Star magazine recently claimed that ahead of Tom Cruise‘s new Mission Impossible installment, he was about to leave Scientology. (They also claimed that Caitlyn Jenner is dating her friend, Candis Cayne) If you watched the HBO doc Going Clear you know that Tom is DEEP into Scientology and the things they’ve done to and for and with him over the last 20+ years are shocking. As their biggest celebrity fish, it’s unlikely he could ever break away, even if he wanted to. Church founder L. Ron Hubbard began Scientology’s “Project Celebrity” in 1955, with a list of 60+ “high-profile targets” with a reward to anyone who successfully brought in stars like Bob Hope and Ernest Hemingway into the church. He said;
“There are many to whom America and the world listens… It is obvious what would happen to Scientology if prime communicators benefitting from it would mention it now and then.”
Everyone knows about Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and Beck and you may have read about Giovanni Ribisi, Juliette Lewis, and its most famous ex-member of late, Leah Remini. Check out the previous post on OITNB‘s Laura Prepon‘s interview in Scientology’s own magazine, Celebrity. Below is a list made by Gawker of every celebrity who claims membership with the church, as well as lists of those who have dabbled in a few courses but never enlisted and of those who were “left the church” and have since renounced their affiliation. Gawker’s definition of “celebrity” is kinda broad: mostly actors, but there’s a handful of musicians, screenwriters, directors, showbizness folk…
Confirmed Scientologists
Church members and those who were members at the time of their deaths
Kirstie Alley
Jennifer Aspen
James Barbour
Lynsey Bartilson
Beck
Catherine Bell
Karen Black
Sonny Bono
Stephen Boyd
Grant Cardone
Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart on The Simpsons)
Kate Ceberano
Erika Christensen
Jeff Conaway
Stanley Clarke
Chick Corea
Tom Cruise
Sky Dayton (EarthLink and Boingo Wireless founder)
Eddie Deezen
Jason Dohring
Robert Duggan
Bodhi Elfman
Jenna Elfman
Richard Elfman
Stacy Francis
Doug E. Fresh
Peaches Geldof
Isaac Hayes
Gary Imhoff
Mark Isham
Jocelyn Jones
Kimberley Kates
Milton Katselas
Vivian Kubrick
Jason Lee
Geoffrey Lewis
Juliette Lewis
Christopher Masterson
Danny Masterson
Jim Meskimen
Julia Migenes
Sofia Milos
Elisabeth Moss
Floyd Mutrux
Haywood Nelson
Marisol Nichols
Judy Norton-Taylor
Eduardo Palomo
Michael Peña
Priscilla Presley
Bijou Phillips
Laura Prepon
Kelly Preston
Jeff Pomerantz
Lee Purcell
Giovanni Ribisi
Marissa Ribisi
Michael D. Roberts
Ruddy Rodríguez
Billy Sheehan
Dror Soref
Michelle Stafford
Frank Stallone (Sly’s brother)
Ethan Suplee
Greta Van Susteren
John Travolta
Manu Tupou
Edgar Winter
Michael Wiseman
Rumored Scientology Dabblers
Celebs who have “taken a couple courses” or “done some studying”, but are not actually members of the church
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Brandy
David Carradine
Leonard Cohen
Russell Crowe
Anne Francis
Chaka Khan
Ernest Lehman
Charles Manson
Gordon Lightfoot
Ricky Martin
Katherine McPhee
Van Morrison
Lou Rawls
Brad Pitt (completed two courses while dating Juliette Lewis)
J.D. Salinger
Jerry Seinfeld
Jada Pinkett Smith
Will Smith
Patrick Swayze
Forest Whitaker
Former Scientologists
Stars and Hollywwod types who were once members of the church, but have since left
Larry Anderson
Jason Beghe
Tom Berenger
Nazanin Boniadi (dated Tom Cruise in 2005)
John Brodie
William S. Burroughs
Diana Canova
Michael Fairman
Neil Gaiman
Paul Haggis
Katie Holmes
Leif Garrett
Nicole Kidman
Carmen Llewelyn:
Vince Offer
Lisa Marie Presley
Christopher Reeve
Leah Remini
Mimi Rogers (Tom Cruise’s first wife)
Don Simpson
Jeffrey Tambor
(via Gawker)
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