The internet, particularly in the age of Wikileaks, has worked an enormous amount of damage upon the “Church” of Scientology, and many of us wonder why certain celebrities (i.e., Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and their wives) choose to stay. Naturally, part of the problem is that the cult has gathered far too many “damaging” secrets through its extensive auditing process of the celebrities in question, and they worry that their careers would be sabotages if this information should (and it would) be leaked by the CO$. Also, I figure that these celebs must have preemptively decided to turn a blind eye to any and all injustices that have been revealed by former members (if you’re not familiar, Ex-Scientology Kids is a great place to start). They just figure that things are great for them, so why rock the proverbial boat? Katie Holmes, especially, is not about to rock that boat. Not only would doing so endanger her astronomical clothing budget, but she’s at least smart enough to see what happened to Nicole after she and Tom divorced. After a number of years of marriage, Nicole resisted Scientology and, as a suppressive person, the church would never allow Nicole to be near her adoptive children again. When was the last time that you saw Nicole photographed with either Connor or Isabella? Exactly.

This week’s issue of In Touch magazine reveals that Katie’s life is one of constant surveillance and control from spies in the CO$. Most of the information comes from a new book, Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion, by Janet Reitman. While the stuff about unpaid labor and Katie’s “wife audition” is nothing new, there’s an interesting claim that Katie and Tom are largely ignorant of the scheme that’s been put in place to keep them line. Would you welcome the CO$ into your lives and even into your bedroom? It seems that the Cruises have done just that:

When Katie Holmes married Tom Cruise in 2006, it almost seemed like a fairy tale come true, from the custom-made gown to the man of her dreams waiting at the altar. But five years later, a new book suggests that the reality of her life is much different than she could have ever imagined. According to the book, Tom’s involvement with Scientology has ensnared his family in a weird world of spying, control, and some claim, even unpaid labor.

And now, these allegations are being exposed in a new book, Inside Scientology, by Janet Reitman. “Church leaders see Tom as a cash cow,” Reitman tells In Touch. So, she says, they do everything possible to ensure that he and Katie never leave the church — and never spill its secrets.

From its very beginnings, Reitman says, Tom and Katie’s relationship has been carefully engineered by Scientologists, although the couple’s rep denies the claims. When Tom and Nicole Kidman divorced, Reitman writes, curch staffers began a campaign to find him a new wife who could attract younger would-be Scientologists. “My source Marc Headly saw viedo tryouts of a number of actresses who were being auditioned to be an appropriate girlfriend for Tom,” Reitman reveals. He claimed several actresses were interviewed — but Katie was the only one who wanted Tom.

According to the book, Katie, 32, has played the part of a dutiful wife ever since. And she has to, since Scientology handlers reportedly watch her every move. “Any conversation you’d have with the star, anything you did with him, what the star read, watched, who he talked to, what he was hearing,” all would be reported to the church, former Scientology official Karen Pressley tells Reitman, meaning no aspect of Tom and Katie’s life is secret, and every aspect must be in line with Scientology rules.

The payoff? The book claims that Tom, 49, gets to use unpaid Scientology members as personal servants for him, Katie and their daughter, Suri, 5. Over the years, Reitman writes, he has had church staffers remodel his condo, build tennis courts for him, landscape his property nad more — without paying a penny. In short, the book suggest Katie’s entire life is a Scientology production, whether she realizes it or not. As former Scientologist Nancy Many tells Reitman, Tom and Katie “are completely ignorant of the strategy that has been put in place to hook and control them.” If that’s true, will the book finally open their eyes?

[From In Touch, print edition, August 22, 2010]

I haven’t read this book yet, but it’s on my Kindle wish list, so it’ll happen at some point. One book that I will heartily recommend on the same topic is My Billion Year Contract: Memoir of a Former Scientologist by former CO$ slave Nancy Many. If you read the Amazon synopsis and reviews, it’s clear that many other former Scientologists have found support and encouragement from the book by realizing that they’re not alone in their struggles to regain some sense of personal identity after breaking free from the cult. For “civilians” who choose to leave, the CO$ turns them loose without anything — no money, no friends, no family — and often with a large debt hanging over their heads for the so-called “free” audits they received while serving the church as employees.

Meanwhile, Reitman’s book will undoubtedly open some new sets of eyes even though, at this point, it’s almost common knowledge that Katie and Tom only employ fellow Scientologists in their household. Katie’s assistants? Scientologists. The couple’s bodyguards? Scientologists.

Photos courtesy of Fame