Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography

This book about Tom Cruise goes in-depth into his childhood and the author went through great lengths to talk to Tom's classmates, teachers, neighbors, etc. There are obscure interviews (that in the past, Tom would prevent journalists from talking to them - even going as far as to sue them) that help explain why Tom is WHO is he today - everything from being beat up by bullies in school to his love life. This talks about his successes and failures both in love and career, but most importantly, it also discusses in impressive detail: scientology and how it affected Tom and the people around him in a very objective way.

As you all may know, Tom and his lawyers have had threatened numerous lawsuits to many newspapers and tabloids (when they discuss his alleged gay life, which Morton also talks about) and I was surprised that the author got away with all the things he said. I think Morton did an UNBELIEVABLE job being objective, speaking truthfully, and from the heart. At the time of this writing, Tom and his lawyers are already discussing a lawsuit against the author for simply speaking the truth. The only people who have claimed anything in this book are falsehoods are the scientologists themselves, and even that was greatly explained in this book because the author went through great lengths to protect himself by showing the previous history of what scientologists did to OTHER authors in the past. Oh yeah. It's quite the story!!!

I'd recommend this book to ANYONE who wants to know the real truth about what's going on with him. Tom holds superior power in the acting industry, and if he doesn't like something, he has many companies "in his pocket" if you know what I mean. The book also talks about the highly-controversial issue where Tom threatened not to promote the movie MI: 3 because Viacom owned Comedy Central and Tom was embarrassed that South Park was making fun of him (and scientologists).

This book discusses EVERYTHING and I do mean - EVERYTHING: his relationships to Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Katie Holmes, etc.... down the detail, including little notes he'd leave around the house for his love interests.

Read it while you can, before Tom threatens the publication house to stop the presses! This TELL-ALL book will answer every Tom-question you've ever wanted to know, including his personal issue against Brooke Shields.

This book is well written, interesting, sympathetic to Tom Cruise but also gives a facinating review of the Cult that has kidnapped this man's brain and life. I have read a lot about Scientology and have found it scary, this book gives the ready a understandable history to how he was sucked in and manipulated. I hope everyone reads this book and knows what Scientology truly are and how they are manipulating this man's life.

I read the so-called controversial Andrew Morton book, found it very balanced and fair, but also telling it like it really is. Now, whether Morton spoke to any current Scientologists when writing this book or not is a moot issue, because the ones that were willing to be quoted that were once in the cult all seemed to say the same thing-that it's an extremely sinister organization, they spy on people, wire tap phones, intimidate and ruin anyone they perceive as a threat or against their cause and ideals. Cruise carefully was selected and targeted to be their highest profile spokesman. He is now spiting this garbage and can't seem it understand why people are fed up with him. His popularity took a 40% nosedive-which is why Sumner Redstone kicked him to the money curb. Notice that John Travolta keeps a much lower profile than Cruise? You never hear him spouting off about how great Scientology is. Travolta is much smarter than Cruise in this respect. No one seems to be irritated with him being a member. I found the book to be very informative, logical and insightful. And I was one a huge Cruise fan. I still think he's a very good actor, however, he has allowed this obsessive passion to impact his career negatively. Scientology would actually be better served by him keeping his misguided thoughts to himself. His self-arrogance and superiority is apparent and people are very turned off, thus, they now pass on his films, and that hits the bottom line. Folks who have even the slightest curiosity about Tom Cruise and why he is now off his rocker should read it. It clearly explains why Cruise thinks he exists on a plane far above other mortals. Sad.

Our first introduction to Scientology was through a private school that has several campuses throughout the U.S. While the Study Technology was a great way to have our child learn (and I have no faults with the academic portion), we became really creeped out when at the graduation ceremony, they showed a video of Tom Cruise attributing RLH and Scientology as the cure for all his dyslexic problems. I found his tale to be fraught with inconsistencies. Of course, the Scientologist parents in the crowd went wild and clapped while the rest of us looked upon the group with jaded eyes. Yes, Scientology is creepy and the people who join the cult are definitely being brain-controlled...and to have it all under the cover of a religion when it is merely a corporation bent on spreading messianic zeal to the vulnerable and gullible.

