Scientology's legal representative wrote an eight-page letter of complaint to Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter over the magazine's recent Tom Cruise exposé, calling it "shoddy", "bigoted" and potentially libellous.
In the missive, dated 16 August, Jeffrey K Riffer of Elkins, Kalt, Weintraub, Reuben and Gartside LLP also denied suggestions the organisation's leader, David Miscavige, might have interfered in the Top Gun star's love life since the former was far too busy travelling and being "the leader of a dynamic global religion expanding across five continents" to get involved in such minor matters. Vanity Fair's article, written by Maureen Orth and published earlier this month, alleged Scientologist leaders held auditions to find the Top Gun star a new partner in the wake of his split from Nicole Kidman in 2001. Cruise has subsequently denied the claims through a lawyer.
"Ms Orth's implications are demonstrably false," argued Riffer in his emailed letter. "If she had considered for a minute the respective travel and work demands placed on both Mr Miscavige and Mr Cruise, she would have dismissed outright this "third wheel notion" … Mr Miscavige is the leader of a dynamic global religion expanding across five continents. His duties are herculean and accomplishments monumental. He is not a 'third wheel' to anything or anyone."
Vanity Fair's story further alleged that Miscavige's wife Shelly recruited Iranian-born British actor Nazanin Boniadi to date the Oscar-nominated actor in 2004 following an exhaustive month-long process during which the latter thought she was being "audited", one of Scientology's essential components, via video interview for a training film. The piece suggests Boniadi was later punished for revealing the relationship to a third party.
"These alleged events never occurred – and, no credible person has ever said that they did," countered Riffer. "There are no authentic contemporaneous documents evidencing such events (because such events never occurred). To be absolutely clear, Mr Miscavige never videoed auditing sessions, never saw videos of auditing sessions (since there are no videos), never read session reports aloud (since there are no such reports), let alone ever used such information to 'manipulate' anyone."
Riffer goes on to accuse Carter and Vanity Fair of religious bigotry towards Scientologists and accuses them of ignorance. "Scientology is a new religion and its beliefs not as well known as those of more ancient history," the email continues. "That does not excuse you or Ms Orth for being ignorant. Rather, it demands you be even more sensitive to finding out what the true beliefs are of Scientology – which can only be told by the religion itself. Just because you don't think you are bigoted doesn't mean you aren't. Bigotry and ignorance go hand in hand and you are definitely and wilfully ignorant of the actual beliefs of Scientology and the activities of its churches."
Cruise and Scientology have been in the media spotlight lately due to the former's divorce from actor Katie Holmes and the US box-office success of the Paul Thomas Anderson Oscar contender, The Master, which features a protagonist based on Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard. Anderson has said his film is not about Scientology, but has admitted that Philip Seymour Hoffman's character Lancaster Dodd is partially drawn from Hubbard, as well as other figures.
Riffer's letter appears to have been a shot across the bows, as it was sent prior to the Tom Cruise article's publication in the October issue of Vanity Fair earlier this month. It assumes that the magazine "will not publish anything defamatory" and hopes "we will not need to meet at a deposition or in a court". There is no suggestion that Scientology has in fact taken such legal action in the intermediate period.