Okay, so the bad news is that this story is about Tom Cruise.  The good news is that it involves a sci-fi project that isn’t a sequel or a remake.  Joseph Kosinski’s first feature was Tron Legacy for Disney. He had another project called Horizon set up there, but Disney wouldn’t do it unless it was PG rather than PG-13.  Now, Variety reports that Universal is close to picking it up with Tom Cruise still attached to star.

Story takes place in an apocalyptic future where most of the population lives in clouds above an earth surface that is now uninhabitable. An earthbound soldier, repairing drones that patrol and blast a savage alien life form, encounters a beautiful woman who crashed in a craft that forces him to question his world view. [Variety]

Just one question about this barren wasteland, mysterious beautiful plane crash lady: will there be gays in there?  Anyway, while I’m no fan of Tom Cruise, I must admit that he does do his best work in sci-fi (Minority Report).  Especially if it’s set in some futuristic space society which has evolved beyond the point of recognizable human feelings and emotions. That seems to be Scientology’s end game.

[picture source: Radar]

Fox columnist Roger Friedman was famously fired from his crappy column at Fox News for writing about watching a pirated copy of a Fox movie, Wolverine.  Like any rational person, Friedman blames his firing on Scientology. And he’s filing a lawsuit.

Friedman is convinced it was a cover story. Last August, Friedman went to Memphis for the funeral of his friend Isaac Hayes, who was a Scientologist. Kelly Preston was also in town for the funeral. Friedman says that when Preston saw him at the Peabody Hotel, she loudly blasted him for his columns criticizing Scientology.

Hmm, I don’t know how you call something that actually happened a “cover story,” but then again, this is the same guy who once wrote that Matt LeBlanc had “literally disappeared.”

The following month, says an ally of Friedman, Preston voiced her complaints about Friedman to Fox News chief Roger Ailes and his then-EVP, John Moody. “Moody talked to her on the phone,” says the source. “When she couldn’t get Moody to fire Friedman, she called him a [obscenity].”
Ailes and Moody later agreed to meet with Preston and Church of Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis (the son of actress Anne Archer), according to the source, who says Friedman’s editors forbid him from writing about the death in January of Preston’s son, Jett.
Meanwhile, Friedman says, 20th Century Fox chairman Jim Gianopoulos had been encouraging him to lay off Cruise’s movie “Valkyrie,” which Fox was distributing internationally.
Last month, Variety reported that Cruise was in advanced talks to star with Cameron Diaz in a Fox action comedy, “Wichita.” A source suspects that Cruise may have made Friedman’s ouster a condition of the actor appearing in “Wichita.”

The original story when he was getting fired was that 20th Century Fox and Fox News were totally separate companies, so it’s interesting that he’s now claiming that 20th Century Fox was pressuring him.  And by ‘interesting,’ I mean wow, what an [obscenity].

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Now that Tom Cruise has been nominated for a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Les Grossman (a nomination which, let’s face it, is entirely conceivable that Cruise bribed and/or lobbied for), everyone wants to know what the next step for the character is.  And by ‘everyone’, I mean people who get paid to kiss celebrity ass for a living.

“I’ve talked about doing different videos with the character,” Cruise said. “I’ve started working with Ben [Stiller] on it, and we’ve kind of talked about different things to do. We were gonna do some in our free time, but we haven’t found the free time…yet.” [E! Online]

Wow, is that a threat?  Look, I know there are actually lots of respectable people who thought Les Grossman was funny. But if you’re one of them, ask yourself what was funny about it: was it the character, the dialog, the makeup, a combination of the three; or Tom Cruise’s vacant-eyed stare?  I humbly submit that any idiot off the street would’ve been better.  And as for trying to do Funny or Die videos with it or whatever: dude, just stick to filming your Scientology ceremonies.  Those are hilarious!

The LA Times has uncovered an old mug shot of Mario Majorski, the brave samurai who died valiantly trying to protect Hollywood from Scientology the other day.  They’ve also included some new details about his life:

Majorski was a church of Scientology member in good standing in 1993 when he and a classmate sued a psychiatry professor and UCLA.
The professor, Louis West, was an expert on brainwashing and an outspoken critic of Scientology, which he dismissed as a “pyramid scheme.”
Suits filed in state and federal court accused West of activities, including speaking to anti-cult groups, that transgressed the separation of church and state and interfered with Majorski’s practice of religion. Both suits were dismissed, and court records indicate that Majorski’s role was largely limited to providing his name as a plaintiff.

Public records show a recent history of confrontation in both states.  On Nov. 2, Majorski was arrested at a Mormon church service in Florence, Ore., the coastal town where he lived. A Florence police spokeswoman told the Associated Press that he was “cursing and moving around a lot” and was charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass.  Less than a month ago, he was arrested in Florence for swinging an ax at an Auto Club employee who was bringing him gas for his car. Majorski threatened to shoot police who went to his home to investigate, according to a police report. He pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct.

Reached for comment, a spokesman expressed condolences for the victim’s family on behalf of the Scientology Centre.  “It’s a senseless tragedy,” the spokesman said, “if he’d only paid us a few thousand more dollars, he’d be in heaven right now.  Space heaven.”

After someone sent me this brilliant video for Waterworld: The Musical, starring Patrick Warburton (aka The Tick, aka Putty from Seinfeld), I just had to know more about it.  What I discovered, unfortunately, is that it’s viral marketing for Made for Each Other, a comedy starring the unholy trinity of the Scientologist Masterson brothers and Bijou Phillips (who I like better when she’s not talking or wearing clothes).  The trailer’s after the jump.  I think they tried to make up for all the annoying children of celebrities and former child actors in it by saying “pussy” a lot.  Though with the Masterson brothers hanging around, it could be a Freudian thing.

You’re better than this, Warburton.
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