Fair Game

by Steve Cannane

  As 1990 came to a close, David Miscavige must have felt on top of the world. Aged 30, he had been Scientology’s leader for close to five years. He’d just been best man at the Scientology wedding of Hollywood’s hottest couple. The film industry’s most marketable star was about to make Scientology the world’s most marketable new religion. But within six months a public relations disaster would engulf Scientology and help trigger Cruise’s drift away from Miscavige’s orbit.

  IN MAY 1991, TIME magazine published a searing exposé on Scientology, ‘The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power’. Its author, investigative journalist Richard Behar, had stumbled onto Scientology by accident. Working at Forbes magazine in 1985, he and the editorial team had worked out that Hubbard belonged on the Forbes 400 list of America’s wealthiest individuals. ‘I was intrigued by it,’ says Behar, ‘and I dug deeper.’25 The result was an investigation titled ‘The prophet and profits of scientology’ that was published by Forbes the following year. From his research Behar estimated that Hubbard’s empire was worth US$400 million.26

  Five years later Behar conducted another investigation into Scientology. His eight-page cover story for TIME was built on 150 interviews as well as hundreds of court records and internal Scientology documents. Behar came to the conclusion that Scientology was a ‘hugely profitable global racket that survives by intimidating members and critics in a Mafia-like manner’.27 He published allegations that close to half a billion dollars of Scientology money was buried in offshore accounts and aired claims that John Travolta feared his sex life would be exposed if he left Scientology. Behar wrote that critics found themselves ‘engulfed in litigation, stalked by private eyes, framed for fictional crimes, beaten up or threatened with death’.28

  Helping Behar to prove his point, the Church of Scientology served up the journalist his own dose of punishment. TIME magazine and Behar were sued (unsuccessfully) for US$416 million. The case dragged on for a decade. Behar was followed by private investigators for months before and after publication. Investigators illegally obtained copies of his credit report and his phone records.29 Friends, neighbours and former classmates were contacted and asked for information about Behar’s finances, health and whether he had ever taken illicit drugs.

  In 1991, TIME was one of the most influential publications in the world with over four million readers each week.30 In response to the article, Scientology went into overdrive, launching an aggressive public relations campaign to try and counter the damage caused by Behar’s article. It spent millions of dollars on full-page advertisements in the national broadsheet USA Today that ran for 12 weeks.31 The advertising campaign tried to suggest that TIME in the 1930s and ’40s had been sympathetic to Hitler and Mussolini and that its coverage of the illicit drug LSD was responsible for many deaths.32

  The TIME article led to Miscavige going on live television for the first and last time.33 He was interviewed on [the American] ABC TV’s Nightline program by legendary news anchor Ted Koppel nine months after the publication of Behar’s article. The interview was preceded by a two-part story, which included accusations that Scientology tore families apart, ripped off its members and put its critics, including Behar, under surveillance.

  Miscavige had war-gamed the interview for months beforehand with Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder. ‘We would have to sit through hours and hours and hours of him role playing and figuring out how he was going to answer questions,’ says Rinder. ‘It was almost like an obsession. It was like all day this shit would go on and we would be forced to sit there and either take the role of Ted Koppel asking questions or let Miscavige try and pretend to be Ted Koppel and ask us questions and see if he could trip us up.’34

  When Miscavige arrived with his entourage at the ABC News studios in Washington, DC on 14 February 1992, he was confident things were under control. ‘Miscavige thought the set-up story would be like a puff piece intro to him,’ says Rinder. ‘He had gone and met Ted in his office in Washington, DC and thought he had him totally under his thumb. He thought Koppel thought he was this great guy.’35

  As Miscavige settled into the green room, one of Nightline’s producers began to brief him on how the program would work. According to Rinder, they were told there would be two reports, with Miscavige’s interview with Koppel sandwiched in between the two tape items. ‘When he found this out, Miscavige blew a gasket,’ says Rinder. ‘He said, “You’re trying to trick me. I won’t know how to respond to the second piece because I won’t have seen it.” It got very heated. He pushed the guy up against the wall and started screaming in his face. The compromise was to show both pieces at the top of the show.’36

