Tom, Katie, Suri and the Media Reaction

When I first started this blog, my primary intention was to clear up the misinformation about Scientology, the Church of Scientology and ex-Scientologists.  Sometimes I think I've done a good job.  Then there are times, like recently, when I'm amazed at how much misinformation still persists.

Katie recently had her dad fire all her Scientology "handlers" and help her file for divorce from Tom Cruise in New York.

The media has gone absolutely crazy with the news and got some very important things totally wrong.  Don't they do research any more?

What the media got right:
The media has rather consistently framed Katie's actions as an "escape from Scientology".  Correct, it is.

The media has viewed Scientology as weird and dangerous.  Again, correct.

The media appears to consider Suri turning six as the primary trigger for the divorce and Katie asking for sole custody of Suri.  I also believe this is correct.

There are other, less important things, that the media got mostly right.

What the media got wrong:
No, Suri was not in any danger of being "sent to the Sea Org".  That outcome is not and was not in the cards.  While I have never seen or heard of a six year old in the Sea Org,  that isn't the point.  Celebrities do not get sent to the Sea Org and Suri, because of her parents, is a celebrity.

Many years ago, Yvonne Jentzsch, who ran Scientology's "Celebrity Centre" used to make some celebrities "honorary Sea Org members".  These people never did any Sea Org things, they just continued whatever they were famous for, but that idea died with Yvonne.

Today, celebrities, and their children, are coddled and, if they are top tier like Tom or Katie, they are assigned "handlers" to spy on them and keep them isolated.

No, Suri going to the Sea Org wasn't what Katie feared.

Suri was not in danger of being "sent to the RPF".  That's just stupid.

Suri was not going to be "interrogated" (Sec Checked), at least not right away.

None of the media understood the very real danger Suri was in.

Suri's actual danger:
L. Ron Hubbard said that you don't "audit" a child before they turn six.  Auditing, in this case, means all the Scientology activities that use the "e-meter".

So, that meant no "counselling sessions", no "word clearing" (no Scientology courses) and no "Sec Checks".  And that meant that Suri wasn't getting any of the standard Scientology indoctrination.

But that was just about to end.  Suri was six.  Time to get her "in session" and "on course". You just know that Tom was heavily pressuring Katie to get Suri active in Scientology.

The divorce is Katie's unequivocal answer.

Good for you Katie, you did exactly the right thing: get Suri somewhere safe where the cult can't indoctrinate her.

UPDATE
It has now been reported (July 9th) that Katie and Tom have reached a settlement in this divorce.

This was completely expected.  Tom Cruise would have received strict, emergency instructions, directly from David Miscavige, to "keep Scientology out of this!"  The divorce was tied directly to Scientology and every report was mentioning all the reasons why Katie needed to get Suri away from "Scientology's evil, abusive, cultic influence" (or something like that).  Miscavige would have been going insane.

So, Tom needed all this to go away.  Details have not been announced, but IMHO Tom pretty much had to give Katie what she was asking for to make this settlement happen so quickly.

UPDATE 2
I hate to brag but, as the details have been leaked about the settlement, it looks like my prediction was the only one that called it 100%.  Katie got everything she asked for and Tom got the "shore story" that this had "absolutely nothing to do with Scientology", just as I predicted.
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