Uncover the shadowy corners of Scientology as our investigation reveals the untold story of their ironclad grip on narratives and personal reputations. This episode pulls the curtain back on the Office of Special Affairs and their unwavering defense mechanisms, guided by historical documents that suggest past strategies are still at play. We navigate through the high-stakes world of Tom Cruise, from a critical meeting at Creative Artists Agency to the tense underbelly of Hollywood contract wars, showcasing how Scientology's influence extends far beyond spiritual beliefs.
Prepare for a rollercoaster of intrigue and power moves as we dissect a pivotal debrief that could have upended Cruise's career, and expose the machinations of media control that rival any Hollywood drama. The stakes are high, the players are secretive, and their actions reverberate through the industry. Step behind the scenes with us as we explore how Scientology, celebrity, and the pursuit of power coalesce in a tale that's as gripping as any blockbuster film.
Uncover the shadowy corners of Scientology as our investigation reveals the untold story of their ironclad grip on narratives and personal reputations. This episode pulls the curtain back on the Office of Special Affairs and their unwavering defense mechanisms, guided by historical documents that suggest past strategies are still at play. We navigate through the high-stakes world of Tom Cruise, from a critical meeting at Creative Artists Agency to the tense underbelly of Hollywood contract wars, showcasing how Scientology's influence extends far beyond spiritual beliefs.
Prepare for a rollercoaster of intrigue and power moves as we dissect a pivotal debrief that could have upended Cruise's career, and expose the machinations of media control that rival any Hollywood drama. The stakes are high, the players are secretive, and their actions reverberate through the industry. Step behind the scenes with us as we explore how Scientology, celebrity, and the pursuit of power coalesce in a tale that's as gripping as any blockbuster film.
Welcome to the channel. I'm Mark Hedley, your host for today. Welcome to another episode of Scientology's Tom Cruise spy files. Before we get started on today's documents, I wanted to answer a few questions that I've seen in the comments of the videos over the last few weeks and in regards to the spy files and some of the things that we're covering. One of the first questions I've gotten a lot of is why are we covering these documents that took place over a decade or, in some cases, almost two decades ago? Well, first of all, those are the documents that are leaked, so those are the ones we're covering.
Speaker 1:
But second of all, in Scientology, elron Hubbard is the one they consider source, and all of Scientology's policies, all of the way they do the counseling, every single thing that's codified in Scientology was written by Elron Hubbard, and we're talking thousands and thousands of policies and bulletins and rules and all sorts of things, and one of the key things that he did in regards to these policies and these rules is the first rules are you can never change these policies or rules. So anything that Elron Hubbard wrote is the sacred texts in Scientology. Now, in addition to writing thousands of policies on how they do all the what they call counseling, which is the auditing where you hold the cans on the emeter and you try to get rid of the space aliens. He also wrote policies on how the organizations are supposed to be run and who's supposed to report to who and who does what duties and how they do those duties, and down to the nth degree, he has codified and documented every way they're supposed to do it. Now, most of these policies were written in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Now, in addition to all those policies, elron Hubbard also wrote what you've seen them referred to in some of the, the files that we've covered, these things that are called OSA network orders, and those are policies for the Office of Special Affairs, and those policies were written when the OSA's predecessor, the Guardian's office, was operating and when Hubbard was writing them things to do. Those things that he directed them became the policies that they operated off of for the rest of time. So if you've got an OSA network order that was written by Elron Hubbard in 1971 or 1969, those policies are the exact same policies that the Office of Special Affairs follows to this day and they can never not do those policies, and that's one of the things that makes Scientology predictable to some degree on how they'll handle things in relation to private investigators and lawyers and attack ladders and stuff like that is because those are codified things that they have to do. They have one of the things they have to do, no matter what is being done they have to establish the enemy's loves and their hates and they have to attack the things they love and amp up the things that they hate. That's they have to do that no matter what. That's what Hubbard said to do. So that's what they have to do. So the policies Never change, so that what they do can really never change. So in the fact that we're covering these documents today that are Talking about a South Park episode that Tom Cruise and Scientology are the subject of, scientology is losing their minds, david, miss Gavigan, scientology are freaking out that there is an episode of a cartoon on a comedy central cable channel that's talking bad about Scientology.
