Like the time he allegedly freaked out over cookie dough.
Random House
Since leaving the Church of Scientology in 2013, Leah Remini has opened up about her lifelong relationship with the religion and her decision to leave it behind. Now she's going deeper than she ever has before with her new tell-all, Troublemaker.
The book goes into great detail not only about the meaningful role Scientology once played in her life, but the pros and cons of becoming one of the organization's elite members, alongside celebrities like Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Kirstie Alley.
"All Scientologists are expected to present an image to the outside world that is so perfect and happy that people can't help but want to join," she writes. "If you are a celebrity, your reach is that much greater. And celebrities are expected to use the full extent of their power to bring new parishioners into the fold."
And no celebrity has been more inextricably linked to Scientology than Cruise, who pops up more than a few times throughout Troublemaker.
From the internal reaction to his memorable Oprah Winfrey Show appearance to his 2007 wedding to Katie Holmes, these are the most noteworthy Cruise-related passages from Remini's new book.
Allegedly a $1 million donation put Remini on Cruise's radar.
Cruise and Holmes in 2005.
Although they’d casually met at events before, Remini says she first began to develop a friendship with Tom Cruise in the mid-2000s, after she made a $1 million donation to the International Association of Scientologists (IAS). After talking briefly at the Celebrity Centre in Los Angeles, Remini writes that Tommy Davis — Cruise’s church liaison — began extending invitations for her to spend time with Cruise. She eventually became part of his entourage, which was “a small group of heavily contributing, with-the-program Scientologists.” She notes that Kirstie Alley and John Travolta were noticeably absent — “I had heard that Tom didn’t like them,” she says.
One night, Remini writes, she and her husband, Angelo Pagan, were asked to teach Cruise how to salsa dance. And, according to Remini, “You just didn’t say no to ‘Mr. Cruise.’” “The most unexpected guest in the living room that night was the actress Katie Holmes,” Remini writes. “I didn’t know Katie and Tom were dating, but I quickly got the picture since he couldn’t keep his hands off her.”
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Allegedly she refused to play hide-and-seek with Cruise and Will Smith.
Smith and Cruise in 2007.
Remini writes about one of these nights at Cruise’s where she — along with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith — was asked to play a game of hide-and-seek. “At first I thought he was joking,” she recalls. “But, no, he literally wanted to play hide-and-seek with a bunch of grown-ups in what was probably close to a 7,000-square-foot house on almost three full acres of secluded land.”
When she declined to play, because she was wearing Jimmy Choo shoes, she says Cruise replied, “Well, good. So you’re ‘It,’ then,” and tagged her before running off to hide.
Gabriel Bouys / AFP / Getty Images
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9 Shocking Tom Cruise Claims In Leah Remini’s Scientology Tell-All