1992: Andrew Morton showed a Princess in a light we had never seen before--Diana: Her True Story became a #1 New York Times bestseller.
1999: Andrew Morton revealed the young woman behind the blue dress--Monica’s Story was a #1 New York Times bestseller.
January 15, 2008: Andrew Morton uncovers the true story of the biggest celebrity of our age.
Everyone knows Tom Cruise---or at least what he wants us to know. We know that he overcame a difficult childhood to star in astonishing array of blockbusters: Top Gun, Rain Man, Born on the Fourth of July, A Few Good Men, Interview with the Vampire, Jerry Maguire, three Mission: Impossible movies, War of the Worlds, and more. We know he has taken artistic chances, too, and as a result has earned three Academy Award nominations and three Golden Globes, along with the respect of acting legends like Paul Newman and Dustin Hoffman. After that, the picture becomes a little less clear. We know that Tom is a Scientologist, but not necessarily what that means in his life. We know that, despite persistent rumors about his sexuality, he has been married to Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, and Katie Holmes. But it was not until the spring of 2005, when he jumped on Oprah’s couch to proclaim his love for Katie and denounced Brooke Shields for turning to the “Nazi science” of psychiatry, that we began to realize how much we didn’t know about the charming, hardworking star. For two years, award-winning biographer Andrew Morton has been tirelessly seeking out everyone from former teachers and girlfriends to Scientology insiders to friends who have watched a once-bullied, “nothing special” outsider transform himself into an icon Forbes has called the most powerful celebrity in the world Here, with never-seen photos and never-heard revelations, is a riveting, sometimes shocking portrait of the real Tom Cruise---his work, his love life, his marriages, his religion---from a master at uncovering the true story behind the public face of celebrity.
REVIEW
Finally, a revealing book about the Hollywood giant ! Tom Cruise is probably still the most popular Hollywood star after having acted for a quarter of a century, nonetheless, there is very little known about his private life, apart from the usually cheap gossip of the yellow press. Like most Hollywood stars he's been very protective and concerned about his past. Whenever reporters tried to find out things about his past on their own he would usually have them threatened with law suits through his many lawyers.
That is why this book is so interesting and revealing. Credit has to be given to Andrew Morton, the author who actually talked to those people that knew Tom from the past. He found out some things that directly dispute the "nice guy from next door" image that Tom has always promoted about himself. Apart from finding out that while during his early youth when Tom and his family were in Canada he was at best a mediocre student, Morton also got into his abusive father's relationship with Tom. His father was mostly harsh to Tom and often down right abusive. Thus it should come as no surprise that when Tom was about 12 years old his mother decided to leave their father behind, and just got the kids and left in a fly-by-night manner across the border back to the USA. While Tom was going to school in Canada, and later back in the USA, he always felt the need to fit in with the most accepted and esteemed kids at the school. Although he usually tried hard to impress them, they usually didn't let him hang out with him, since he was seen as a short and somewhat average guy, and thus not cool or special enough to be part of their highly esteemed crowd.
As Tom was getting a bit older and closer to finishing high school he realized that he was a lady's man. Girls tended to like him, since he was good looking and apparently somewhat charming. It was also during high school that he began to realize his potential and talent as an actor. Ironically, it was a friend of Tom's who said that he should try getting into acting seriously. The girl who gave Tom this advice was at the time the leader of the cheerleading team who had herself already been in a commercial or two. Years later when Tom had just begun to play in hisfirst few Hollywood movies, as a young but still mostly unknown actor she remembered a humiliating encounter with Tom. She had long a ago given up acting as a career, and become a waitress. Now unexpectedly Tom came to the restaurant in which she was serving him as a waitress, him the new aspiring Hollywood movie star. She explained to Morton that she never felt so humiliated in her life. Although Tom was nice to her, she couldn't stop thinking how it had been her that told Tom to become a serious actor, and now here she was, of all things, a waitress serving Tom.
