, concentrated on spiritual advancement. 1
Similarly, after becoming associated with Cruise, the style of Miscavige’s life began to
reflect that of a fantastically wealthy and leisured movie star. He normally awakens at
noon, with a cup of coee and a Camel cigarette. The coee is fresh-ground Starbucks,
preferably a Guatemala or Arabian Mocha Java, made with distilled water, to which he
adds raw sugar and half-and-half. Then he takes breakfast, the first of his five meals.
According to Miscavige’s former chef, Sinar Parman, the church leader was eating
“three squares and a snack at night,” until the late nineties. One day, while on a Delta
ight from LA to Clearwater, Miscavige walked to the cabin from his seat in rst class
and showed some photos from a muscle magazine to Parman and his steward, who
traveled with him. He told them he wanted to “get ripped and have six-pack abs.” After
the ight, Miscavige changed physical trainers and began taking bodybuilding
supplements. He also adopted a strict diet that requires each meal to be at least forty
percent protein and to contain no more than four hundred calories. Soon, he was
looking like the men in the muscle magazines.
To maintain his physique, Miscavige’s chefs have to enter each portion size into a
computer, including the cream in his morning coee. Miscavige often starts with an
omelet of one whole egg and ve egg whites. Two and a half hours later, lunch is