You know how you used to see photos of Tom Cruise’s kids, Isabella and Connor, all the time before baby Suri made her triumphant but long overdue debut? Tom and Katie seemed to be attending a sports game for one of the preteens every week, but now like they’ve been missing for months.

Isabella dyed her hair blue the minute she was down in Australia visiting her mom Nicole Kidman, but that was back in May. Connor hasn’t really been seen much either.

According to Star Magazine, Tom Cruise’s other kids are away at Scientology camp learning how to be good little cult members who don’t question authority:

As Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and their 15-month-old cutie Suri were snapped romping around Berlin in between his filming the World War II drama, Valkyrie, noticeably absent from these family outings were daughter Isabella, 14, and son Connor, 12. Nor were the two with mom Nicole Kidman, who is currently in Australia filming her own WWII epic. So where have the Cruise kids been all summer? Star has learned that the youngsters are in Oregon, at a camp 60 miles south of Portland run by the Church of Scientology! “The summer camp is part of the Scientology’s ‘get them while they’re young’ campaign,” a source who attended the camp tells Star. “While they will be enjoying horseback riding, swimming and all kinds of fun activities, some of their day is devoted to Scientology coursework.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, September 3, 2007]

Oh so that’s why the Cruise kids have been discarded like last season’s PR tactic – they needed to get their personality chips reset! Just send ’em to camp for another round of coercion and they’ll come out smiling and ready to pose for more paparazzi pictures.

Just you wait, little Suri, your free will is next.

While I was doing the research for this post I found an interesting article from nearly 10 years ago posted on Factnet.org. They interviewed a guy who was second in command of Scientology and left to reveal their secrets. He talked about how celebrities are paid to endorse Scientology and the tactics that are used to make sure they don’t leave the fold or criticize the cult. They blackmail people, put extreme psychological pressure on them, and will hound anyone high profile who dares to leave. Scientology arranged Cruise’s divorce from his first wife, Mimi Rogers, and made sure he remained under their influence afterwards.

Celebrities are constantly monitored and judged to make sure that they don’t leave the cult or question its practices. Anyone that dares to do so is subject to extreme harassment and exposure of all the secrets collected about them by the cult, which can potentially end their careers. John Travolta supposed wanted to leave when he met a guy he fell in love with, but the head of the cult, John Miscavige put the kibosh on that and made sure that his people were around to pressure Travolta to give up his relationship and marry fellow Scientologist Kelly Preston instead.

It’s one thing for people like Cruise and Travolta to be figureheads for the money-making soul-sucking cult masquerading as a religion. It’s another for their kids to be forced to join before they have a chance to learn about life.