9 Shocking Tom Cruise Claims In Leah Remini’s Scientology Tell-All

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.

1. Allegedly a $1 million donation put Remini on Cruise's radar.

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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.”

2. Allegedly she refused to play hide-and-seek with Cruise and Will Smith.

Gabriel Bouys / AFP / Getty Images

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.

3. Allegedly Cruise freaked out over cookie dough.

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Throughout the book, Remini writes about the side of Cruise she believes the public never sees. “People were terrified of offending Tom, and not without reason,” she says before recounting a story about one night when he wanted to make cookies.

“He walked into the kitchen, where a batch of prepackaged cookie dough had been prepared and was sitting on the counter, a perfect loaf ready for cutting and baking,” she writes. “Tom was looking for flour and other ingredients and must not have seen the cookie dough, and he instantly got angry. ‘Guys, where’s the cookie stuff?’ he said, furrowing his brow. His assistants came running in wanting to explain that it was right there, on a nearby counter, but all one of them could say was, ‘Uh, Tom.’ They both grew more flustered, and Tom got angry. ‘Goddamn it!’”

“Tom seemed like a child who had never been told no,” she continues. “‘Get in the fucking present time, is what you need to do,’ he then screamed at his assistant. Tom comes across with an almost presidential charm to the public, but seeing him treat people this way was utterly shocking.”

4. Allegedly the church felt the couch-jumping incident was a good thing.

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Cruise on Oprah in 2005.

No one could forget Cruise’s infamous Oprah couch jumping, and according to Remini, that incident is not looked upon negatively by the Church of Scientology. “The guy’s really happy, and you should be happy for him,” Remini recalls her church liaison, Shane Woodruff, telling her.

Similarly, she writes that the church celebrated Cruise’s Today show takedown of Brooke Shields with a massive presentation at the Shrine Auditorium, where they boasted that prescriptions for psychotropic drugs were down “something like 500 percent, thanks to Tom and his recent comments. According to the church, Tom had single-handedly taken down the psychiatric profession.”

5. Allegedly Cruise wanted Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony at his wedding...even though they weren't friends.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Cruise and Holmes with Lopez and Anthony in December 2006

Remini and her husband had been good friends with Marc Anthony for years, and when he began dating Jennifer Lopez, the ladies quickly bonded. And Cruise allegedly noticed.

Years later, Remini writes, Cruise told her that he and Holmes were getting married. “I was excited for them,” she writes. According to Remini, Cruise then suggested she invite Anthony and Lopez to his and Holmes’ Italian nuptials, despite the fact that the couples were nothing more than passing acquaintances.

This was far from the first time Remini had been asked to invite her friends to a night out with Cruise and Holmes. “I wasn’t sure why Katie wanted to meet Jen,” Remini writes. “I just assume she was a fan of J.Lo.” In the end, Lopez and Anthony decided it would be fun to join Remini and Pagan on the trip. Turns out, Cruise may have had ulterior motives for inviting Lopez and Anthony to the nuptials...

6. Allegedly "The wedding of the century” was used by the church to get attention.

Hello

Hello

Remini quickly realized Cruise and Holmes’s wedding meant much more to the Church of Scientology. “Tom and Katie’s wedding was now being regarded as ‘official church business,’” she writes.

One fact that clued her in to this was the presence of Brooke Shields, who Cruise had quite publicly feuded with after his Today appearance, at the wedding.

“The church, in a very calculating way, could point to this photo or that photo and say Posh and Becks or Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony are associating themselves with this wedding, and therefore with Scientology,” Remini writes. “It was a smart way of legitimizing the church to the public and an attempt to recover from the bad PR of recent years. It also promoted the illusion of ‘look how powerful Scientology is in this business.’”

And that is a major misconception, according to Remini. “Many people [are] under the impression that there are tons of Scientologists in the film and television business and that we all help each other out,” she writes. “The real truth is that while the church would like you to believe it wields a tremendous amount of influence in Hollywood — that is simply not the case. I knew of one minor casting director who was a Scientologist, but other than that, no real movers and shakers. As a matter of fact, I think identifying myself publicly as a Scientologist probably hurt my career more than it helped it as far as perception was concerned.”

7. Allegedly Remini found Suri Cruise crying on the bathroom floor.

Vanity Fair

In the middle of Cruise and Holmes’ rehearsal dinner, Remini writes, guests could hear a baby crying in the bathroom. That baby turned out to be their daughter, Suri, who was seven months old at the time. More shocking than her presence, though, was what Remini says she witnessed when she walked into the bathroom.

“When I opened the door, I found three women, including Tom’s sister and his assistant, standing over the baby, who was lying on the tile floor,” she writes. “Rather than talking to her in a soothing voice, they kept saying, ‘Suri! Suri!’ in a tone that sounded like they were telling an adult to get her shit together.” Remini then writes how she proceeded to chastise the women — “What are you guys doing? She’s a baby. Pick her up!” — before grabbing Suri’s bottle and heating it up in the kitchen. “I’m no mother of the year, but even I knew that she was probably hungry and tired.”

8. Allegedly Isabella Cruise had some damning words about her mother.

Toby Canham / Getty Images

Cruise and Holmes with Suri Cruise, Isabella Cruise, and Connor Cruise in May 2008.

On the way back to America following Cruise and Holmes’ wedding, Remini found herself in the same airport shuttle as Isabella and Connor Cruise, the children Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman adopted together while they were married. Remini had long known the kids from their time at the Celebrity Centre together and had recently “gotten to know them better” during those nights at Cruise’s house, but she rarely saw them without the supervision of a church representative. So Remini seized the opportunity to ask a question that she’d long wondered: Do you see your mom?

“Not if I have a choice,” Isabella said, according to Remini. “Our mom is a fucking SP.” An SP, or suppressive person, is any individual who speaks out against the church. Members are dissuaded from having any contact with them. “My heart broke for [Connor], his sister, and their mother as we rode the rest of the way to the airport without saying another word.”

9. Nicole Kidman helped Leah Remini through her dark days.

Torsten Blackwood / AFP / Getty Images

Cruise and Kidman in 1999.

Once Remini decided to leave the Church in 2013, she repeatedly thought of Kidman to help her get through the tougher times. “During this confusing early period, I sometimes felt adrift, but I had one figure I kept front and center in my mind to keep from going crazy: Nicole Kidman,” she writes.

“Tom Cruise’s ex was my guardian angel. Although I never met her or attempted to meet her, I thought about her a lot. While I stared at the dark ceiling at night, unable to sleep, I would say to myself, ‘Remember Nicole Kidman. She was declared an SP and left the church, and she’s doing okay. Her career is still going, and she has a husband and family … Just remember Nicole Kidman. She left and she’s okay.’”

When asked for a response to the claims in Remini's book, a representative for the Church of Scientology pointed BuzzFeed News to this statement, which reads, in part: "Leah Remini knows the truth she conveniently rewrites in her revisionist history. The real story is that she desperately tried to remain a Scientologist in 2013, knowing full well she was on the verge of being expelled for refusing to abide by the high level of ethics and decency Scientologists are expected to maintain. Her repeated ethical lapses and callous treatment of others led to an ecclesiastical review which resulted in her being expelled."

BuzzFeed News reached out to Cruise's lawyer and publicist for a response to Remini's claims in Troublemaker. There was no immediate response.

When reached by BuzzFeed News, a representative for Holmes had no comment.

Claudia Rosenbaum contributed to this report.