Tom Cruise's Second Act Keeps Getting Derailed by Scientology
Tom Cruise's career renaissance hit an unexpected snag at the London premiere of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. As the 62‑year‑old Hollywood heavyweight made his grand entrance — pulling a stunt akin to his Olympics announcement last summer, scaling the nose of twin vintage planes as part of the film's spectacle — a small band of former Scientology members staged a peaceful protest just feet from the red carpet.
Their leader, 29‑year‑old Alex Barnes — who is publicly listed on Scientology's websites as an enemy of the group, part of the group's 'fair game' harassment tactic — livestreamed the demonstration, which lasted roughly ten minutes before plainclothes officers swooped in, cuffing protesters under stop‑and‑search laws and searching their bags — by which time Cruise and his fellow A‑listers were already inside the Odeon Leicester Square.
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Barnes later decried the incident as 'a completely unnecessary and excessive use of police force which temporarily restricted our rights to peaceful protest,' per The Sun, noting that he'd been neither approached nor asked why he and his group had gathered. 'It was absolutely not our intention to cause any sort of disruption. We just wanted to be heard,' he told reporters, adding that cuffs had left bruises on his wrists. According to the Metropolitan Police, officers responded to reports of suspicious behavior before determining the demonstration was peaceful; no one was formally arrested.
This latest disruption underscores the long‑standing shadow Scientology casts over Cruise's every move. Since the group was founded in the 1950s by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, it has weathered allegations of financial exploitation, emotional abuse, and aggressive tactics to stifle dissent, and that's putting it conservatively.
Cruise, arguably the world's most famous Scientologist, has been its public poster child for decades, even as whispers mount that he's quietly distanced himself from the church. He hasn't publicly mentioned his membership in over a year, though insiders insist he's not fully out.
For Cruise, these protests come amid a highly publicized second act in his personal life: his alleged romance with Ana de Armas. The pair have jet‑set across Europe together, from helicopter drop‑ins to low‑key Valentine's outings. Yet beneath the apparent bliss lies a thorny question of faith. De Armas, a devout Catholic, hails from a tight‑knit religious family in Cuba, and friends say she's weighed whether Scientology could derail her own future. 'Ana was raised Catholic and her family would not accept Tom because of his beliefs,' a source previously explained, though another insider insisted her heart might be open: 'His Scientologist beliefs are not a deal breaker for Ana.'
Whether Cruise and de Armas can navigate this spiritual divide remains to be seen. But on premiere night in Leicester Square, it was clear that no amount of Hollywood pageantry can fully distract from the controversies that cling to one of its brightest stars.Best of SheKnows
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