You may have been seeing stories out of Australia about actor Tom Cruise and an Australian billionaire named James Packer. These stories caught us by surprise for two reasons.
1: Most of what’s in them was already covered by Steve Cannane in his excellent 2016 book Fair Game.
And 2: All of the stories are missing the single most interesting thing about the Packer-Cruise friendship, in part because of Australian law.
We’re not bound by that law, so we’re going to tell you that piece they’re leaving out, but first we need to set the table a bit.
We’ve written about Packer numerous times in the past. The son of legendary Australian businessman Kerry Packer, young James struggled to make his own way in the world, especially when he had a major business meltdown in 2001 costing hundreds of millions of dollars. This was not just an unwise telecommunications disaster, James Packer took it hard as the press naturally characterized it as the son stumbling while trying to be like dad.
To the rescue, surprisingly enough, came Tom Cruise. Cannane already explained this in his book, but a new book out this week repeats that story with a little new information, which the Australian press for some reason is now treating like a revelation.
Cruise brought Packer to the US, introduced him to Scientology, and by all accounts saved James from a really bad spot.
Just how bad was it? Well, that’s where the Australian press is handcuffed. We know the media there is aware of what we’re about to tell you — in fact, we discussed it with editors at that country’s largest magazine — but they can’t touch it for legal reasons that pertain there.
But we’re not under that same obligation. So we’ll tell you what we’ve known for a long time: What Cruise did was get his friend Packer checked into Scientology’s flagship drug rehab facility, Narconon Arrowhead in Oklahoma.
We know that from two former employees of the rehab who were both working at the facility when Packer was a patient there. Both were in positions of authority. And that’s how they were able to give us the additional detail that Arrowhead was sending detailed reports about Packer’s progress to Cruise, in violation of patient privacy rules.
After going through the quack sauna-and-vitamins treatment at Narconon Arrowhead, Packer rebounded, and spent the next few years as a devotee of Scientology itself (which is one of the outcomes Narconon is intended to produce).
We love this long-distance paparazzi shot of Cruise and Katie Holmes with Tommy Davis and Packer (on the phone) on one of Packer’s yachts. And note the Sea Org tattoo on Tommy’s arm.
Cannane’s book tells us that Packer had left Scientology by 2006, and at some point, according to the new book, he had a falling out with Cruise.
By the beginning of 2016, Packer was having a monster year. He had become engaged to his longtime love obsession — singer Mariah Carey — he was expanding his Australian casino operations into Las Vegas and Asia, and the mini-movie studio that he’d bought into with director Brett Ratner, cleverly named RatPac after the two of them, was going gangbusters.
His old Scientology pal Tommy Davis, meanwhile, had been out of his church spokesman job for about five years (although he testified in 2013 that he was still a member of the church), and the two of them hooked up again — Packer hired Davis to be his “general manager North America,” where he would help run RatPac in Hollywood.
But just a year later, Packer’s life had gone to shit in dramatic fashion. His plans to marry Mariah Carey suddenly ended as he walked away from the relationship, some of his employees were arrested in China and faced prison time for their activities trying to expand his gambling empire, his Las Vegas venture had been canceled, and even RatPac was suffering and he pulled out of it.
Tommy Davis went back to working for real estate investor Tom Barrack in Santa Monica, while Packer has tried to regroup. Now, he’s in the news again as a new book takes a fresh look at the roller coaster his life has been in recent years.
According to that book, Packer has now found a new spiritual path. “Packer has the maharishi spiritual guru Thom Knoles on speed dial to provide him with advice and alternative therapies to treat his depression,” says Australian website news.com.
Oh, and that rehab facility Tom Cruise got his friend into? A few years after Packer’s stint there, three patients died in a nine-month period. The local government ended up doing nothing about it, but Narconon Arrowhead became a shell of what it once was, housing only a handful of patients. Still, it’s in business today.
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Bonus items from our tipsters
Does anyone recognize these Yankees oldtimers who became the latest dupes for Queens dentist and sneaky Scientology front group operator Bernard Fialkoff, peddling his Drug-Free World propaganda?
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Scientology’s celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs’ — now with comments!
We’re building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs.’ We’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them, in order to build a record and maintain a watch as Scientology continues its inexorable decline — and yes, we finally have comments working on these new pages! Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.
Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!
Today’s Ideal Org: Madrid, Spain!
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Coming November 1
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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 26, 2018 at 07:00
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