Inside the Scientology Holiday Catalog

Tom Cruise wants another, and she's doing a lot of 'auditing'

(NEWSER) - Suri Cruise may soon be getting a present even better than her $30,000 toy car or $850 handbag : a little brother or sister. Katie Holmes has been spending more time than usual at the Hollywood Scientology Center—more than four hours last week—leading some to believe she’s “being prepared” for a second child. “This is exactly what happened just before she got pregnant with Suri,” a source tells the New York Post . “Tom has made no secret of the fact that he would like another baby.” More»

Also talks Scientology in 'Playboy' interview

(NEWSER) - Tom Cruise promotes his upcoming musical Rock of Ages in the latest issue of Playboy , but not surprisingly, the movie talk isn’t getting quite as much attention as the quotes about Cruise’s personal life. Some highlights:

• On plastic surgery: "I haven't [gotten any], and I never would."
• On his PR nightmare: Asked what he learned from his controversial interview with Matt Lauer (in which he disparaged psychiatry and prescription drugs for post-partum depression) and his Oprah couch fiasco, Cruise replied, “When I go back and look at it, I find myself thinking, I don’t feel that way. I get how it came across, but I don’t feel that way, and I never have. Telling people how to live their lives? I saw how that came across and how pieces were edited.”

Apparently there's a lot of clay, and perhaps some grade inflation to boot

(NEWSER) - They grow up so fast: Suri Cruise’s first day of school—Scientology-flavored school—was last week. So what’s it like at the New Village Leadership Academy in Calabasas, California, which uses L. Ron Hubbard’s “study technology” educational system? Well, for one thing, there’s a lot of clay. Sculpting is apparently big at schools like this, Slate explains, because Hubbard said students are frustrated when they have no access to “mass,” or the physical presence of whatever object they’re studying. According to the official study technology website, without mass students feel, among other things, “sort of spinny” and “squashed.” Therefore, Suri will probably be encouraged to use clay to sculpt concepts she’s learning about. More»

Alley's 'Organic Liaison' has links to church

(NEWSER) - Kirstie Alley’s new weight loss program may just be one more way for the church of Scientology to make money. An anti-Scientology campaign group first uncovered a link between the two: “Organic Liaison” combines an organic diet with “organic and natural diet supplements,” but critics believe it is based on Scientology’s “purification rundown,” a detox program. Ravi Somaiya describes the “rundown” as “at best bullshit, at worst dangerous” on Gawker . More»

He wants money back for services he never received

(NEWSER) - Scientology has a longstanding reputation as an expensive religion—but now that Larry Anderson's story is out in the open, details are emerging about exactly where believers’ money goes. Here’s how Anderson—who now wants nearly $120,000 back from the church he’s leaving—spent some of the $150,000 he says he gave it, courtesy of the St. Petersburg Times . "Prepaying" for services seems to have allowed him to take tax write-offs, but it backfired when Scientology leaders claimed they were charitable donations. More»