Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3551 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-15
• Released on: 2008-01-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From AudioFile
Andrew MortonÕs controversial biography of movie star and Scientology practitioner Tom Cruise is disappointing in that it offers little in the way of profound discoveries about the actorÕs mysterious life. However, narrator John Hinch is remarkable in his delivery, capturing CruiseÕs essence and charisma and keeping his audience engaged and entertained throughout. When Morton discusses CruiseÕs antics on ÒOprah,Ó Hinch captures the moment perfectly without impersonating Cruise in the least. HinchÕs tone, accent, and timbre remain subtle, yet he is eminently believable as the larger-than-life actor. Overall, Hinch effectively delivers the story of CruiseÕs life, which Morton depicts without editorializing or speculation. L.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About the Author
ANDREW MORTON is one of the world's best-known biographers and a leading authority on modern celebrity. His groundbreaking 1992 biography revealed the secret world of Princess Diana, prompting Tina Brown to declare in The Diana Chronicles, “The journalist Morton most reminds me of is Bob Woodward.” Diana: Her True Story became a #1 New York Times bestseller, as did Monica’s Story, Morton’s portrait of the young woman behind the blue dress in the Clinton White House. The winner of numerous awards, including Author of the Year by the British Book Awards and Scoop of the Year by the London Press Club, he lives in London and has traveled extensively in the U.S., Canada, and Europe in his research for this biography.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
“I get it. He has that deliciously indescribable magic that cannot be analyzed or replicated. He is in every sense a movie star.”
---Steven Spielberg
“He was pushing limits all the time…. I never thought of him ever becoming an actor. He was more of an Al Capone character, a maverick, the kind of kid who wouldn’t back down.”
---A childhood neighbor
“Don’t let that smile and those teeth fool you. He could have a really nasty streak.”
---A high-school girlfriend
“His acting was so good it was almost bizarre. You’d look into his eyes and he’d really be there, he’d really be in love with you. You could see his heart and soul. And then the director would shout ‘Cut,’ Tom would leave the set, and you’d have to go into therapy for six months.”
---Renée Zellweger
“I’ll bet all the money I’ve ever made, plus his, that he doesn’t have a mistress, that he doesn’t have a gay lover, that he doesn’t have a gay life.”
---Nicole Kidman
“You can’t drive past an accident, because as a Scientologist you are the only one who can help.”
---Tom Cruise

Customer Reviews

the mark who is his brainwashers' shill
The first five chapters of Andrew Morton's biography, 123 pages, are as entertaining as a stroke-by-stroke description of Tom Sawyer's marks whitewashing the fence. Only when the book ventures into Cruise's brainwashing by the Scientology cult that TIME described as, "A hugely profitable global racket that survived by intimidating members and critics alike in a Mafia-like manner," does it start to be informative in any meaningful way. Morton explains that Cruise was spoonfed Hubbardite science fiction theology, and clarifies, "While the Hubbardian myth is now widely derided, the story is the test of belief, a leap of faith that vaults over rational doubts. For Tom to make further progress, he had to swallow every last drop of Hubbard's theological Kool-Aid."
I was aware that Hubbard several times informed associates that, "If you want to make a million, the quickest way is to start your own religion," a quote the cult's propagandists claim is taken "out of context." In what context, one wonders, would it not mean what it clearly does mean?
Hubbard's Hans Anderson theology is that humans are "possessed" by malevolent aliens who came to earth 70 million years ago and took over the human population--millions of years before humans had even evolved. But it came as news to me that Scientology maintains "Bonnie View, the mansion built by Scientologists for the anticipated return to Earth of the deceased L. Ron Hubbard after his galactic wanderings." So Scientology awaits a "second coming," just like the Cargo Cultists of the South Pacific who are waiting for the return of John Frum, Shiites who are waiting for the second coming of their Mahdi, and Christians who are similarly awaiting a second coming.
Cruise has no more ability to put his brain in gear when discussing Scientology beliefs, than do creationists when discussing the opening chapters of Genesis. He publicly described psychiatry as "Nazi science," not because he agrees with such writers as Thomas Szasz who have debunked psychiatry as the same kind of sympathetic listening practised by bartenders and taxi drivers, but because Hubbard denounced it after being unfavorably evaluated by every psychiatrist he ever encountered (not necessarily as a patient). But while psychiatric talk therapy may indeed be the humbuggery Szasz alleges, psychiatrists are medical doctors and as such are able to prescribe anti-depressant drugs to patients who observably need them. But because Hubbard pronounced ex cathedra that patients in need of medication should be treated only with vitamins, that is what Cruise believes. Or rather, that is what he preaches, since a brainwashed Pinocchio should not be credited with "believing" doctrines cemented into his head by a dead Geppetto.
In reporting the delusions of the Scientology cultists, Morton wrote that some sect members believed Katie Holmes was carrying the baby who would be the vessel for L. Ron Hubbard's spirit when he returned twenty years after his death. Cruise in his neverending pursuit of the lawsuits Hubbard recommended for the purpose of intimidating and silencing all criticism, saw Morton's reporting of the beliefs of the cult's most mindless blockheads as grounds for yet another libel suit. Since England's libel laws are stacked in favor of the plaintiff, disallowing the defence of "truth, public interest, and absence of malice," Morton's publisher remains afraid to produce a UK edition. But Morton merely reports the whispers of the cult's own crackpots. If Cruise considers the hypotheses Morton quotes libelous, he should be suing his fellow mindslaves, not resorting to "kill the messenger."
Morton's summary of his subject is as follows: "Tom is merely a smiling conduit for the philosophy of the man he calls his mentor, L. Ron Hubbard. By definition, everything LRH wrote ... is deemed sacred and inviolable.... Philosophically, Hubbard's worldview was defined by the state of the planet just after World War II. It is intellectually static, unable to accept or absorb any progress in civilization since then. It is no exaggeration to say that Scientology is the intellectual equivalent of the Flat Earth Society, a group locked in a time warp, inexorably bound by the rules defined by its founder."
In a sense, Tom Cruise is lucky that, when he was primed to join a science fiction cult, the one that happened to be front and center was Scientology. It could just as easily have been Heaven's Gate or the Branch Davidians. Nonetheless, Cruise takes all the fun out of cult analysis, by making the task of proving that Scientologists are not sparking on all neurons far too easy.