I bought this book with great skepticism. Andrew Morton is definitely not one of the most well-loved authors of the literary world and all the negative press about the book and its assertions were hype...obviously planted by the Tom Cruise fanatics that want to tube the book. Although I have no idea what percentage of this tale is true, there is no doubt that there is enough truth in it to feel very sorry for Katie Holmes and Suri. I think it is very predictable that Tom will go onto another wife once Katie becomes "inconvenient" or uncontrollable. Too bad that she will have to go thru hell to escape their clutches. There is something truly creepy about Tom Cruise and his almost predatorial pursuit of such a young and malleable woman. The book chronicles all of it and is worth a read.

Tom Cruise's star power is fading. His acting has become one-dimensional. All the same characters, different costume...and I haven't seen any of his movies since he did the Couch jumping. His behavior towards Brooke Shields, etc. and his quest to "turn" stars to Scientology are a huge turn-off.

Note to Katie: daily doeses of caviar and champagne get boring if all you want is a grilled cheese sandwich.

This is an extraordinary book by Andrew Morton. It details the life of Tom Cruise with many secret details. But it also shows the danger of Scientology and how Tom Cruise is one of the key figures in Scientology.

Scientologists often attack and sue those who reveal damaging information about Scientology. It is very courageous of Andrew Morton to be willing to expose Scientology and the harm that Tom Cruise is doing by pushing Scientology on gullible people.

This is an important book to read if you want to remain a free thinking person.. Scientology uses methods of mind control to try to
control and manipulate others. The details are revealed in this book.

I recommend this book very highly to anyone who wants to be better informed. This is a biography about a person who strongly attacks psychiatristry as evil.

Regards.. Bill

This quite a good, informative book. Made all the more amazing since it is about a person who is actually very dull. Tom Cruise comes across as a self-involved individual whose interests are limited to those that, first and always, benefit himself. He is also a not very intelligent, but fanatic, spokesperson for the political cult of Scientology. Mr. Morton's description of Scientology is informative, accurate and downright scary. It can only be hoped that Cruise and Scientology stay on their current self-destructive course and ultimately strip away whatever mystique the cult still has.

This book shows how a talented actor's life has been subverted by the cult. A powerful and telling portrait.

As far as Tom Cruise goes, he comes across no more self-absorbed than any other person in that Hollywood scene in which one is surrounded by yes people. Is he capable of coldness and calculation? Sure. Does he have moments of tenderness and warmth? Of course. But what comes across most here is that he absolutely lacks what most of the world lacks: tolerance.

For me, tolerance is looking at things objectively, deciding if you want to participate, and then NOT denigrating people who make different choices than you do. For example, Catholicism is a choice, just as same sex marriage is a choice. Far be it from me to decide for another human being what is and is not right. People in my opinion are here on Earth to decide that for themselves. But Scientology, like many other belief and particularly religious belief systems, suffers from that peculiar tendency to want to CONVERT everyone to its way of thinking. That is called intolerance, and to me is the mark of a small mind. It makes me think of the Jehovah's Witness I talked to one time. When I told her I felt that it wasn't for me, she informed me that I would be lost, and didn't that bother me? To which I replied, "No, because I don't share that belief. Now if you want to believe in being a Jehovah's Witness, go ahead, good for you." She looked at me with that blank look that Katie Holmes has now, and was so obviously indoctrinated that she quickly moved on to try to convert the next person---because, after all, she knew the TRUTH and the WAY.

Why can't Tom do what he has advised young actors to do, which is handle your own affairs and make your own decisions? Why does he feel he has to have EVERYONE convert to his religion, and then talk about how Scientology is discriminated against? It seems to me by saying Scientology is the ONLY way, he is being as much of a bigot as Hitler did in proclaiming that the Jews alone were responsible for all the problems in the world and deserved to be exterminated. And I'm not just pointing out how Scientology behaves. The religious right is convinced that they---and only they---have the right belief system as well. They are just as deluded, in my opinion, as the Scientologists or anyone else who insists that their way, and ONLY their way, is the correct one.

