War of the Worlds Premiere Video and Slideshow

You can see a video and slideshow of the War of the Worlds premiere. See Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes ride up the red carpet on Tom's motorcycle! War of the Worlds - A Yahoo! Movies Exclusive

War of The Worlds

Well, it comes out today, and if it's half as good as the trailers I've seen this movie will smoke! If you've ever read the original by H. G. Wells then you'll be pleased to know that, although set in the modern day, the movie stays true to the book. I won't get to see it until the weekend but I'm chomping at the bit! Here's an article on Tom Cruise and the movie: Cruise in Control

Scientology: What is it?

Here is another great reference to answer you questions on what is Scientology: Scientology

Scientology: The Press are Squawking about it, but what is it?

I've just read several articles from various sources about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and Scientology. I have to say that the descriptions of Scientology are getting more accurate. Time was we'd get a couple of lines that either said nothing or said something entirely inaccurate. Now I've seen a whole range from wildly inaccurate to 90% correct. That's a big change and I think Tom Cruise is the guy to thank for it. Because I've not seen any 100% accurate descriptions yet, I'll give you my quick overview and then I'll provide you with some links to accurate data:

Scientology is a religion which has solutions to the problems of everyday life and methods you can use to improve your abilities and reach your full potential, which is much greater than you ever thought. It contains methods you can use to improve any condition in any part of your life. It is a religion because it addresses a person as a spiritual being. In Scientology you are a spiritual being, not a body or a brain. Because the words "spirit" and "soul" have so many possible meanings from thousands of years of history, we use a different term. We use the term "thetan" (from the Greek letter "theta"). You don't have a thetan you are one. It's like when you are driving your car, you don't have a driver, you are one. That's my inadequate, fast rundown of Scientology but as a last comment I will say that I have been able to use Scientology to make my life much, much better and much, much, much happier. That is what Scientology is all about - making life better and happier.

For a much more thorough description What is Scientology? is an extensive site that covers everything. If you really want all your questions answered this is the place to go.

Or for fast answers to specific questions try the Scientology FAQ.

Watch the Tom Cruise Interview on the Today Show

You have to watch this video. Yesterday I read the transcript, but the video is so much more! In the first half you see clips from "War of the World" and behind the scenes footage, which is very cool. In the second half you hear the actual discussion between Matt Lauer and Tom Cruise on the pseudo science of psychiatry and dangers of psychiatric drugs. It's important to see the video because the way someone says something is so vastly different to what comes over when you just read the words on the transcript. Actor Tom Cruise talks with 'Today' host Matt Lauer. (It's also much more entertaining.)

Tom Cruise Tells It Like It Is

In this interview on this morning's Today Show (The movie star discusses his new film, his new relationship and Scientology with the "Today" show's Matt Lauer), Tom starts off with talking about War of the Worlds but the discussion moves to a brief mention of Scientology and then Matt Lauer gets him onto the subject of Psychiatry (starts half-way down this page: Cruise on Psychiatry and continues on this page: Cruise on Psychiatry)

Tom brings up a couple of point that I wanted to highlight: "If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories." The "chemical imbalance theory is just that: A THEORY. There is no actual proof that an imbalance actually exists in any brain. Next: "Where's the blood test that says how much Ritalin you're supposed to get?" There are no actual physical tests that demonstrate a chemical imbalance and there are no tests to show how much of any psychiatric drug is needed to "balance" the imbalance. In other word the whole thing is a fraud.

Katie Holmes Talks about Scientology

Katie Holmes' interest in Scientology seems to have become an obsession with some journalists. They keep talking about "conversion", which, as I said in an earlier post, is not a concept in Scientology. You can be a Scientologists and a Christian, Muslim. Jew, Buddhist, etc., etc. It's entirely up to you or in this case, her, which, incidentally, is something mentioned in this article: Katie Holmes Embracing Scientology.

Scientologist Geoffrey Lewis as dad of the "Fat Actress"

Actor Geoffrey Lewis has a resume that is so long it hardly fits onto the page at the Internet Movie Database: Geoffrey Lewis. He can be seen in the hit Showtime series "Fat Actress" playing Kirstie Alley's father but, as can be seen from the IMDB page, he is also in 5 movies so far in 2005 alone. I guess he must be as busy as his real daughter, Juliette, who I highlighted yesterday.

Funnily enough Geoffrey also has a sort of music career with the band Celestial Navigations. The band consists of Geoffrey and a couple of musicians. He tells stories with musical accompaniment, but that is like saying Mozart wrote music, it tells you nothing. When Geoffrey tells a story he creates the character and transports you into the story. You experience the emotions, the hopes, the laughs, everything! It has to be heard to be understood or better yet, seen live. Anyway, visit the Celestial Navigations web site and listen to a couple of sample tracks, if you got a soul, brother, you'll love 'em.

Scientologist Juliette Lewis Rocks

Juliette Lewis is best known as a successful Oscar nominated actress but in 2003 she decided to form a band, Juliette and the Licks. So in the past two years not only has she maintained her successful acting career but has toured with her band and produced an EP and a full length CD. If you ever wondered how someone like Juliette keeps so slim, then just watch her performance in the music video of "You're Speaking My Language" on the Juliette and the Licks web site. I get out of breath just watching it!

