I think maybe Chris and Nicole should start dating! Then they and Demi and Ashton could hang out! awwwwww

*lol* my gaydar is actually working and so is my contact for STAR magazine.

hell, my ring is bigger then Katie's and i am not even engaged.


the scientolgy church is gonna love this one. l ron hubbarb is going to precede over the ceremony.



*aliens do exist*

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movi....ap/index.html

Because this really needed to be on the front page of cnn.com

That's obviously more important than the war in Iraq or anything else going on in the world. :rolleyes:

Uh oh, not front page news right now. Wonder what they'll do today to get people talking?

No Tom and Katie news??? Well I have some...

apparently Tom got Katie to sign a pre-nup. Part of the pre-nup is that she gets 1 million dollars for every year they are together. Also, there is to be no sex.

I just saw Batman Begins last night. Katie is the worst part of that movie. It seems that the producers are really pissed off with her because her relationship with Tom is overshadowing the movies. Supposedly the cast is also in talks to do another Batman movie and she hasn't been asked back.

There, that should hold everyone over for a while ;)

This story is really disturbing.

Whoah. That's...just...my goodness!

That is very creepy, but I don't really have any sympathy for her.

I don't think she's a very talented actress either.

Following up Lady Pi Phi: This from Ben Widdicombe in the New York Daily News the day after the engagement announcement. Names aren't named but...

Some engaging tidbits
So here's what I'm hearing about that relationship.
A source VERY close to the deal is saying there's a contract.
It's worth $5 million.
It's for five years.
There will be no sex.
The deal was sealed June 7.
That's what I'm hearing.

Source

Ummm....no sex?

Either Tom is gay or asexual, or this is all for publicity like everyone has been saying. Although, neither one would surprise me.

Maybe Scientologists don't have sex!

Anyway, yeah, that story is pretty creepy, but not necessarily so. I think there are a lot of leaps being made in the article -- i.e., "Holmes was raised a strict Catholic" so her leap into Scientology is suspect? Come on, I know plenty of kids who were raised strict Catholics and gave it up as soon as they went to college. Hollywood's gotta be even worse for Catholicism than college. ;) Some of the other things aren't necessarily suspicious either -- for example, they question her friendship with that one girl because their families are very different? I don't know about you, but I don't pick my friends based on who their parents are. And the stuff about internet website listing Tom Hanks as Katie's favorite actor doesn't tell us much either. I mean, come on, I LOVED Devon Sawa as a kid but I don't think I would list him as my favorite actor now.

And I don't think it's all that odd that two people who "fell in love" (or coughcough, one person who fell in love and another who is pretending to?) would want to hole up and disappear for a week or two. I'm sure lots of us would LIKE to do that every time we fall madly in love; it's just that we can't afford to.

Again, not that this means I think Katie & Tom are legit in any way, shape or form, but I don't think we're quite at the "She's brainwashed!" stage either. As crazy as Cruise is, I don't think he would take that career risk.

Tom's first wife, Mimi Rogers, has said that part of the reason they broke up was that he didn't want to have sex.

Ahh. Thanks!

You know, when I was younger, I thought Tom Cruise was hot. His past few movies though, I've commented about how he just isn't very desirable anymore.

All this makes him just plain unattractive. The nerdy boy in high school has more sex appeal than he does.

When Scientology is involved, brainwashing can't be far behind.

Sounds like my ex-husband was a Scientologist!

I've never been a Tom Cruise fan - somehow, I think these two deserve each other.

I find the entire things very bazarre.

But what I reject is those people who talk about how young and impressionable Katie is. She is 26 years old! Not 16 or 18 or 22.

She's a grown woman regardless of how cute she is or how big her smile is.

It does give me the creeps a bit and I guess we'll have to wait to see how it all plays out.

SO SO true

I loved Tom Cruise until he started to divorce Nicole Kidman. He became creepy to me at that time. Now he has a maniacal laugh that isn't charming and is kind of scary.

You know, I think that's about the same time I started to not like him as well.