This book is shocking!
I bought this book because I like Tom Cruise movies (although I don't think much of the guy personally). Andrew Morton is an awesome author - I have read his works before and once again he is EXTREMELY thorough in relaying facts for an unauthorized bio. If you don't know much about Scientology, you will after reading this book and it's shocking! Tom, on the other hand comes across as self-centered (which I always believed he was), self-absorbed and someone who uses people to his advantage until he is "done" with them. I highly recommend this book to those who are interested in how the mind works (or doesn't) and how you can take a person of average intelligence and brainwash them to believe the absurd!

A Fair And I Think Accurate Biography
Although Andrew Morton obviously concerns himself with those juicy details a paying customer would most want to hear, this isn't (for all of Morton's sloppy writing style) tabloid reporting. What lies within this unauthorized biography is the story of the public, the private, and even the secret Tom Cruise, an apparently heterosexual cultural icon whose fanatical devotion to Scientology is finally brought out in its fullest dimensions.

Cruise, as revealed by Morton, is a risk-taker, a determined perfectionist, a spiritual person, a dogged foe to those who wrong him, and a much maligned thrice-wed alpha-male. While under the focused microscope of this biography Cruise never seems villainous, he can come off as ruthless, marginally paranoid, and allied with exploitive forces. He is also shown to be an actor who gives his best effort for any role he undertakes. Above all the charming Cruise is a modern legend whose lavish lifestyle is of the sort most of us can only gape at in awe as he jets around the world, weds his latest beautiful wife in a fairy tale Italian castle, and nets CEO-level paychecks for glamorous roles that will make him live on eternally in movie history.

For all the rumors that have of late swirled around this perpetual A-lister, the discernable facts as told by this book are ultimately far more mundane than the whispering campaigns would have us believe. Cruise, though not devoid of quirks and personal idiosyncrasies, is essentially a sane person with extraordinary talents, charisma, good looks, and uncanny business instincts. His known relationships, of which there are many, have all been with women, and uncommonly beautiful women at that. Cruise supports his extended family, takes stands (at times offensively) on things that are important to him, and over a quarter-century has racked up a cinematic resume that few in industry history could surpass.

Between its covers there are also, for good or ill, gossipy tales of Nicole Kidman's tragic miscarriages, Scientology's supposed feudalistic practices, Stanley Kubrick's abusive on-set tyranny, Cruise's lawsuits, Katie Holmes' pre-nup, Anne Rice's tirades, Mimi Kennedy's possible pseudo-gay jokes about her ex, the badmouthing of Brooke Shields, that trip to Oprah's couch, and the rumored "silent birth" of baby Suri.

Andrew Morton might wind up introducing you to an elusive public figure but in the end you may be left wondering if somehow the rumors weren't more enchanting and your former ignorance better left undispelled.

Five stars for interesting reporting.

Three for writing style.