  The interview went for close to an hour. Miscavige made a series of bewildering claims. He portrayed himself as a victim of harassment, said the TIME piece was done at the behest of Eli Lilly, the drug company who made Prozac, and claimed that Richard Behar ‘was on record on two occasions attempting to get Scientologists kidnapped’.37

  Behar had done no such thing. Koppel pressed Miscavige on this allegation and asked if it were true, why hadn’t charges been laid? Miscavige misleadingly said it was because ‘he didn’t succeed’ with the kidnapping. The veteran news anchor pointed out attempted kidnapping was also a crime. Miscavige had gone into the interview underestimating Koppel. ‘Miscavige thought he was much smarter than Ted Koppel, but Koppel really played him,’ says Rinder. ‘He was way, way, way over-matched for Miscavige. I was just thankful I wasn’t the one in the hot seat.’38

  Afterwards, Miscavige was in no mood to hang around the ABC studios. ‘He walked into the green room and said let’s get the fuck out of here,’ says Rinder.39 Miscavige and his aides went out the back of the studios for a smoke. When Miscavige asked how he went, Rinder and fellow Scientology executive Norman Starkey lavished praise on Scientology’s leader. They had little choice. If Miscavige had delivered a poor performance, it would have been their fault for not briefing him properly.

  Ted Koppel won an Emmy for the interview. His probing questions got under the skin of Scientology’s leader. ‘I don’t think Miscavige completely bought that everything was fabulous,’ says Rinder. ‘I think he got rattled by some of Koppel’s questions and realised it could get a lot worse. I mean, what if someone asked him about OT III?’40 Miscavige never appeared on live television again.

  The Nightline interview had given the world a small insight into the abrasive personality of Scientology’s secretive leader. Nicole Kidman was only 25 at the time but she knew enough already to form her own character assessment. The young actress was becoming increasingly irritated by Miscavige’s behaviour and the influence it was having on her husband. ‘Her biggest beef was that Tom was becoming increasingly like Dave,’ says Marty Rathbun.41 ‘She smelled a rat. Him being all about power and image and wealth, and his obsession with Tom. She was onto him.’42 Something had to give.

  Nicole Kidman was from a well-read family with a keen interest in politics and international affairs. Her parents campaigned against the Vietnam War. Her mother, Janelle, was a member of the Women’s Electoral Lobby, a feminist group aimed at increasing women’s political power and representation. As a child Nicole would hand out how-to-vote cards for the Labor Party on election day.43 Dinner table discussions were dominated by talk of politics, injustice and human rights. When confronted by both Miscavige’s personal behaviour and the revelations contained in the TIME exposé, she was never going to let it slide. It was time to withdraw from Scientology and take Tom with her.

  ‘The TIME magazine article had a big influence on Nicole,’ says Rathbun. ‘She was already pushing him away from Scientology. Tom started acting like Miscavige, like a little zealot and Nicole abhorred it. She could see what she didn’t like about Miscavige and the church and the TIME article exacerbated it. The TIME article gave her a wedge to stop Tom’s involvement and it worked.’44

  Rathbun says Kidman and Cruise drifted from Scientology from around 1992.45

  The TIME article and M
iscavige’s behaviour weren’t the only reasons Kidman was turning away from Scientology. By now she had also been exposed to its teachings on her father’s profession. Marty Rathbun had taken Kidman through the Potential Trouble Source/Suppressive Person (PTS/SP) course. ‘I was assigned to get her to understand the evils of psychology and psychiatry,’ says Rathbun, ‘and to come to the correct conclusion about her father.’46 The session did not go down well with Kidman. ‘It was a dismal disaster,’ says Rathbun. ‘It just backfired.’47

  Rathbun says initially Kidman was drawn to certain aspects of Scientology. ‘In reality there’s a lot of neat little things that Scientology does,’ he says, ‘and she thought they were pretty neat.’ But Kidman’s attitude noticeably changed when Scientology’s teachings on the mental health profession were laid out before her. ‘When it got to that point,’ says Rathbun, ‘where she needed to be read the riot act, or she needed to come to the realisation that her connection to her psychologist father was a negative, I think that was probably the first thing that sent red flags up for her.’48