I've always wanted scientologists and christian scientists to duke it out.

-Rudey

I was never a huge Tom Cruise fan. It's not even the age difference between the two that creeps me out. It's the way they are behaving that creeps me out. Tom acting like he's in jr. high and just got kissed by the hottest girl in school, creeps me out. Tom hiring a minder to follow Katie everywhere she goes, creeps me out. The hole "pre-nup" and no sex thing, creeps me out. Tom "interviewing" other actresses and trying to get them to convert to Scientology creeps me out. Scientology in and of itself creeps me out.

The relationship itself just seems odd and I would say the same thing if it was a fellow GCer or my best friend. The whole thing is too damn weird...but it definitly should not be front page news.

This may be a dumb question but what is the difference between the two? :confused: I don't mean this in a sarcastic way either.

the quick answer
 

Christian Scientists believe there is no such thing as physical illness and you can cure pain strictly through prayer.

Scientologists believe if you pay tons of $$$$ you'll be spiritually delivered by aliens.

CS is a legit religion, Scientology is a cult.

Re: the quick answer
 

A deity born to a virgin mother is somehow more legit than a deity from another planet?

It's all about faith. Either you got it or ya don't.

-Rudey

So you know how Rudey and I pretty much never agree, but I was just about to point out that exact same thing. Which viewpoint is more "legitimate" is pretty debatable. "Aliens spiritually delivering you" is about as statistically probable as "some guy being born to a virgin and dying and then being resurrected and then spiritually delivering you." (Actually, statistically speaking, I'm pretty sure that aliens are more likely.)

You'll find that most people who study religions and belief systems either do not use the word "cult," or they use it in a much less negative way than it is used in pop culture. See here for an explanation:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/cults.htm


While I don't believe in Scientology (or a lot of other things), I'm not sure what makes it so much less plausible than many other belief systems out there, and I would think twice before denigrating it or labelling it somehow more dangerous than many other religious sects. Because, when you think about it, does the concept of Jesus really sound all that much more sensible?



And I'm out before Rob accuses me of climbing the ivory tower too many times in a pop culture thread again.

Nah, you (and Rudestar) are totally on the right track here - Scientologists are much less pernicious than, say, Mormon scriptures that refer to African Americans as spiritually inadequate compared to whites.

You're the grounded one here - pissing on spiritual/belief systems you don't agree with (which we can read as: "understand") is weak beyond belief.

-RC
--is Zen Buddhist, what you fuckers got on that?

The Nation of Islam believes an alien scientist named Yakub created the white man. Beat that.

-Rudey
--Funny how if you smoke a little bud you can reach enlightenment and skip that whole buddhism thang.

I have heard this before. Didn't he do it as a punishment for blacks?

Am I the only one who heard that Katie is a virgin? If she is, she'd probably have no problem with that, lol.

I kinda like Tom and Katie. Maybe cause she's in my age bracket, but I think she's cool.

I just can't picture Nicole Kidman being with a man for 10 years and not having sex, Penelope Cruz either.

In the abstract, I would agree with you. But not here.

What sets Scientology apart from other "belief systems" is, well basically, L. Ron Hubbard -- a science-fiction writer who put together the whole Scientology thing as a self-help-and-help-me-rake-in-money-in-the-process business. That Scientology is more a business than a belief system, that it exercises a great deal of control of its members and that those who got out of it definitely view themselves has having escaped from a cult is well-documented.

If you haven't read it before, this article, originally published in Time Magazine over a decade ago, is well-worth reading. (Yes, I know it is now mostly found on anti-Scientology sites on the web that have a definite bias, but it's still Time):

Scientology: The Cult of Greed

She was with Chris Klein for like 4 or 5 years, they were engaged, maybe living together, definitely travelled together. I have a hard time believing she's still got her v-card. Might just be a PR thing.

Did anyone watch Tom Cruise on the Today Show this AM?

Here is the transcript, although it doesn't come CLOSE to showing how agitated and angry TC looked.

