Does Thomas want to be Mrs Cruise?

Actor Tom Cruise arrives for the Canadian premiere of the film "Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation" in Toronto on Monday, July 27, 2015. (Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press via AP)

Actor Tom Cruise arrives for the Canadian premiere of the film "Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation" in Toronto on Monday, July 27, 2015. (Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press via AP)

Published Jul 29, 2015

Share

The constant clash of huge egos, the stress of hectic schedules and the long hours spent waiting on petulant actors – the film industry’s a tough enough place to work at the best of times.

But spare a thought for the friends and family of Emily Thomas, a young British production assistant who’s reportedly in the running for the starring role of a lifetime.

Industry insiders say the 22-year-old PA to Tom Cruise has so captivated the 53-year-old Mission: Impossible star that he is about to propose marriage to her.

The attentions of one of the world’s most powerful movie stars could go to any young woman’s head, especially one who may want to get ahead in an industry where the thrice-divorced Cruise has long been treated as a god. But one wonders if her nearest and dearest would share any excitement over such a star-studded match.

Sequels can always be hit and miss, but history would suggest that getting the lead role in Mrs Tom Cruise IV might not be the happiest fate for any young woman. If it were a film, chances are it would be a harrowing psychological thriller rather than a rom-com.

Rumours have been circulating for months that the scarily focused Cruise had found in Thomas the romance that has been absent from his life since he split up with previous wife Katie Holmes.

Emily started working for Cruise only last year as his on-set assistant for Rogue Nation, the fifth instalment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. In photos of them, they seem to have a chemistry that one doesn’t always see in the relationship between superstar and general dogsbody.

It didn’t escape anyone – least of all Cruise, surely – what an uncanny resemblance Thomas has to Holmes. It’s not just the hazel eyes and brown hair – they have a similar-shaped face, eyes, nose, lips and eyebrows. Late last year came reports that Cruise had a “crush” on her and was always flirting on set.

Emily was by his side again this year when he filmed Mena, about a drug smuggler who works as an informant for the CIA.

It’s fair to say that they have yet to be photographed exchanging any intimacies beyond a smile. The Cruise camp has poured cold water on claims of a love affair, although there has been no formal comment.

From Emily, embarrassingly the same age as Isabella – the daughter Cruise adopted with second wife Nicole Kidman – there hasn’t been a peep. And there may never be, say insiders.

For at times comic, at times tragic, but always ultimately toxic, Cruise’s bizarre love life is a sensitive issue. It’s not just that by all accounts he’s a little odd, it’s also because anyone who marries him is essentially also marrying his beloved Church of Scientology.

As celebrity figurehead of the controversial organisation, regarded in some countries as a dangerous cult, Cruise has always put his religion first and foremost in his private life – with dire consequences for the women he shared it with.

“If you’re going to be with Tom Cruise, you’re going to be with Scientology,” Tony Ortega, a Scientology expert told me.

Long-time Scientology watchers see the church’s controlling hand in talk of this new romance. They suspect Scientologists are encouraging speculation to distract attention from a new documentary, Going Clear, which makes a string of damning claims about the church and Cruise’s involvement with it.

With Rogue Nation releasing soon, Cruise can expect to be peppered with questions about the romance, rather than embarrassing ones about Scientology.

But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t fallen in love again. Few who have followed Cruise and Scientology are surprised by talk of another wedding.

The actor has not really been romantically linked to anyone since his split from Holmes in 2012.

 

Fuelling his loneliness no doubt will be his separation from his daughter Suri, who now lives with her mother in New York and sees little of her father. Although the evidence suggests he is just as close to the church as ever, it was recently claimed Cruise was to leave Scientology so he can spend more time with Suri. Sources claimed that because the church had no control over her upbringing, they were close to declaring Suri a “suppressive person” – essentially, a pariah who should be avoided.

If Cruise really has set his heart on Thomas, Tinseltown insiders told me it would illustrate how low his star has sunk in Hollywood. Not as a film star: he still pulls in the punters for his films, even if, at 53, he is looking a little long in the tooth.

