Book Review / Recap (cont.)

Chapter 4:
Wait... he dated Cher?? Huh?
Tom reconciles with his dying father, whom he hasn't seen in over 10 years. He also signs up to star in "Legend"... which fails miserably at the box office. This is when Top Gun gets started. Yum. Guess who turned down the role of Maverick? Matthew Modine, Scott Baio, and Mickey Rourke. Betcha they kicked themselves for that. Oh, and Kelly McGillis? Lesbian. (Allegedly.)

Chapter 5:
Mimi Rogers. Insane and narcissistic. Seriously, this woman was a beyotch. This is when Tom gets introduced to Scientology, as her dad was in on Scientology early on and she was raised with their beliefs. Here is the weird part... She gets the number one celebrity of the moment to take a look at this controversial religion - and they basically hate her because her dad turned his back on their "church" and she didn't break off all contact with him. Grateful much, Scientology? We start getting more writing on Scientology this chapter - which a control freak like Cruise can embrace.

Chapter 6:
More on Scientology. It all sort of falls apart for them (for the second or third time, I can hardly keep up) in the mid to late 80's, so getting Tom in to the fold is like mission imperative. He becomes very good friends with David Miscavige, who runs the show now that LRon has gone on to meet whatever afterlife they believe in. Oh, and he meets Nicole Kidman, who seems a little bit strange and spoiled. After he met and started dating Nicole he divorced Mimi. And, Nicole never actually broke up with the guy she was dating in Australia when she met Tom. He found out they were no longer together when he saw Tom and Nicole walk the red carpet together at the Academy Awards in 1990. Very classy!

Chapter 7:
I think if there was ever a time Tom was going to turn his back on Scientology it was when he was married to Nicole. She never fully embraced it, and they were constantly surrounded by handlers from the "church." Also, while they were married they spent an awful lot of time out of the country - so the Scientologist's grasp seemed to weaken a bit. Seems like he was very romantic with Nicole. Lots of flowers and love notes. I think he probably did genuinely love her. She was a complete bitch to the household staff, I guess, and he was no easy control freak to work for either! The Xenu thing is discussed in this chapter.

OK the best part of the book so far is this passage from Chapter 7:
(his auditor) recalls: "My sense was that he was just acting rather than being genuine." He was not the first, nor the last, to come away from an encounter with Tom wondering if his whole life was just an elaborate act. *
*Sums up what I think of him perfectly.

Chapter 8: (OK, I was sick last night and lay in bed reading. It's really not that this is a book I simply cannot put down.)
Mission Impossible. (A movie that I did love)
Met Princess Diana.
Read a script of a movie he would make later, Jerry Maguire.
Stanley Kubrick approached Tom and Nic (I feel close enough to her now to call her Nic) about doing Eyes Wide Shut. If there was anything that was the undoing of their marriage, that was it. I guess neither of them wanted to know as much about each other as they learned during the making of that move - which took, like, 2 YEARS! Gah!
Oh, he also starts suing anyone and everyone who implies he is gay. Big shock.

Tune in tomorrow for more of my take on Tom Cruise, An Unauthorized Biography!