Speaker 1:
Can you imagine what they're doing today? You've? Can you imagine what happened when going clear, the movie going clear, came out by Alex Gibney and Lawrence Wright? Or when the Leah Remini and the aftermath Scientology in the aftermath TV show came out? Or the Louis Thoreau movie, or the books and they. There's so many things that are happening right now and Scientology are likely up to all sorts of nonsense in the background. Training at these things. Shut down, because that's what they have to do and those are the policies that they have to follow. Okay, so that's the first.
Speaker 1:
The second question was there's a lot of people have written to me and I did ask people. I said, hey, if you think you're in a file, let me know. And if I, if you wrote to me and asked me to search it and I didn't answer you, then that means I couldn't find anything where you were in any of these files. And the thing I wanted. A lot of people are surprised that we're covering Tom Cruise or we're covering Rolling Stone or LA Times. What about all the the nitty-gritty people?
Speaker 1:
If you are a Scientologist or you were wronged by a Scientologist, let's in the middle of Kia cuck at some Scientology outpost. It's that organizations problem to deal with you. Unless you are causing International press or an, you're writing a movie or a TV show or a book, that's gonna go, it's gonna affect Scientology Internationally, osa International and the International headquarters of Scientology. They're not gonna know about your thing because that's for the local organization to handle, and if they don't handle it it's for the local continental organization to handle. And I don't think unless that problem, wherever it was in Kansas City or Adelaide or, you know, brighton or whatever, or get was Scientology or it was in the world, unless that thing is going to become an International flap or it's going to, it's gonna be talking about David Miss Gavage or Tom Cruise or something like that. The International, osa International and the in base likely have no, no info on it because it's not their problem, and and so Most of the files that we're gonna cover are gonna be about International things that are happening or something that's going to directly attack David Miss Gavage, tom Cruise or Scientology.
Speaker 1:
I'd say 95% of what OSA International does is deal with International articles, media, tv shows, movies, books or Keeping Scientology and David Miss Gavage out of lawsuits. So that's what OSA International works, on, those things. And so I'd say 95% of these documents are gonna be about those types of things and that's what we're gonna cover and it also, even though they might be, not be talking about these people and then the in that I like it there in the far flung orgs, osa is likely the local OSA Office of Special Affairs or the local Director of Special Affairs in the organization is still gonna be doing this type of stuff to a lesser or greater degree. He's not gonna be meeting with power agents in Hollywood, but he is gonna be trying to dig up any information and maybe, you know, talk to the person's friends and find out who their enemies are and that stuff they're gonna do, but it's gonna be done locally. So I hope that answers that question. And if you had a family member that was in Scientology and they got wronged or they did something wrong or they they did Committed a crime or whatever, your local Office of Special Affairs is likely where that information or those files are gonna be located.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so, as we do in all these documents, the first thing we're gonna cover is the key players. So let's bring that up, okay. Scientology's Tom Cruise spy files key players. Of course we have David Miss Gavage, chairman of the board RTC religious technology Center. We've got Tom Cruise, teen matinee idol. We've got Mike Rinder, who was WDCO said at the time. We've got Bert Fields that's Tom Cruise's lawyer, michael Doven he is the head of Odin Productions. That's Tom Cruise's Entertainment production company in Los Angeles. And we've got Paul Block he is Tom Cruise's publicist, brad Gray, the CEO of Paramount, kevin Huvane he was the head of CAA creative artists agency, which is the the agency that reps Tom Cruise at the time and Rick Nassida, and that was Tom Cruise's specific CAA agent.
Speaker 1:
Okay, let's get to the document now. This first document is kind of a throwaway, I will admit. In the very last video we did the last Tom Cruise spy files we did there was a document that was laying out all the things that were happening in relation to Comedy Central and Paramount and Viacom and the timeline of all the people moving around. Well, it looks like they're about to have a meeting with a bunch of these people and what they did was they just took all of that timeline and they just made that a document and it's called Briefing Sheet. And as far as I know, this Briefing Sheet, it looks like it was distributed to the people on Scientology's side that are about to attend this meeting and it is literally a cut and paste of one of the last video's documents. So I'm going to show it here and we'll kind of skip through it, but I'm not going to read the entire thing because it's literally I checked it it is a cut and paste out of the other document. So it says read Comedy Central, paramount, slash, viacom, and it says analysis of the data since Tom Freston came on, and then it just goes through all the different things. Les Moonves takes over, sherry Lansing left. Second page they have these different articles that were written who's supporting what David Geffen doesn't like? Tom Cruise? And then I'm talking about Doug Herzog. How isn't he? He's really excited to meet Tom Cruise, but South Park just did an episode on Scientology, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so that's that document. Okay, now that was from. That document is from. Let me see what exactly it's from.