Tom Cruise "Today" Interview

How in the HELL is he going to act like MATT FREAKING LAUER needs to get educated? I'll be damned if some movie star would be lecturing me on MY news show about ADD meds and calling me GLIB. Matt Lauer exercised a great amount of control and didn't pimp slap him. Tom Cruise is seriously insane. If I were Spielberg, I would be pissed that Tom is shooting off at the mouth about how he doesn't believe in chemical imbalances right before the opening of his new movie. As a consumer, I wouldn't boycott because of anything involving Katie Holmes, but he is really showing his ass with this Brooke Shields/anti-depressant stuff. Tom, where exactly did you attend medical school? Oh yeah, that's what I thought.

The interview will be continued on Monday.

I know I read somewhere that she won't swipe the v-card until she's married. Looking for a link right now...

I googled Katie Holmes virgin and found quite a few gems.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7682150/

http://www.defamer.com/hollywood/gos...ion-101619.php

http://www.snarkywood.com/2005/05/katie_holmes_an.html

The problem is that that doesn't prove that his intention with Scientology was to make money. Sure, the quote about "If I needed to make money, I would just start a religion" is telling -- but it happened earlier in his life and he could have had a change of opinion. Unless he speciifically said, "I made up Scientology completely in order to make money," we don't really know what his intentions were. The quotes by anti-cult movement leaders in the article are interesting but not exceptionally valid given that -- as religioustolerance.org points out -- most people who study the mind don't believe that "mind control" is possible, and those ACM leaders are a small and biased minority. Sure, it seems quite possible that Scientology uses unscrupulous means to make money or uses its money less than wisely, but at this point, there are few religions that don't.

It's more likely that unstable individuals (hello Tom Cruise!) are attracted to "cult-like" religions that require very deep commitments -- and thus are more likely to have problems with emotional development, mood or personality disorders, tendency to commit suicide, et cetera. Correlation (of emotionally disturbed individuals and Scientology -- or any religious group/"cult") does not equal causation. The stories I've read from family members of Scientology members who killed themselves (or allegedly killed themselves) usually paint pictures of individuals who were very troubled long before they became Scientologists. I'm not a professional or anything, but one might guess that they sought out a very involved, family-like religion because they felt like they were missing something at home. The story that opens this article bears that out, with a family that had no clue anything was "off" about their son until after he ended up dead. Sorry, but I don't buy the idea that Scientology was his only problem.

Not to mention that almost every religion, if not every religion, has been created or co-opted for the purposes of some greedy (or lustful, or power-hungry, et cetera) leader on some level or another. Joseph Smith?* Come on now. No religion is pure.

I certainly think there many things wrong with Scientology, a motivated-by-money factor being one of them -- but as Rob implied, if we're going to define Scientology as a "cult" than you have to put the LDS church in the "cult" category as well, along with a number of smaller sects of Christianity (and come to think of it, larger ones as well). And I don't think any of those groups deserve to be portrayed in the same light as, say, the Branch Davidians or Solar Temple or the People's Temple or whatever. And I certainly don't think "brainwashing" per se is at play in any form that even the most mainstream religions don't also use.



* I'm sorry to keep picking on the Mormons, but they are one of the religions I've read about in the most depth and I see many many parallels between them and Scientology, for better or for worse.

MORE IMPORTANTLY!

Okay, so she made one pledge that she's not having sex until she gets married, and another one about not having sex WHEN she's married -- virgin for life?

Although I don't really think she's a virgin -- that last article posted basically implied that in high school, she promised that she would stay a virgin until she got married, and we all know how long those high school promises last. Ask GeekyPenguin about True Love Waits.

I'm just sad, that's all. I mean, Tom used to be The Shit as far as I was concerned. He was just yummilicious in Top Gun and my gaydar never stirred.

http://gfx.dagbladet.no/kultur/2001/08/29/topguntom.jpg

(I've been hoping since I "married into the Navy" to find a Navy pilot who actually looks like this, to no avail :( )

When did he go from being so hot to being, dare I say...a joke??? :(