Star's fury over claims by Diana author Andrew Morton:
• Daughter by Katie Holmes "conceived like Rosemary's Baby"
• Nicole Kidman "feared blackmail" over sex tapes made with Scientologists
• Scientologists "planted meadown of flowers for Tom and Nicole to run through"
• Cruise's next mission is to recruit David Beckham
Tom Cruise has become the de-facto second in command of the Church of Scientology, according to a new biography - which makes an extraordinary attack on the star by comparing his 20-month-old daughter Suri to the Devil's child in the film Rosemary's Baby.
Andrew Morton's unauthorised biography claims Scientology has taken over the 45-year-old actor's life, with its officials selecting many of the staff at his Hollywood mansion.
The biographer of Princess Diana alleges Cruise is consulted by Scientology leader David Miscavige on "every aspect of planning and policy" and is tailoring his career to fit the aims of Scientology.
Miscavige is said in the book to have gone to extraordinary lengths to charm Cruise, even ordering his staff to plant a field full of wild flowers at a Scientology base in California after Cruise had told him of his fantasy to run through a wildflower meadow with his then newlywed wife Nicole Kidman.
The relationship between the two men is so close that, according to Morton's book, Miscavige even joined him on honeymoon in the Maldives after his wedding to Katie Holmes in 2006.
Cruise denies each of the claims vehemently, and Scientology lawyers are believed to be drawing up a lawsuit seeking £50million in compensation from Morton's publishers, St Martin's Press.
Cruise's lawyer and close confidante Bert Fields gave a rare interview to The Mail on Sunday to pour scorn on Morton's book, titled Tom Cruise: An Unauthorised Biography.
He criticised a passage in which Morton claims some "fanatical" Scientologists believed Suri Cruise was actually the result of a sperm donation by Scientology's dead founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
Morton writes that Ms Holmes may feel she was in "the horror movie Rosemary's Baby, in which an unsuspecting young woman is impregnated with the Devil's child".
Mr Fields said: "It's not being published in England. The American publishers criticised the libel laws in Britain because they require an author to tell the truth. Well, thank God for the British libel laws."
Cruise will not be reading the book when it is published in the United States on January 15, Mr Fields said. "He has no intention of reading it. He's very, very busy with a lot of things right now.
"He has been told about it and naturally he knows there are a bunch of lies about him. You can imagine what it must be like to have someone compare your baby girl to Rosemary's Baby. Morton should be ashamed of himself.
"It's a boring, poorly researched book by a man who never talked to anyone involved in Tom Cruise's life or anyone close to him.
"There's no real independent research. He hasn't spoken to his mother, his sister, me, Paula Wagner [Cruise's film producing partner], his agent, his wives, David Beckham, Will Smith, Jennifer Lopez or any of the famous directors he's worked with. Instead you've got this long, boring reference to people he knew 30 years ago."
Morton's book paints a picture of a talented actor who tasted enormous success at a young age and then gradually became consumed by Scientology.
He recounts how the actor was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in 1962 and moved around North America with his parents, living in Ottawa, Canada, until the age of 12, when his mother Mary Lee left his abusive father.
His involvement in Scientology began in 1986 when he was recruited by his first wife Mimi Rogers, a Scientologist who gave him some literature on the subject.
L. Ron Hubbard, a science-fiction writer, created Scientology in 1954. Its followers have fought hard to have the system of beliefs recognised as a religion, and its central teaching is that life's problems can be solved through a system of oneonone counselling called "auditing", measured by an "E-meter".
Courses can cost thousands, and critics make much of the doctrine of "Thetans" - alien spirits inhabiting human bodies who have to be flushed out.
Scientologists have also attracted criticism for the practice of "disconnect", where followers are encouraged to cut off friends and family members who do not follow Scientology.
Morton claims Scientologists pursued Cruise as part of a campaign to recruit celebrities.
Morton says David Miscavige sought to rebuild Scientology's reputation, battered by a fraud scandal in 1982.
He invited Cruise to his "desert lair" in 1989, a 500-acre resort in Hemet, 90 miles from Los Angeles, nicknamed "Gold Base".
Miscavige lives there with Scientology's most devoted followers called Sea Organisation or Sea Org.
This is to date the first so-called side deal cut by the WGA with a movie studio since the strike began on November 3rd as part of the guild's newly articulated "divide and conquer" strategy. The WGA's first side deal with a production company was an "interim agreement" with David Letterman's Worldwide Pants which owns both The Late Show and the Late Late Show airing on CBS. Granted, given how tiny UA is -- only six executives -- and how limited their movie development can be, this is more of a symbolic than a significant development in the ongoing WGA strike.
I'm told that, like Letterman's company, UA has accepted the very same proposals that the WGA presented to the media conglomerates when the Alliance Of Motion Picture & Television Producers walked out of contract negotiations back on December 7th. "It's the same kind of agreement that the guild made with [David Letterman's] Worldwide Pants. But 'interim agreement' is not the right word," a WGA insider explained to me. "At the end of the day, once an overall agreement is done between the WGA and AMPTP, if the terms and conditions of that agreement are more favorable to UA, they will be able to enjoy that. This essentially means that UA has the ability to be in business with the WGA."