Speaker 1:
This briefing sheet is from 6 December, okay, and so this next document is called Debrief 7 December, and this document is the is essentially the minutes that were taken at that meeting and it's a debrief. So let's get into it. It's from 7 December. It says debrief of meeting at CAA Again, that's Creative Artists Agency, and I will try to explain anything in here as we go, but for the most part, this is what happened at this meeting with all these folks, and it's most of the key players that we brought up are at this meeting. So it says the meeting began at 8 30 am in a conference room at CAA with Michael Dovan, mike Render, burt Fields, kevin Huvane, rick Nassida, paul Block and Arnold Robinson. Arnold Robinson is, I think, a partner at the PR firm or works at the PR firm that Paul Block is. I think it was called Rowan and Countow or something like that. I'll put it, I'll put it up on the screen.
Speaker 1:
Whatever the company, the, the public PR agency that they worked at was, we started with the LA Times and, okay, so if you watch these earlier documents, la Times is going to do a story on Scientology and and it's happening like it's they're getting it ready or it just aired, or I mean it just came out or something like that, but it's been going on for months and months and months. We started with the LA Times and Dovan giving an R factor that we were there because action needed to be taken on the LA Times in South Park and we would start with the LA Times as this was immediate, as they were working on completing the story. Okay, an R factor is means a reality factor. It just means when you explained, when you explain to everybody what's going on, what is the reality of what we're dealing with. That's called an R factor in Scientology. Okay, we handed out the questions and everyone read them.
Speaker 1:
Paul Block said his reading of the questions is that this is a story about Tom Cruise being controlled by the church and David Miscavige, and when they say church, that means Scientology. In case you guys weren't catching that, everyone agreed with him. I gave some background on what had happened with the reporter and the history with Graham Berry. That that Bert chimed in on oh, that Bert chimed in on and said was an absolute, outrageous false stuff. I told them that the bottom line is that this is an attack on Tom Cruise and the LA Times isn't going to have any impact on the church or David Miscavige, but it's targeted at the entertainment industry and trying to influence this and they have a responsibility to act on this. Michael added to this and said that Tom Cruise is the biggest movie star in history. Did his biggest movie in ever was awarded two lifetimes? Oh, did his biggest movie in ever? I don't know what that means. There's so many type of things. Did his biggest movie in ever was awarded two lifetime achievement awards this year and it is not okay that they are trying to attack him.
Speaker 1:
We both were quite forceful on this at the outset. Okay, we should play a drinking game for this document on how many times Mike or Dovan or anybody talks about how awesome Tom Cruise is. So if you guys want to play, drink responsibly. But, and you can take a shot of apple juice if you want, it doesn't matter to me. Or hot choc, hot cocoa, but I'm going to take a sip every time Michael Dovan or somebody in this document says how awesome Tom Cruise is, it's just water, okay, okay, immediately, bert stated that he is writing a letter and cc the legal department and putting them on notice, as this is the same old crap and this is not something that anyone can sit around and watch happen. Yeah, these people are all being paid thousands and thousands of dollars to say this. By the way, kevin Huvane then started. Except for Michael Dovan and Mike Rinder, everybody else is making money right now while they're doing this.
Speaker 1:
Kevin Huvane then started and he got on more of a roll as he went on. He said he was going to call the LA Times with Rick and that that this in itself would create a stir, as they never, or very rarely, speak to the media and definitely don't reach out for out for them. Both said that it was outrageous and that the implication is that anyone else is involved in his career. They do every deal and handle every cycle and they have done so with Bert fields for nearly 20 years and there has never been any involvement with the church and he has never even met David Miss Gavage. Okay, so now he's talking about Kevin Huvane, his agent. What they don't know is that Tom Cruise is talking to David Miss Gavage full time and that David Miss Gavage and Scientology have saturated Tom Cruise's entire world with Scientologists and Scientology spies that report everything to Scientology Everything. Okay, so it's funny that he's like, yeah, we've never even met David Miss Gavage. Yeah, your boy, tommy, is the one who's meeting with him.
