Both are obviously quite wealthy, but the wacko twins each must be getting quite nervous about not only the future of their careers, but their legacies. Its hard to mention either anymore without invoking laughter. John Travolta is a creepy closet homosexual that is eerily similar to the Reverend Ted Haggard. I can't imagine anyone would want to be part of anything he is associated with in his personal life. Tom Cruise is simply a vile, disgusting excuse for a human being. I can't think of a more narcissistic jerk of a celebrity who seems to think being a wealthy movie star with nothing more than a high school education qualifies him to give medical advice. The fact both of these morons are the face of the Cult tells me $cientology is not going to be around for much longer. They hitched their wagon to celebrities, now the wheels are coming off of that wagon and its headed for a crash.
I read all your posts in this thread so far, Mackdown, not just the first one. One reason Travolta stays in the closet (Scientology and being gay/bi) is for what he perceives to be his legacy, and also the comfort of the bubble he wants to live in for the rest of his life. It is a known for him. He's afraid of the unknown, like being able to spend less time with his children. Or having to open up his closets.
Let's say 20 million people end up seeing GOING CLEAR, and of of those, half of them are influenced enough not to spend to see Cruise or Travolta in a movie. How much will that really affect the box office in a country like the U.S. where there are so many movie goers and watchers? I think most moviegoers are more influenced by the quality of the movie, and how much critics and other people enjoy it, than they are the personal lives of the actors or directors involved.
There are other ways for Cruise and Travolta to feel pressure, other than box office dropoff. The media and non-Scientologists they associate with can exert that pressure. A person like Spielberg, instead of just acting like he's very interested in Scientology when talking to Tom, can say, "You know, Tom, I really think you should watch GOING CLEAR. Scientology doesn't work out for a lot of people the way it does for you. And that guy, Hubbard, holy shit!"
I don't think Cruise or Travolta are really aware of what's happening yet. Right now, they see GOING CLEAR as a situation which will be handled, and then pass. Neither of them realize how much of a game changer it is for them. Right now, there are people who staff empty orgs, and they can't see it, so it's going to take more for the scilebrities to see it.
Did you read the Danny Masterson interview where he revealed that no one he knows has ever confronted him before, or even discussed negative aspects of Scientology? Well, that's going to change. For years, that was easy to pull off, in a group which was relatively small, secretive, and for which there weren't a lot of books written. Now Scientology is going to take off in people being aware of the dark side, because it is absolutely fascinating how they operate, what a nutter Hubbard was, and the hundreds of interesting stories there are to tell, and be dramatized about the prison of belief.