What comes across as most frightening is the way Tom is NEVER alone. Alone is a powerful thing, in that it forces you to think. It's very difficult to really analytically think if you are distracted all the time, and even more difficult if you have constant handlers in your face all the time preventing you from being alone in order TO think. The scariest thing was when, during the Matt Lauer interview, Matt asks, "If Brooke Shields wants to use drugs for post-partum depression, why isn't that okay?" and Tom responds, "Because I disagree with it." Oh, so Brooke is so stupid that she needs someone like Tom to do her thinking for her? And where is he GETTING his thinking? Does he ever do research outside of what the Scientology people around him are giving him? How can he say he has researched the history of psychiatry when his research has been from Scientology dogma against it?

Don't get me wrong. I don't consider Scientology a religion, but I'm not about to stand up on a soapbox and say with absolute authority it isn't. Who on earth am I to say? Just another reviewer on Amazon, that's who. I'm no authority on anything except what I choose to believe, just like everyone else here. To my way of thinking, I'll paddle my canoe and you paddle yours. What's sad is that I do agree with Morton in that Tom's mask has been slipping in recent years, revealing a very dogmatic person who permits no possibilities other than Scientology to enter his mind. And, in a way, he's doing rather more slowly what Britney Spears has been doing more quickly: unraveling. Both of them seem to be so caught up in their own ideas that they are letting it affect their careers, the careers they supposedly wanted so much. If Morton is to be believed, no wonder Steven Spielberg is distancing himself from Tom. After all, Spielberg wanted Tom to promote their movie, not gush on Oprah about his current obsession with Katie Holmes or leap up onto his Scientology soapbox.

Now there's another thing. Pointedly Oprah was not invited to Tom and Katie's wedding, and if Morton is to be believed, the reason is obvious now: Tom tried to convert Oprah to Scientology and she politely refused. I thought at the time, when Oprah was questioned about it, that she gave what I thought was a very careful answer: "Well, they only had so many invitations," or something to that effect. Huh?? Apparently if you refuse Tom's religious overtures, you are banished. Look how quickly he dumped Penelope Cruz because she wouldn't jump on the Scientology bandwagon. You become, in the Scientology lingo, a "Suppressive Person." Just the phrase itself is scary, in that my immediate thought is, so if you disagree with them, you're to be SUPPRESSED???? Does anyone else besides me keep having Nixon's Enemies List or the fanatic Gestapo come to mind?

This book is disturbing, and for me, one of the most disturbing things is a picture of Katie Holmes, in color, that keeps haunting me---she's smiling for the camera, but her eyes are absolutely dead. No vivacity, no spontaneity, no NOTHING. She looks exactly like someone I met in the 70's who was coming off a two year stint in the Unification Church: robotic, gone and unnaturally still, like a Stepford wife.

Like I said---very, very disturbing.

Let's face it, the Scientologists will do anything to prevent people from practicing their freedom of speech. Unless you agree with them (of course). I think this book is very well written and gives a historical account of the life of the actor. Great job Mr. Morton! I actually felt more compassion for the guy after reading about his life. It is so sad that he fell hard into a cult "religion". The book gives us a better understanding of why he did and who he is today as a result. Thank Heaven we do not repress people from their opinions in America as in other parts of the world! Hopefully this book will make more people aware of the dangers of cults...

Tom Cruise is about as interesting to me as an empty cardboard box but when I saw the book was written by Andrew Morton, I caved. He truly is an excellent writer and by his taking on Scientology never mind many of its celebrity "leaders" who are used to snare the unsuspecting, Mr. Morton has put himself right up there with Rushdie when it comes to courage. It's worth the read just so we on the outside can finally get a well written presentation of a religion that seems to just be a big tax deduction and scam.

Most authors are terrified of what might happen to them and/or their families if they dare to pen the truth about this group so catch some snippets before Morton is sued by those oh so religious folks!