Speaker 1:
That the whole slant and tone of this is discriminatory. I asked him what would happen if he substituted the word Je W or Catholic for Scientologists, and he said that he had been thinking the exact same thing. He said he wanted to go on record and get quotes in the article from them, as this is crap. Rick echoed his sentiments and said that he thought Paula should also be calling the LA Times. Paula is Paula Wagner, who was his Tom Cruise's producing partner at the time. Kevin got more riled up and said we are known as the mafia because people say we intimidate people and it is time for us to do so. Whoa, that was Kevin Huvane, kevin did Kevin say that? Let's let me read this up anymore? Kevin got more riled up and said we are known as the mafia because people say we intimidate people and it is time for us to do so. I think this is probably going to have to be a short.
Speaker 1:
Kevin started talking about how outrageous this is that someone can be attacked for their religion in the United States and wouldn't the ACLU do something about this? And we need to get more groups on board, as he is sick of seeing this man attacked for his religion. Well, if your religion is ripping off old people and destroying families and conning people and is a giant pyramid scheme, that makes David Miscavige a multi-multi-millionaire and no one is being helped. I think this one point might be up for debate. There was some discussion about this, with Bert saying he thinks the ACLU would take the other side. Ie free speech, but we should check it out. Rick then says that was Bert, tom Cruise's lawyer, by the way. I love how they get all riled up and they're like grabbing the pitchforks and the torches. And Bert's like hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's, it's a free speech issue. He made an X. Rick then says he is on the board of the California ACLU and he is going to speak to the head of the ACLU, bonanza, ricky Boy, going for it. Okay.
Speaker 1:
Page two they talked more about the questions and how outrageous they are. And what about his box office and the fact that he is hardworking, decent, ethical person? The gold standard is how Rick described him. Everyone agreed that what was needed was a full-out assault and that the objective should be to pull the underpinning out from this concocted story. There was no CI at all. They knew this was serious as they were all gathered together at 8.30 am and didn't attend their staff meeting at CAA. Ci means counterintention. It just means someone who's against what you're doing. So the calls are being made with Block First, then Kevin and Rick and Paula and concurrently the letter with Bert. Okay, so that was all just about dealing with some questions that an author, a writer, kim Christensen, had sent to them and they needed to answer those questions.
Speaker 1:
We took up South Park. Burt said he was bright a letter to Summer, redstone and Freston. I briefed them on the time track. They each read it. Kevin commented that Sherry Lanson had green-lighted the South Park movie and when he told her he thought it was inappropriate because they unalived five of his clients, including Tim Robbins and Sean Penn, that she told him the movie was funny and not to worry about it. He said that he agreed she was a good ally but that she also pushed South Park. Kevin explained that he had given an ultimatum to Brad Gray to handle it or he was going up the org board and that if that didn't get it handled then he would recommend his client go to some other family with the family members. Didn't torpedo him.
Speaker 1:
They said that even Saturday Night Live hasn't done anything. That was a permanent, what do you call it? They jinxed themselves Hasn't done anything and that it is all coming from Viacom companies and it is really sick. Rick made a comment about Gray being concerned about there being a flap, about stopping free expression, and Michael leaped halfway across the table and slammed his fist down and said F that, f, that, f, that that's BS and this is a business decision and they have six billion in income at stake that they can tell that little s to drop dead or words Similarly drink. Rick was kind of startled and he said you're right, there was no more Q and a about this. Q and a means question and answer in Scientology and it means when you kind of waffle on getting something done and instead of just doing the thing, you kind of go like well, I don't know, and maybe this, and you give yourself questions and answers. There was no Q and a about this.
Speaker 1:
Bert said he would hold on. Bert said he would hold on his letter until Kevin heard back. Kevin said he made it clear to Brad Gray that no answer will be treated as no handling and he will move up to Sumner. He said he thinks Brad Gray will try to call Tom and for Doven to make sure he doesn't take his calls, that he is threatening them and he doesn't want them to call Tom and get the idea he knows nothing about the show. As Doven said, tom is not briefed on this.
