Concerned for her friend. Rosie O’Donnell confessed in a new interview that she’s troubled over Tom Cruise’s involvement in Scientology.
“Since seeing all the documentaries, it does make me worry about him and his life, and think of, you know, how protected he is from the facts of that,” she responded to a caller on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM show Radio Andy on Wednesday, July 10, who asked if her opinion of the Mission Impossible: Fallout star, 57, had changed because of his beliefs.
The former View cohost, also 57, has long professed her love for the actor on The Rosie O’Donnell Show, which she hosted from 1996 to 2002.
She told Cohen, 51, on Wednesday that Cruise’s religion is not something she has ever discussed with him. “I’ve always had a little ick factor with Scientology,” she said. “He’s never brought it up to me, we’ve never spoken about it, he keeps it very private.”
She continued: “It’s not like he tries to convert people.”
On the flip side, O’Donnell praised one of the church’s critics, former member Leah Remini. “Leah Remini is like a superhero, honest to God, what she’s done to blow the lid off that Scientology,” O’Donnell told the talk show host. “There was time years ago when anyone who tried to make a documentary, they were sued and they were followed … it was like a creepy, bad mafia.”
Us reported on Wednesday, July 10, that the King of Queens alum, 49, is considering legal action against the church. “She’s met with lawyers, as she’s considering taking legal action,” the insider revealed. “She alleges she’s been spied on and followed by people working on behalf of the church.”
The church gave a statement about the potential litigation to Us later that day: “Leah Remini has been maliciously attacking Scientology, its leadership and its members for years. Numerous threats of violence and actual violence have been leveled against Scientology Churches, its leadership, staff and parishioners as a direct consequence of Remini’s hate speech. … That is the real Remini story.”
The organization is also facing a separate lawsuit by an anonymous plaintiff which accuses the group of kidnapping, abuse and human trafficking.
The religious group denied the allegations in a statement to Us in June: “We are confident the lawsuit will fail. The church will vigorously defend itself against these unfounded allegations.”
Remini previously railed against Cruise in a Reddit AMA in August 2017, responding to a commenter who asked if she thought he was a good person. “The people who are around Tom and work for Tom, not even people who are Scientologists, they will say he is diaboloical [sic],” she wrote at the time. “There is a public persona of the guy who looks at you directly in the eye and shakes your hand and hugs you and is an attentive person to you and there’s the person behind the mask who is a completely different person.”
O’Donnell, however, paints a different picture entirely. “I get birthday flowers and a cake at Christmas,” she told Cohen. “He’s a really classy dude, he really is.”
