Tom Cruise’s Presidential Dreams and Saluting Dogs
The Hollywood Reporter has an excerpt from Lawrence Wright’s new book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison Belief about, what else, Scientology. You can read the excerpt here but I wanted to highlight a couple points. Namely, Tom Cruise’s presidential aspirations and glorious leader David Miscavige’s Scientology beagles he dresses up and makes people salute. First up, Tom Cruise’s dream of becoming the leader of the US.
“Bush may be an idiot,” Miscavige observed, “but I wouldn’t mind his being our Constantine,” referring to the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity. Cruise agreed. “If f–ing Arnold can be governor, I could be president.” Miscavige responded, “Well, absolutely, Tom.”
It’s unclear weather Miscavige was patronizing Cruise or if he was really serious. It’s hard to tell with the guy anymore. I mean, he dresses his five beagles up as Scientologists with the rank of Sea Org Captain and makes people salute them. He’s been in his ivory volcano for so long he doesn’t even know what reality is.
Miscavige keeps a number of dogs, including five beagles. He had blue vests made up for each of them, with four stripes on the shoulder epaulets, indicating the rank of Sea Org Captain. He insists that people salute the dogs as they parade by. The dogs have a treadmill where they work out. A full-time staff member feeds, walks and trains the dogs and enters one of them, Jelly, into contests, where he has attained championship status. One of Miscavige’s favorites, a Dalmatian/pit bull mix named Buster, went on a rampage one day and killed 10 peacocks on the property, and then the dog proudly laid out his kill for all to see. Buster also attacked various members of the staff — sending one elderly woman to the emergency room — before being transferred to another base, causing staffers to joke he had been sent to the dog equivalent of Scientology rehabilitation.
Everything about that paragraph is spectacular. From the dog captains to the one dog who went on a rampage killing 10 peacocks. I feel like they just glanced over the peacock thing though like it was common knowledge. Tell us more about these peacocks. Why are they there and how many does he actually have? Do they serve a purpose in Scientology or does David Miscavige just love him some peacocks?