Speaker 1:
So to undermine the threats he is making, kevin said he would rather have the small newspaper article about someone at Paramount squashing the show and even be quoted in it, than have a video clip that could be re-air. Wow, they're going hard to the mat right now. He said Moonves had no problem pulling the plug on the Reagan show on CBS. That's in relation to a TV show I think it was called the Reagan's or Reagan's, and Les Moonves canceled it. It was like a mini series on Ronnie and Nancy Reagan.
Speaker 1:
He said that it is time to play hardball on this and that this is what he would do. No other studio would treat their biggest star this way, and Gray knows he has until the end of the day to get back to him, or he would be treating it as he couldn't or wouldn't handle it and will then go up the Ork board. Bert agreed not to send his letter until Gray had the chance to respond. There was then some discussion about contract negotiations and Bert said Brad Gray will be terrified if he thinks the contract is in jeopardy that now is the time to apply some pressure. Kevin and Rick agreed they left it that they were going to put together a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the other studios. Doven told them that the ideal scene is that Paramount comes around and they work with them for another 40 years, but it is a matter of whether they are going to do the right thing or not. Bonanza Okay, next page.
Speaker 1:
Paul Block then called Kim Christensen. He told him he got the questions and that he had spoken to CAA and that they would be contacting him concerning them, that he had only one comment, being new on the team, that not time during his hiring, briefing or representation has there been any mention of Scientology or David Baskavage and he has nothing to do with Tom Cruise making movies and that is a fact and that he can be quoted. Christensen told him he appreciated the call and that he was going out on another assignment and, if asked, the CAA people could call him in the afternoon as he will be out for a while. Paul said that he didn't sound like he was in a big hurry but was a bit surprised that CAA would be willing to talk on the record. Once Kevin, paula and Rick have reached Christensen, I will send a further report and Bert will send over a copy of the letter. This is okay. Much love, mike. Okay, so really, at the end of the day, mike and Michael Doven Mike Rinder, michael Doven met with Tom Cruise's agents and all of the people that are kind of on Tom Cruise's team in the in the cruise entertainment team, and they all talked about how awesome Tom Cruise was and how shitty Paramount was. That's really, at the end of the day, which has happened.
Speaker 1:
Now I should note there are a few more documents. They kind of switch over to just Comedy Central in general because, as we mentioned in the last video, in the last documents Andy Dick was gonna do some skit show about Tom and Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes wedding and he was gonna be their wedding planner in this skit. So that's still in the oven being cooked up and Scientology and Michael Doven and all Tom Cruise's camp are trying to shut down all this stuff and it doesn't look like it's gonna get shut down. So we'll have to see what happens in the next documents. But I hope you guys enjoy these.
Speaker 1:
I hope you this gives you an idea of what happens behind the scenes in these Scientology and OSA meetings. We don't really get a chance. There's not a lot of meetings like this where the OSA folks are going out into the real world and meeting with these professionals, and it really does seem like Michael Doven, like there was a time period around this time where Michael Doven got in trouble because Tom Cruise was during the years the early like the late 90s and the early 2000s kind of. Tom Cruise was moving away from Scientology and when he got back in he was so fanatical that he was getting mad at Michael Doven for not being a better Scientologist. So Michael Doven had to switch over into fanatical zone in order to stay in Odin Productions and it looks like he's still in that mode when he's jumping on the conference table, slamming it and freaking out in meetings with these lawyers and agents and stuff like that. So that's kind of wild. There are stories about Tom Cruise throwing Michael Doven into a refrigerator and denting the refrigerator Like that's how Tom Cruise is reportedly allegedly dealing with his own employees that are Scientologists so they don't mess around in the Tom Cruise world.
Speaker 1:
And I'm trying to find him. I haven't been able to find these documents again, but there are some documents about ethics, handlings and interrogations being done at Odin Productions by Seawork members. So I'm gonna see if I can pull those up and find those. And yeah, it's kind of wild. But that's our document for today. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for sticking around till the very end and until next time. Thanks a lot, until next time you.