  After Kidman and Cruise left Int Base, the actress stopped taking Scientology courses. ‘She hadn’t officially said that she didn’t want to continue,’ says Bruce Hines, ‘but she showed no interest. She was sort of resisting going back to the international headquarters where she could do OT III.’49 Hines was assigned to haul Kidman back in and get her on track. He had previously had success turning around opera singer Julia McGinnis who had been planning to leave Scientology. ‘That went well,’ says Hines, ‘so I had a feather in my cap. When something came up with the big names, I became the guy of choice.’50

  Hines had audited a range of celebrities and big names such as Kirstie Alley, Chick Corea and Mary Sue Hubbard. He didn’t know it at the time, but Scientology’s network of spies had informed Miscavige that Kidman was the one responsible for getting Cruise to drift from Scientology. If Nicole could be convinced to get back on the Bridge, the logic was that Tom would follow.

  Hines received his written instructions at Int Base. He was to conduct an auditing session with Kidman at the Celebrity Centre in Los Angeles. He was to ask her whether she had any problems, or if there was anything she was concerned about. Hines was meant to determine whether she was withholding any information that could account for her loss of interest in Scientology auditing.

  Hines hopped into a borrowed Honda Civic with Ray Mithoff, the man who had officiated at Cruise and Kidman’s wedding in Colorado. The pair drove 150 km from Int Base to Los Angeles where they met Kidman. The actress had taken time off from her busy filming schedule. Armed with her preclear folder, full of the intimate secrets she had disclosed during previous auditing sessions, Hines got to work.

  Kidman held on to the cans of the E-Meter as Hines asked his preordained questions. ‘It was an auditing session,’ says Hines, ‘and so it was very formal. You have written instructions ahead of time and you’re not allowed to vary from those instructions.’51 Hines asked his questions, but didn’t get the answers Scientology was hoping for. ‘The session didn’t last very long,’ he says. ‘She seemed pretty happy about everything, happy about her life. She said, “No, I’m not upset about anything.”’52 Whatever she was thinking, Kidman resisted criticising either Miscavige or Scientology. According to Hubbard’s doctrine, if Kidman had been lying or withholding information it would have shown up on the E-Meter.

  Looking back, Hines believes Kidman was going through the motions. ‘She acted as if she was very willing to do it,’ says Hines, ‘but in retrospect she’s a great actress and I don’t know what she really, really thought. I think she was doing it to be polite and she was willing to go through with it, but at the same time I don’t think she was willing to talk about all the details of her life. I would say that probably she had sort of moved on by then and she wasn’t bothered about Scientology, she seemed sort of past it.’53 A former Kidman staffer agrees with Hines’s assessment. ‘She got tired of it, she was done with it,’ he says. ‘It was sucking up her time and she’d rather read a film script than more Scientology books.’54

  That Kidman had moved beyond Scientology was easy to understand, that she had taken Cruise with her, might seem harder to fathom. This is the man Miscavige would later describe publicly as ‘the most dedicated Scientologist I know’, while presenting him with a specially struck ‘Freedom Medal of Valor’.55

  Former staffers to both Cruise and Kidman gave me rare insights into what was going on behind the scenes in their relationship and how Scientology had meddled in their marriage. These ex-employees were able to shine a light on how Kidman was able to get Cruise to drift from Scientology and what happened when Cruise decided to return to the fold. They spoke to me anonymously but at great personal risk. Both Cruise and Kidman make their staff sign strict confidentiality agreements. The former staffers I spoke to believed there was a strong public interest in exposing how Scientology had got its claws into Kidman and Cruise’s relationship and helped end their marriage.

