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Confident that L. Ron Hubbard's Media Outreach Technicians would have a hard time disappearing its entire Spring Street headquarters into a white van (if they lose a couple of reporters, well, they're making staff reductions anyway), the LAT takes its readers inside the Church of Scientology's Gilman Hot Springs resort/hive, where the Public Face of Scientology, one Tom Cruise, reportedly alternated long stints of religious training with being worshipped like a king (or a studio boss):

Maureen Bolstad, who was at the base for 17 years and left after a falling-out with the church, recalled a rainy night 15 years ago when a couple of dozen Scientologists scrambled to deal with "an all-hands situation" that kept them working through dawn. The emergency, she said: planting a meadow of wildflowers for Cruise to romp through with his new love, Kidman.


"We were told that we needed to plant a field and that it was to help Tom impress Nicole," said Bolstad, who said she spent the night pulling up sod so the ground could be seeded in the morning.

The flowers eventually bloomed, Bolstad said, "but for some mysterious reason it wasn't considered acceptable by Mr. Miscavige. So the project was rejected and they redid it."

Other ex-members say it wasn't the only time that Miscavige put them to work to please Cruise.


Miscavige, a firearms enthusiast, introduced Cruise to skeet shooting at the compound, according to an ex-member who said the actor was so grateful that he sent an automated clay-pigeon launcher to replace an older, hand-pulled model. With Cruise due to return in a few days, Miscavige again ordered all hands on deck, this time to renovate the base's skeet range, the ex-member said.

Dozens worked around the clock for three days "just so Tom Cruise would be impressed," the ex-member said.

Rinder, head of Scientology International's Office of Special Affairs, said such accounts were fabricated by "apostates," members who had abandoned the religion.

Much of the piece proceeds according to the above formula, wherein the Times reports something interesting and odd (fabricated, hyperbolic example: "At Gilman Hot Springs, Tom Cruise demands to walk the grounds while wearing blueberry pies as shoes!"), which prompts a reflexive rebuttal from their mouthpiece (equally fabricated sample denials: "That is a totally untrue fabrication concocted by an ex-member whom auditing revealed to be a baby-strangler in a past life," or, "While it may be true that Mr. Cruise enjoys a delicious blueberry pie from our world-class pastry chef from time to time, he has never worn them on his feet while a temporary guest at Gilman Hot Springs."). The LAT also features a fascinating photo gallery from the visit, in which Scientology leader David Miscavige, described in the article as "about five-seven" politely defers to the similarly statured Cruise by appearing about five inches shorter in photographs.