By Tony Hicks, STAFF WRITER
Article Launched: 01/29/2008 02:36:38 AM PST
NOW THAT the tidal wave of hype over Andrew Morton’s new book “Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography” (St. Martin’s, $25.95) has somewhat receded, one can get a good look at what remains.
On the one hand, if half of Morton’s claims concerning Scientology are accurate, it’s a frightening example of how easily people will turn over their souls when promised eternal happiness and a glimpse into life’s mysteries. On the other hand, many of Morton’s purported claims are mere asides about which there’s little to fret.
Of course, lawyers for Cruise and his beloved religion, Scientology, beg to differ. What’s really interesting is not what they deny about the book; it’s what they don’t deny. But that’s another story.
The prerelease sensationalism over Morton’s supposed claims that some of Cruise’s fellow Scientologists compare the birth of his daughter, Suri, to “Rosemary’s Baby,” and that the girl was possibly conceived with the sperm of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard was just that: sensationalism. Neither was a theory on which Morton spent much time. The exact wording of the so-called “Rosemary’s Baby” claim was “Katie (Holmes) might have felt as if she were in the middle of a real-life version of the horror movie …” Morton based the scenario on interviews with nameless Scientologists who told him some members believed Suri was the vessel for the reincarnated soul of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, who assured his followers he would return following his earthly death. Fixating on that part of the story is missing the forest for a couple of gnarled saplings.