What Do You Think?
This is probably going to be some kind of shock to everyone out there but I'm actually going to defend Tom Cruise for once. I know, I know. I promise the world is not ending. I promise I didn't have a stress test, and I'm not living in the Celebrity Centre. There has been some fuss over the past few days about Tom Cruise and Amazon and getting a book pulled from their site.
Here is what happened as best as I can determine. There is a great book out called The Complex by a man who was a Scientologist for 22 years and spent most of that time in SeaOrg. The book is primarily about those experiences. That book came out on October 31st.
About a week later, Tom Cruise showed up at Amazon to torture their employees with an advance screening of Valkyrie. Then, shortly after his visit, Amazon stopped offering the book for sale in the UK.
The statement Amazon released said that someone mentioned in the book was alleging they were defamed in it.
Of course no one believes that Tom Cruise had nothing to do with it, except for me. Oh, and Tom. Well even if he had nothing to do with it he probably thinks he did. Of course he thinks Valkyrie is going to be a hit, and that his wife looks hot dressing as a guy all the time so who the hell knows.
Anyway, if all of you will recall during the entire Andrew Morton period, that book was also barred from being sold in the UK. They have different laws than the US and so it is much easier to get a book pulled off the shelves there. The major flaw in the argument for all of the Tom Cruise haters is two fold. Why in the hell would Amazon listen to an almost washed up actor when it comes to their business practices, and Amazon stopped offering it for sale in the UK. You can still get it in every other country on the planet so I doubt it will affect sales much or the spread of information in the book.
I would love to go off on a Tom Cruise rant, but I think that if you are going to rant, you need to have a valid reason, and I don't think the protesters have one. What do you think?
22 comments:
I agree, it's the UK laws. But it's fun to blame everything on Scientology, regardless of the facts, isn't it? :) I heard Miscavige was one of the main designers of Microsoft Vista.
Oh, and John Travolta helped with the writing for "Chinese Democracy"
I beg to differ--you can get it in the US is you order it directly from Easons in Ireland, and have it shipped overseas. Amazon US was listing it as out of stock (which, in essence, is not selling it), and now I know of at least a few people who've had their pre-orders cancelled from Amazon US, and received this email:
Hello from Amazon.com.
We are sorry to report that we will not be able to obtain the following item(s) from your order:
John Duignan, et al "The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert
World of the Church of Scientology"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1903582849
Though we had expected to be able to send this item to you, we've since found that it is not available from any of our sources at this time. We realize this is disappointing news to hear, and we apologize for the inconvenience we have caused you.
We have cancelled this item from your order.
Amazon--Cowards. The whole lot of 'em.
Not disagreeing that the UK laws are an issue, though--but I do think that Cruise/the Cos did have some influence on Amazon as well.
Amen, Mary. I'd heard the same thing.
I agree. It was easier for Amazon to back off than to tangle with COS.
They probably have dirt on Jeff Bezos.
One way or another Gay Cruise and his cult will be blamed since they are all nuts LOL.
PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I saw PeeWee and Katie last night at the Tina Turner concert at NYC's MSG. They had two security men with them and Tina called them out during the concert which made all the other celebrities in attendance pissed that they were not acknowledged. Poor Tom has nooo rhythm and for a married couple they showed no affection during the 2+ hour concert, I found that strange.
If Amazon caved it makes me even angrier because Amazon consistently refused to stop selling several dog-fighting magazines and cited "free speech" whenever they were confronted.
Does that mean Amazon is more afraid of dog fight fans?
Just saw a commercial for ET Canada this evening - supposedly there's some big news coming from Tom Cruise. New lifts?
Mooshki - what's this about Miscavige helping with Vista? Is that why it tanked?
As of a few minutes ago, there's no listing at all for it on Amazon US. I'm not finding it anyway. So I ordered it from Easons - thank you, Mary.
Sorry, can't follow you on this one, Enty. The pressure came from somewhere, and whether it was from TC or the COS, it's lame.
Shakey, I was just joking. :)
A few months back, Amazon deleted all of the negative reviews of their Dianetics books, leaving mainly the 5-star reviews.
I also will have to disagree with Enty.
There is never a good reason to defend TommyGirl.
see my previous post)
WHEN ALL I WANTED TO SAY, is that i read mortons's book.
and there's not a DAMN thing in there to get it yanked from shelves.
it's it's ego. there i some fun sco stuff, but operation clamback has much better dirt. true dirt, at that, because they're not afraid of these assholes.
*sigh*
fuck if someone sends me a skid of the books i'll sell them from my condo! FREE! fuck COS and their BS.
i don't like peewee myself and I smell a rat. sorry Ent but usually where there's smoke there's fire and if he is innocent well then naw I don't believe it, he's guilty LOL.
I think you're absolutely correct. The UK isn't known as "The Nanny State" for nothing - where else can you go and have your every movement recorded 24/7? They're well-known for their use of CCTV - why not censorship of the written word?
I just went to Amazon and here's what it says: Temporarily out of stock. Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we ship the item. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
I'm confused..they're selling it here, not there, not here?? I'm sure a lot of their books (and movies, and CD's) offend someone--do they pull them??..don't believe Cruise has this much clout.. can't imagine him having any.
kelliknows:
What clout Cruise may or may not have is irrelevent--if he was speaking to Amazon, he was speaking for the CoS. The clout they have is lawyers who will sue, not for the purpose of winning, but for the purpose of costing the the other party money.
L. Ron Hubbard on lawsuits:
“The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass(...). If possible, of course, ruin him utterly.”
Source: The Scientologist - A Manual on the Dissemination of Material"
“We do not want Scientology to be reported in the press, anywhere else than on the religious pages of newspapers ... Therefore, we should be alert to sue for slander at the slightest chance so as to discourage the public presses from mentioning Scientology.”
Source: quoted in “Shudder into silence: The Church of Scientology doesn't take kindly to
negative coverage.
Amazon may be alternating between listing the book as out of stock or cancelling peoples orders, but when it comes down to, they're just not selling the damn book in any country, to anyone.
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