No, say sources, the fact he is being romantically linked with his PA, a complete unknown, shows that the days when he could have his pick of Hollywood’s most glamorous actresses are over. He was married to Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes, as well as having affairs with Rebecca De Mornay, Cher and Penelope Cruz.

Senior Scientology defectors have claimed that in 2004, after Cruise split up from Cruz because she allegedly failed to embrace the religion, church leaders auditioned beautiful starlets to replace her. They included Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan and Kate Bosworth.

Cruise, it is claimed, allowed elders to summon the unwitting stars to read for a non-existent part in a Mission: Impossible film. Such was the pulling power of the Cruise brand.

If, as Hollywood sources argue, women stars now run screaming from any romantic connection to him, Cruise and his Scientology friends have only themselves to blame.

Mimi Rogers introduced the young actor to Scientology, but their 1987 marriage lasted just two years.

According to former top Scientologist Marty Rathbun, the church had a hand in ending the Rogers marriage and the next one, to Kidman. Both women, he said, made the fatal error of falling out with Scientology’s chief – and Cruise’s friend – David Miscavige.

Rathbun says he personally took divorce papers to Rogers and told her that signing them was the best thing she could do for Scientology.

More startlingly, it is claimed in Going Clear that the church “drove a wedge” between Cruise and Kidman. Rathbun claims in the documentary that Miscavige ordered Kidman’s phone to be tapped and worked on turning the couple’s adopted children, Isabella and Connor, away from their mother. The church has rejected the charges.

In 2001, Cruise filed for divorce from Kidman, who had reportedly always been sceptical about Scientology. According to Going Clear, the Australian was labelled a “Potential Trouble Source” by Miscavige after she persuaded Cruise to distance himself from the church during their marriage.

For a period it seemed to work, says the documentary, as Cruise allegedly refused to return Miscavige’s calls while the couple were in the UK filming Eyes Wide Shut.

 

The alleged secret Scientology plot to find Cruise a girlfriend led to the notorious “auditions” – of stars and fellow Scientologists. They appeared to have found the next Mrs Cruise in British-Iranian actress Nazanin Boniadi, a beautiful Scientologist. A brief relationship ended, it is claimed, after she offended Miscavige.

Cruise’s six-year marriage to Holmes prompted some of his most alarming behaviour. He declared his love for her on the Oprah Winfrey Show, jumping up and down on her sofa. Miscavige was his best man.

Holmes quickly understood what her marriage entailed. When she was conducting press interviews to promote her film Batman Begins, a Scientology handler would step in and answer questions. But, like Kidman, after initially embracing Scientology, Holmes later ran from it. The break-up was dramatic stuff. She fled LA to New York, where divorce laws favour women, and filed for a divorce.

Friends said she feared Suri might be abducted by Cruise. She even used a disposable cellphone to keep in touch with her lawyers.

He later admitted his religion had become an issue in their marriage. Holmes kept primary custody of Suri, whom she has raised as a Catholic. Although a joint public statement claimed the couple had “respect for each other’s respective beliefs”, Holmes privately sought assurances nothing would happen to “alienate” Suri from her when she is with her father.

Reportedly restricted legally in what they can say, Cruise’s ex-wives have not commented about the role of Scientology in their marriages to the star. Kidman still talks fondly of him as a husband, telling Vogue only this week her only real regret is that they didn’t have at least twice as many children.

Cruise, meanwhile, is said to be making wedding plans. He reportedly wants Suri to be a flower girl.

His adopted older children, a source told Star magazine, found it “strange” that he wanted to marry someone so close in age to them.

As for his Scientology minders, they just want Cruise to be with a woman who doesn’t try to get in the way of his relationship with Miscavige, says Tony Ortega.

It doesn’t exactly add up to a barrel of fun for any woman ready to take the plunge. It simply beggars belief that any woman is mad enough to marry Tom Cruise.

As they read of the star’s romantic plans for young Thomas, her friends and family must surely be hoping she has other ideas.

Daily Mail

Related Topics: