DECEMBER 2020: Tom Cruise recently made world news over
leaked audio on his set of Mission Impossible 7. He went nuts and had a
David Miscavige style meltdown over
a Coronavirus issue involving crew people standing too close. Scientology
Church leader David Miscavige called the novel Coronavirus pandemic of 2019
a "global bullbait" which is sort of like their version of "fake news."
FINANCIAL DISCLAIMER

When
my parents divorced in 1979 my mom moved us from Cincinnati Ohio to near
Johnstown Pennsylvania. When I was in high school Cruise came to Johnstown
to shoot the movie “All the Right Moves.” That brought jobs and attention
to the area’s lack of employment for young people.
Later I moved
back to my hometown of Cincinnati. One day downtown in 1988 while protesting
Ronald Reagan’s (non-existent) AIDS policies I saw Tom Cruise in person.
He and Dustin Hoffman were in a classy yellow 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible
pulled by a tow car. A big Panavision type camera was attached. It was the
first time I saw a Hollywood movie production. They were shooting “Rainman”
which won 1988’s best picture Oscar and brought jobs and attention to the
Tri-State area. It helped inspire me to want to work in movies.

I
moved to Hollywood California and in 2003 worked uncredited on the Cruise
movie Last Samurai. I shot virtual arrows at Tom Cruise, a man I could not
stand personally, in a dopey “guy gets shot over and over while pretending
to stagger” scene. Who does that in reality? But I didn’t’ care. Four out
of five movies I work on stink. I still got paid to keep my skills sharp
so the next movie will look better. Maybe that next flick would be the fifth
movie that turns out good.

Did
you know that most movies are like Mel Brook’s parody “The Producers?” Raise
more money for a failed production than you spend, then pocket the excess
cash. If most movies are destined to fail then why not pull a Scientology
type scam? Bilk people by raising excess funds and cooking books! Jack Reacher
2 did not have enough money for its own special effects shots. I know because
the below the line FX super walked in and told my below the line VFX boss
William Mesa that it was the case. That is because Cruise and all the above
the line people took their money leaving nothing for the actual production.
Sound like “The Producers?” If 80% of movies stink then why not hedge your
bets?
In 2016 I animated Tom Cruise tasering a bad guy jail guard
in Jack Reacher 2. This is his “B” picture line. Mission Impossible is his
“A” picture studio tent pole line. I have animated him looking like a hero
even though I hate him and his Scientology religion.

I
have depended on him for a living in the past. It biases me to towards leader
Tom Cruise as he has been my employer. So it is very hard to convince a
Scientology security guard like HGB's Frank Paolo to quit his own employer
even if he knows his leader, David Miscavige, beats his staff. His livelihood
depends on it.
SOME HISTORYLucille Ball
was the first woman to run a Hollywood movie studio. It was Desilu, formerly
RKO, which once abutted the Paramount lot and Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
She and Desi Arnaz founded it. The RKO globe is still up on the southwestern
corner of the property. She came up with Star Trek and Mission Impossible
and other TV shows. So Paramount absorbed it, and her, intellectual property
(IP). For years the movie studio had little else as a tent pole IP other
than Star Trek and Mission Impossible. Paramount brought in Steven Spielberg’s
Dreamworks, took their IPs and treated his people like crap taking credit
for their ideas. So Dreamworks left. Paramount was called "the cheapest
studio" way back when I moved to Hwd in 1996.
Now, unless Indiana
Jones 5 happens, Tom Cruise and his MI intellectual property are then all
Paramount has left for big budget movies. Cruise usually picks good scripts
but sometimes does things just for the money. Or "Mummy." After
the atrocious performance of Universal’s Cruise starrer “The Mummy,” and
his horrible rep due to Scientology, Paramount is all Cruise has also. “Top
Gun 2” and “Mission Impossible 8” are already under way. Paramount has been
a mess for years as the
New York Times reports:
CONCLUSION:
My friend and Producer
Leah Remini made some important criticisms of Cruise on Tony Ortega’s
blog. He is a sociopath. I get it. Hollywood is full of them and some are
not even Jewish! I completely agree with her and …. Yet …. He has been responsible
for my job in the past and the mind boggling pressure he is now under includes:
1. A crewperson could die from Covid.
2.
He could get it, be quarantined, and throw the movie off by weeks costing
millions.
3. Production was halted in March in Italy
due to Covid.
4. UK production was halted for two weeks
in July due to quarantine.
5. In October production
was halted in Italy again after 12 people tested positive for novel Coronavirus
.
6. There was a bad fire on an expensive set piece.
7. Nobody has had to make movies in these circumstances
before. People are watching the few large movie shoots to see how they fair.
8. The production and distribution system of movies is
collapsing. Many people are out of work. Empty theaters. Netflix. Etc.
9. This is Paramount’s main tentpole franchise.
10.
This is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV's main franchise.
11. The production
was distracted already by a controversy over a Polish shooting location.
12. The production rented an entire massive luxury boat liner to try
to keep the crew quarantined. Just like Scientology's Freewinds! That
boat had a measles outbreak and quarantine in early 2019.
Sadly,
I think that just this once David Miscavige’s fascist leadership principles
apply and Cruise did the right thing. So let’s give him some credit while
under stress, but only this one time. It is better to be too harsh in the
face of a pandemic than too easy. California’s failure to come down hard
and massive caused huge Coronavirus numbers.
If all I, or Leah Remini,
or Tony Ortega do is criticize cultists then we are not going to get very
far. When a gigantic idiot like Cruise puts himself on the line to do the
right thing, even if just for PR purposes, how can I argue with that just
once?
For once he is looking "down the pyramid" towards the workers
instead of only "up the pyramid" towards David Miscavigement.
Even a blind pig finds an acorn sometimes.
LEAH
REMINI ON TOM CRUISE:Tom’s reaction that was released
yesterday shows his true personality. He is an abusive person. I witnessed
it, I’ve been a recipient of it on a small level, and I’ve been told
of similar abuse by his former girlfriend, his employees, and his friends.
This is the real Tom. …. His mental state is showing. Tom seems to think
that Hollywood is incapable of making films without his help. Saying
such a thing indicates the godlike figure Tom believes he is, and what
he is told by Scientology. The reality is, anyone who is working in
Hollywood today is working under strict COVID guidelines. Anyone who
is working knows this. Tom Cruise is not dictating how films are being
made, even if he seems to think so. This psychotic rant only proves
what many who know Tom or have worked for Tom knows: He is an abusive
dictator just as he was taught by his guru David Miscavige.
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