Daily Times

‘King of Queens’ actor Leah Remini is alleging that Tom Cruise not only knows about abuse in the Church of Scientology, but has personally administered punishment on a high-ranking member.

“He is very aware of the abuses that go on in Scientology,” Remini told The Daily Beast in an interview published Wednesday. “He’s been part of it.”

Talking to Daily Beast about Cruise, the church’s most notoriously private A-list member, Remini claimed that “Scientologists are told that Tom Cruise is saving the world single-handedly, so he is considered a deity within Scientology,” second only to David Miscavige, the church’s leader since 1986.

The two men are “best friends,” she continued, so Cruise has “been privy to the punishments that David Miscavige doles out.” She even alleges that Miscavige has threatened staff with bringing the “Mission: Impossible” star to Gold Base, the Church of Scientology’s headquarters in San Jacinto, California, “to kick their (expletive) (butts).”

She also accused the church of going to great lengths to shield Cruise from anything disparaging the religion.

“They’ll go so far as, if he’s going to walk a certain place, they’ll make sure there are no magazines that are anti-Scientology, so he can’t see that,” Remini says.

“The Church rejects all of Leah Remini’s allegations as false,” media relations spokesperson Karin Pouw said in a statement to USA TODAY. “The interview is a PR stunt to promote her fake reality TV show. As long as the entertainment media will print Leah Remini’s lies, her anti-religious bigotry will have a voice. Her brand of hate has dire consequences.”

Remini is herself a former Scientologist and left the church in 2003. Since then, the ‘King of Queens’ actress published a best-selling memoir about her experience, “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology,” and executive-produced an A&E docuseries on the subject, “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath,” which she also hosts. The show returns for a third season November 27.

Published in Daily Times, November 23^rd 2018.