We have a lot of thoughts about Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Katie Holmes.
There's no doubt that director Alex Gibney's new documentary
film, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, based on the
book of the same name, is a powerful look at what many believe is a polarizing
religion. The film, which first premiered at Sundance and briefly hit theaters
before it debuted on HBO, takes a look at the history of Scientology, its
celebrated celebrity figureheads and what certain members say drove them to leave the organization.
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Not surprisingly, the Church doesn't agree with the claims
made in the film, saying -- in a statement released to The Insider -- that it is nothing more
than "bigoted propaganda built on falsehoods invented by admitted liars." In
fact, the group has responded vociferously on its website, Freedom, asserting that "the courts
have debunked the ludicrous 'human trafficking' and 'involuntary servitude'
allegation against the Church that Lawrence Wright promoted in his Going Clear
book and that HBO is exploiting."
We didn't expect the film to answer every question or
allegation about the controversies it covers -- but it still left us with some
unanswered questions.
1. Does the Church maintain secrets about its celebrity
members? At one point, the film
implies that John Travolta is trapped in the Church, held by secrets collected
during auditing sessions. But Gibney doesn't explicitly say what that might be.
BuzzFeed News reports that a spokesperson
for the Church said allegations of blackmail are "false and defamatory" and any
assertion that auditing sessions were being leveraged as "deeply offensive."
2. How involved is Travolta these days? The film
only discussed his early days -- and we know what he's been up to lately.
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3. How did the Church feel about Tom Cruise's 2005
outburst on Oprah's couch? The film shows how Cruise became the Church's
biggest celebrity asset, reaching over 1 billion people across the world per
the film, to promote its message, but what happened when Cruise had this
couch moment, which reportedly hurt his film career?
4. Why didn't Gibney reach out to Katie Holmes for
comment? Cruise's third wife started studying Scientology soon after she
started dating the actor, but no mention of her was made throughout the entire
film nor was she listed among those the production reached out to in the making of the doc.
5. Did Nicole Kidman know of the wiretap allegations on
her phone when she was married to Cruise? One former Church member -- who's
largely been discredited by the Church -- claimed they
wiretapped Kidman's phone in order to undermine her relationship with
then-husband, Cruise. (She did not participate in the documentary.)
6. Does anyone remember that Cruise allegedly dated Homeland
actress Nazanin Boniadi? In the documentary, it's purported that the
actress was selected and groomed to be Cruise's next girlfriend. However, their
relationship reportedly lasted three months before the Church allegedly ended it.
Google and Getty Image searches
show no results of them to together, outside of Vanity Fair's expose on Cruise's
relationships. The article also reports that Scientology representatives deny any
sort of search or audition took place.
7. Does the Church focus extra attention on promoting
Travolta and Cruise's memberships? There are a number of stars who are a
part of the Church, including GRAMMY Album of the Year winner Beck and Kirstie
Alley. It seems the public has only focused on the two celebrities.
8. Is Paul Haggis' film The Next Three Days a metaphor for escaping the Church? Watch the trailer and you decide.
What did you think of Going Clear? Leave your unanswered questions and comments below and tweet #ETnow.