When she formed the band she said, "My intention is for our music to serve as an antidote to self-doubt, apathy and fear, which has become rampant in society right now." I've only heard the songs on the web site, but her music and performances sure communicate her intent.

Chick Corea Exploring Flamenco

Anyone familiar with jazz will know of Scientologist Chick Corea. His career was launched when jazz great Miles Davis had him play on two of Miles' wildest albums in the late 1960's. In the years since then Corea has consistently demonstrated his tremendous talent, winning seven (or is it eight?) Grammy's and getting on for 20 nominations. I personally am a big fan, especially of his work with the Chick Corea Elektric Band (I have all their albums). Anyway, lovers of his acoustic side (I have a ton of those albums too) will be exited at the news that he will be releasing a live album from his current flamenco oriented tour: Versatile jazz giant revisits flamenco influences for fun

Romance is not Dead

Can you think of a more romantic place to propose than the Eiffel Tower?: Tom Cruise Proposes to Katie Holmes

A bit more on Tom Cruise

I've been finding it hard to locate real news in amongst the copies of copies that some news sites churn out. I mean how many times can you quote someone quoting someone quoting someone quoting someone ... who interviewed Tom Cruise? Well, many news sites seem not to care that they are cluttering up the Internet with duplicate stories that were not even very accurate in the first place.

Anyway, enough griping, here is a not bad article on something Tom Cruise said in an interview: Cruise says Holmes 'digs' Scientology

"Converting" to Scientology

As usual reporters in the entertainment field are demonstrating their ignorance by proclaiming that Katie Holmes is "converting" to Scientology. To "convert" implies that you are joining one religion to the exclusion of all others. That's not the way things work in Scientology. You can be a Scientologist and a Catholic (in her case) or a Scientologist and a Muslim (in the case of a friend of mine) or a Scientologist and a Jew (in the case of some other friends of mine) or ... the list goes on. For more data see the letter from the director of the Scientology Parishioners League, written to the Asian Tribune: "Change No Man’s Religion" is a prime policy of Scientology. Also there is an article in the My Scientology blog Katie Holmes "converting" to Scientology, I think he covers it pretty well.

Katie Holmes - Can I add her to this blog yet?

According to a recent interview Katie Holmes has looked into Scientology and she likes it: Holmes says Scientology "a wonderful thing" (you can also see a video of Katie Holmes being interviewed).

It is a refreshing change to have someone actually find out about a subject before expressing an opinion of it. I wish some in the press would try that unusual step. If any of them read this then I suggest they try: What is Scientology?

Billy Sheehan - More

I got so carried away yesterday in all the accomplishments of Billy Sheehan that I forgot to talk about his new album, Cosmic Troubadour. I don't have it yet, but I do have his first solo album, Compression which is a great album. Billy has a great singing voice, he reminds me at times of the early David Bowie. On Amazon Cosmic Troubadour has 4 1/2 stars from customer reviews and Compression has 4 stars.

Scientologist Billy Sheehan Releases his 2nd Solo CD

Billy Sheehan has won so many "Best Bass Player" Awards in his career that he's probably lost count - 5 times in Guitar Player Magazine, 14 consecutive years in Japan's Player Magazine and numerous others in Germany, Japan, Korea, Italy and the list goes on.

A Scientologist since 1971, in a recent interview in Celebrity Magazine, Billy attributed much of his success to his studies in Scientology. He said that directly after one particular Scientology service, "I had the biggest career success ever. The best success ever in my life ... I sat in the #1 chair on The Tonight Show, I had a #1 single, I had a platinum record and a #1 video."

Billy is a big supporter of the Church and was one of the celebrities who helped open the new Church of Scientology of Buffalo.

Madonna Demonstrates Religious Tolerance

Madonna has had to put up with a tremendous amount of crap from the media regarding her own faith, Kabbalah. The fascinating thing about the media is that whatever they say about a religion, be it Kabbalah, Scientology, Islam or anything else, it's usually completely wrong. Time and time again reporters demonstrate that they are not journalists. A real journalist actually does some research in order to understand what he or she is writing about.

So it's good to see Madonna demonstrating her understanding by supporting Tom Cruise's outspoken support for Scientology: Madonna Defends Cruise's Scientology

Scientologist Marisol Nichols is Another Success Story

Marisol Nichols stars in the hit TV series Blind Justice as Detective Karen Bettancourt. She is a talented actress who, early in her career, received a Golden Eagle Award for "Most Promising Actor or Actress", She has certainly lived up to that, appearing in both hit movies and TV shows. Her performance in the TV film, The Princess and the Marine earned her an ALMA nomination for "Outstanding Actress". A Scientologist for many years, she is a strong supporter of both the Citizens Commission on Human Rights and The Way To Happiness Foundation.

Her new website: Marisol Nichols

Tom Cruise on Scientology (Access Hollywood)

I've seen a ton of news articles that have used quotes from an interview Tom Cruise gave to Access Hollywood but I hadn't seen the interview itself. Well today I finally found it. It wasn't hard to find when I started looking, all I had to do was go to the Access Hollywood home page (duh). Anyway, here it is: Tom Cruise on Scientology