  One former member of Cruise’s staff told me the actor stopped getting audited and attending Scientology events because he was besotted with his new wife. ‘He was absolutely obsessed with Nicole from the moment he met her,’ the former employee told me. ‘If she said jump, he would say how high. I’m not kidding you. So if she didn’t want to be involved in Scientology anymore, he wouldn’t be involved anymore. Even though it was his life and blood and he thought it was the greatest thing and it was going to save mankind, it doesn’t matter. If Nicole was into it, he was into it, if not, he wasn’t.’56

  Cruise’s obsession with Kidman was obvious to all those around the couple. One former staffer described it as ‘suffocating’.57 Others found it endearing. His infatuation with his wife was on display each time his driver took him back to the pair’s Los Angeles mansion after a day’s filming. ‘He would be dropped off at the front lawn which was maybe 25 yards from the front door,’ a former staffer told me, ‘and he would sprint to the front of the house and open the door and yell, “Nic! Nic!” and run to wherever she was.’58

  Within Scientology’s elite circles Cruise’s sudden lack of enthusiasm for Scientology was being noticed. According to Marty Rathbun, in 1993 Cruise and Kidman left halfway through the annual gala for the International Association of Scientologists, a move that upset Miscavige.59 Nora Crest, who worked at the Celebrity Centre in Los Angeles, says it was obvious by the mid-1990s that Cruise was no longer turning up. ‘He used to come to Celebrity Centre frequently; we used to get parts of the building locked down at least once a month or so when he turned up. Then when he was drifting from Scientology he wasn’t there at all. He’d come to the gala once a year and that was it.’60

  Kidman may have gotten Cruise to drift from Scientology, but the Scientologists never drifted far from Cruise. He continued to employ a number of Scientologists who worked with him on movie sets, flew him around on his Gulfstream jet, managed his affairs and ran his household. The most significant of these was his personal assistant, Michael Doven. Cruise referred to him as ‘The Dovenator’. Doven knew everything Cruise was up to. Kidman may have thought she got Scientology out of her relationship, but she never quite got it out of her house.

  Michael Doven was hired to work for Tom Cruise around the time they were shooting Far and Away, Ron Howard’s 1992 feature, which starred Kidman and Cruise as a pair of Irish immigrants trying to make a new start in the US in the 1890s. According to Marty Rathbun, Doven was chosen for the job, not by Cruise, but by the Church of Scientology. ‘Doven was approved by Miscavige,’ says Rathbun, ‘after he ordered all sorts of people with administrative experience, who were OTs or very advanced Scientologists, to be searched to find the ideal personal assistant for Cruise.’61

  A native of Colorado, with an interest in extreme sports and photography, Doven was a devout Scientologist. Eventually he would lay claim to being the first person to complete and be tested on Scientology’s ‘Golden Age of Knowledge for All Eter
nity’. This involved watching around 1500 hours’ worth of Hubbard’s lectures and reading thousands of Hubbard’s essays and bulletins.62 ‘He was a robot of Scientology,’ a former co-worker told me. ‘He knew everything there was to know about the study tech and all that bullshit.’63

  Doven may have been paid by Cruise, but there was little doubt within Scientology’s executive where his loyalties lay. ‘He was briefed from the outset that his senior was Miscavige, not Tom Cruise,’ says Rathbun. ‘His job was to facilitate Tom Cruise’s career but he had a separate brief to keep him on board and loyal to Miscavige.’64 Rathbun says that Doven, for over two decades, was a ‘card carrying, deep cover mole into the life and family of Tom Cruise’.65 Mike Rinder, who attended top-level meetings with Doven when the pair were trying to get the infamous South Park episode pulled off air, agrees with Rathbun. ‘It was very clear that Doven’s loyalties were first to Miscavige and second to Tom Cruise,’ says Rinder.66

  According to one former Cruise staffer, Doven was the perfect man for the job. ‘I never knew Doven was spying on them,’ he told me, ‘but it would’ve been so easy to do because he knew everything about Tom. He knew every call he made. He knew everything he was doing from the time he woke up till the time he went to bed. Doven knew everything.’67 When I rang Michael Doven to ask him to comment on his role with Tom Cruise he hung up on me. He did not respond to any of the allegations I put to him via email.

  A loyal Scientologist, Doven put up with tirades of verbal abuse from Cruise for the greater good of his mission. After one humiliating episode of screaming and ranting from Cruise, a muscular security guard said he would hold his boss down so Doven could give him a beating. Doven declined the offer. ‘He said don’t ever interfere,’ an ex-Cruise staffer told me. ‘That’s the kind of Scientology robot he was.’68