Morton`s book is good in describing the personality of Tom Cruise in real life situations. For example, we find out that Tom has always been a control freak, especially in his relationships with women. Perhaps the reason why his 10 year old marriage with Nicole Kidman failed was due to the fact that he couldn't control her as much has he wanted to. Toward the end of their marriage, she was filming intimate love scenes with another scottish actor, who it must be said, spoke about this episode in such a provocative manner that it could only frustrate a control freak, like Tom. It is also very interesting to note, that despite the fact that it was Nicole that often criticized Tom, it was ultimately Tom who ended their 10 year long marriage. The weird thing about that was the fact that Tom never told her why he left her, when Nicole asked him why all he would say was you know why. This sounds a lot like he didn't want to mention his reason for leaving her, because that would probably have involved having to say that he wanted more control over their relationship. Something that obviously Nicole would not have approved of. It also seems that another reason for the failure of their marriage was the movie "Eyes Wide Shut" that they acted in together. Here both Nicole and Tom had to have love and sex scenes with other film partners. Knowning Tom it must have been especially tough for him to watch Nicole filming sexual scenes with another man. According to Morton director Stanley Kubric was really being harsh on both Tom and Nicole during the extensive filming of this movie. He actually filmed several scenes of Nicole having intimate sex, although he knew that virtually all of it would never make it into the movie, and would thus be left over material for the trash can. Apparently, he took such great pleasure out of ordering Nicole into filming serveral of these scenes that they were almost pornographic. This in itself must have been a heavy burden for their marriage and especially for Tom's ego, that is known to be rather bloated.
But apart from their serperation, which clearly hurt Niclole the most, it is Tom's obssession with Scientology which takes up the greatest part of the book. The only question that Morton never manages to really answer is why Tom had joined this cult in the first place. It seems that it was more than anything else his own belief which led him towards this dangerous cult. In the beginning of his Hollywood career he carefully hid his association with Scientology, but as he got more popular and self confident of himself he began to act as a spokesman for the cult. Morton clearly shows how important it was to get Tom recruited to Scientology. Tom`s first wife Mimi is the one believed to have introduced him to the cult. She and her father had already worked for Scientology, but of course all of this could only be suceessful if Tom made the conscious decision to join Scientology. So in the end, he must have personally been convinced of this "religion" as he likes to refer to it.
The book also shows rather well, that apart from his well maintained "nice guy next door" image, Tom is a manipulative opportunist. Both in private as well as professional decisions he always tends to associate with people that he thinks will benefit him the most. In this manner he can of course always rely on his good looks and manners. Another question that not only the author has asked is whether Tom`s whole life has been primarily a facade. After all, why shouldn't a talented actor like Tom make massive use of his acting talent when it comes to his public and private image? In this sense Morton has also posed the question of whether Tom's marriage to Kathie Holmes was one of Tom's manipulative schemes. It is thus interesting to note that those who really knew Kathie (friends and relatives) said almost unanimously that after her marriage to Tom she looked lifeless and depressed. And it was apparent that in this relationship from the outset she was the shy much younger girl while he was the much more experienced elder man. It would thus be much easier for Tom to use his infamous "cruise control" on her than it had been with Nicole, who was about his age and much more demanding than Holmes.
In the end, this book was a good book that revealed a lot about Tom's life and especially about his hidden side that seems a lot darker than the image that he and his agents have perpetuated in the Media. Although it should be said that Tom is himself not a villain, rather he seems to be mostly a victim of circumstances. Early in his life it was his rather harsh father, then the many times that his family moved - during his school time he actually visited 15 different schools until he finished high school, and ultimately his association with Scientology that had adverse effects on him. Had his early life been a different one, it is quite likely that he would also have developed differently as a person.
For anyone interested in finding out what motivates Tom this is the best book currently available, and will probably remain so for a long time to come. The only other interesting thing to ask is how will Tom Cruise respond to this anything but adulating biography of himself? Will he resort to his usual tactic of suing whoever dares to investigate into his past, especially when the results of such an investigation do not correspond with the "nice guy next door" image that Tom has propagated for so long.
Contains intimate details of Cruise's first and second marriage never before revealed.
REVIEW
Pretty good book Book reveals some of the details of Cruise's Scientology involvement (probably unnecessary now, in the light of his recent flood of interviews) but is even more enlightening when the author tells how the cult tried to shut him upwhile he researched Cruise's membership in Scientology.
Sanello draws back the curtain that Tom Cruise has pulled over his life to expose the man, not the manufactured image. Based on exhaustive research and interviews with Cruise's closest associates--and a personal interview with Cruise--this biography explores the painful and dramatic events that propelled a lonely child into a star, and provides behind-the-scenes details about his movies and his two marriages. Photos.
REVIEW
Does unauthorised mean "just make it up"? I can't believe it! If you're going to write a book about someone you think they'd check the facts! Frank Sanello must not know much about Tom Cruise - first of all he had him down as the lead in Endless Love (including a photo of 'not Tom Cruise' with Brooke Shields. There were also pics of Tom with Rebecca DeMornay in All the right moves (wasn't that Risky Business? ). This is just the start and I could go on - but I won't it's rubbish....he madeup stuff to fill the pages....a non-fiction book is meant to be just that! I'm sure I could find plenty of other Tom Cruise books that will actually give me the facts...
