The TC Report

From NY Daily News:

Quieting Cruise: Mission impossible?

Tom Cruise keeps trying to show the world that Scientology is a friendly faith - but his proselytizing may only fuel the growing perception that he's gone off the rails. The star recently gave an unprecedented six-hour tour of three of the controversial church's facilities to Details' writer Holly Millea.

"I don't believe in hiding things," he told Millea. The "crash-course" included lectures and a gift-wrapped plaque containing Scientology's Code of Honor. Among the 15 tenets Cruise lives by: "Never need praise, approval or sympathy"; "Never fear to hurt another in a just cause" and "Don't desire to be liked or admired." Cruise sent the same plaque to industry executives for the holidays.

Shooting "War of the Worlds" with Steven Spielberg, Cruise went so far as to pitch a Scientology tent on the set, where well-groomed "volunteer ministers" in suits offered massages - called "assists" - to cast and crew. Cruise also opens up about self-reliance ("I don't discuss things with anybody else"), psychiatry ("it's a pseudo-science"), prescription medication ("any drug you put in your system is a poison") and reincarnation (at death, you leave your body and "go get another one").

The article probably won't win over Brooke Shields - who, after Cruise scolded her for using Paxil, said she doesn't take advice from someone who believes in "aliens."

The piece may also delight new Paramount chairman Brad Grey. A well-placed source tells HollywoodElsewhere.com's Jeffrey Wells that Grey wants to renegotiate Cruise's "massive and unreasonable" back-end deal for "Mission: Impossible 3." Struck by Grey's predecessor, Sherry Lansing, it's said to give Cruise 30% of the first-dollar gross.

Cruise's Scientology missionary work, his gushing about girlfriend Katie Holmes and his jumping on Oprah's couch are said to play into Paramount's desire to weaken Cruise in the public eye and thus at the negotiating table.

A Paramount rep had no immediate comment.