Scientologists fought Tom Cruise prank at ‘Mission: Inconceivable’ premiere: report

Scientology bigs allegedly tried to limit the airspace above the 2006 Los Angeles premiere of “Mission: Inconceivable III” to forestall a school prankster from flying “insulting” airplane banners geared toward Tom Cruise and his controversial faith.

Paperwork handed down from a reportedly former prime Scientology government to the Daily Mail include a letter from the church’s “Watchdog Committee” from its “Workplace of Particular Affairs,” ordering somebody named “Linda” and the church’s “Director/Commanding Officer within the Workplace of Particular Affairs, Worldwide Division” to “discover out every thing you may about them and let me know without delay.”

The paperwork, revealed Thursday, declare that Stephen “Josh” Schofield, a then-21-year-old College of Central Florida scholar, raised about $3,500 on the net discussion board offtopic.com to “sabotage” the film’s Might 4, 2006, premiere at Grauman’s (now TCL) Chinese language Theatre.

Schofield had employed two airplanes to fly over the theater with banners studying: “The newborn belongs to Xenu” — referring to Cruise and his then-partner Katie Holmes’ new child daughter Suri — and “Hail Xenu (Coronary heart) OT [Off Topic].”

Xenu refers back to the “galactic overlord” in Scientology’s mythology.

Scientology’s chief spokesperson Karin Pouw advised the Each day Mail that she had no data of the incident and couldn’t find any paperwork.

However when contacted by The Submit on Thursday, Schofield claimed that the climate in the end stopped them from pulling off the prank.

“The air firm principally advised me there was heavy fog within the space that day, so the planes couldn’t take off,” Schofield advised The Submit. “They refunded the cash after which I refunded the cash to the folks that donated it.”

He additionally mentioned that the prank was “not meant to be malicious in any manner, it was simply one thing we thought can be humorous,” as Scientology was typically within the information at the moment.

Schofield additional claimed to The Submit that he has by no means been contacted by anybody from the Church of Scientology.

The Submit has reached out to reps for the church, Arnold Aerial Promoting and the Federal Aviation Administration for remark.

One other doc obtained by the publication, allegedly written by Scientologist Kiersten Caetano on April 27, 2006, outlines the extraordinary efforts to “be sure that this flyover is killed.”

It consists of statements that officers from the FAA and Los Angeles Police Division, the aircraft’s pilots and the California-based airplane firm, Arnold Aerial Promoting, would all be “briefed” on the scenario.

“The FAA contact mentioned they don’t prohibit that airspace for any cause and wouldn’t until there was a reputable risk,” the letter reads.

When contacted by The Submit on Thursday, a spokesperson for the LAPD mentioned: “We now have not heard of what you’re asking. Airspace restrictions can be dealt with by the FAA.”

Now-retired pilot Mario Lopez additionally advised the Each day Mail that the climate was the explanation the planes by no means went up, however added that he obtained plenty of calls within the days main as much as the prank, which he now believes had been Scientologists attempting to foil the prankster’s plans.

“It was actually humorous as a result of usually, we don’t fly through the week. This occurred on a Thursday evening.

“I stored getting calls asking if I used to be busy on a Thursday evening,” he continued. “I discovered that odd, like any person was trying to find one thing.”