Will Smith once said that he’s a student of world religion, and he’s sure putting his money where his mouth is. Will and wife Jada’s most recent tax return was just made public, and the couple gave an admirable $1.3 million to charities, including lots of religious groups. But Will didn’t just stick to one religion – he covered lots of them, including a cult! That’s right, over $100,000 was donated to various Scientology causes.

Just-released tax returns for movie star Will Smith’s charitable foundation show he and wife, Jada, gave $1.3 million in donations last year to a variety of religious, civic and arts groups. Smith’s biggest single contribution was, as usual, Yesha Ministries of Philadelphia. He gave the born-again Christian based organization run by Reverend James Robinson a whopping $250,000. That’s a hefty raise from the $140,000 he gave them the previous year. Another $200,000 went to a Christian ministry outside Los Angeles called Living Waters.

He also gave a combined $122,500 to the Church of Scientology, broken into these donations: $67,500 to the New York Rescue Workers Detoxication Fund, $50,000 to the group’s Celebrity Center in Hollywood and $5,000 to ABLE, another Scientology offshoot. Smith and his wife have also supported a private school called New Village Academy they opened this fall in suburban Los Angeles that uses Scientology learning concepts.

The star of movies like “Hancock,” “I Am Legend,” and the upcoming “Seven Pounds” also donated thousands of dollars to a Los Angeles mosque, other Christian-based schools and churches, and to the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Center in Israel…

The newest federal tax filing for the Will Smith Foundation covers 2007, and there is no donation to New Village Academy. So far there is no listing with guidestar.org, the website that tracks charities and not-for-profit institutions, for New Village. That seems odd since it was announced more than a year ago that Smith had given them a $1 million endowment.

[From Fox News]

So that’s at least $122,500 to Scientology, with a possible $1 million more, depending. Fox is right (rarely do I say that): the lack of any mention of New Village Academy is very odd. It makes me wonder at what point in the year Will and Jada made each of the donations, and if they changed their mind about the school. Though they’ve been fuzzy with the details, from most reports Will and Jada founded the school, so it seems unusual that it’s not on their tax returns.

While I’m never a fan of Scientology or supporting cults, I have to give Will some serious credit for spreading his money around to lots of religions. That really is admirable and shows a lot of compassion as well as an open mind. Now if only he could put that Scientology money towards a group that didn’t kidnap and murder members that wanted to leave, it’d be even better.

In related Will Smith news, his newest film “Seven Pounds” is getting torn to shreds in reviews. One Rotten Tomatoes reviewer called it, “An unintentionally ludicrous drama of repentance as an extreme sport.” Ouch.

Thanks to Defamer for the tip.

Here’s Will and costars at the premiere of “Seven Pounds” in L.A. on Tuesday. Images thanks to WENN.