FOX News, July 15, 2003
http://www.foxnews.com/
Yesterday I told you how People magazine had succumbed to promoting Scientology in exchange for an interview with poster boy Tom Cruise.
Now comes word from my sources that Cruise’s former father-in-law helped screenwriters with a script about Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
According to my sources, Phil Rogers, the father of actress Mimi Rogers, was the advisor on a secret script written for HBO by John Stockwell and Nancy Stoddart. The screenplay, called Immortal Thetan, chronicled the life and death of Hubbard. It was commenced in 1997 and finished in 1999.
Rogers’ participation is said to have caused a rift with his daughter. Phil Rogers left Scientology after Hubbard’s death and the installation of a new regime. Mimi Rogers is said to be part of that new regime. She was raised in Scientology and is said to have become an “auditor” at age 14. She married Cruise in 1987 soon after he became a Scientologist.
What happened to Immortal Thetan was a confluence of changing execs at HBO and a fear of retaliation from the notoriously vindictive tax-exempted group.
Stockwell and Stoddart are said to have a polished and ready-to-go script, but no studio fearless enough to make the deal.