oh, boy, oh, boy!

Andrew Morton, famed/hated biographer, is coming out with a tell-all on Tom Cruise and Scientology. He better watch his back. And his pocketbook. I smell a lawsuit and a possible 'silencing' heading his way soon.

Here are just a few of the shocking allegations Morton makes:

• Daughter by Katie Holmes "conceived like Rosemary's Baby"

• Nicole Kidman "feared blackmail" over sex tapes made with Scientologists...

Tom Cruise has become the de-facto second in command of the Church of Scientology, according to a new biography - which makes an extraordinary attack on the star by comparing his 20-month-old daughter Suri to the Devil's child in the film Rosemary's Baby.

...Cruise denies each of the claims vehemently, and Scientology lawyers are believed to be drawing up a lawsuit seeking £50million in compensation from Morton's publishers, St Martin's Press... Morton claims some "fanatical" Scientologists believed Suri Cruise was actually the result of a sperm donation by Scientology's dead founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Morton writes that Ms Holmes may feel she was in "the horror movie Rosemary's Baby, in which an unsuspecting young woman is impregnated with the Devil's child"....

"He has been told about it and naturally he knows there are a bunch of lies about him. You can imagine what it must be like to have someone compare your baby girl to Rosemary's Baby. Morton should be ashamed of himself....Morton's book paints a picture of a talented actor who tasted enormous success at a young age and then gradually became consumed by Scientology....
His involvement in Scientology began in 1986 when he was recruited by his first wife Mimi Rogers, a Scientologist who gave him some literature on the subject....Morton claims Scientologists pursued Cruise as part of a campaign to recruit celebrities. The author quotes former senior member Karen Pressley as saying: "A senior Scientology executive would be on the phone telling us that Emilio Estevez was staying in Malibu and that we had 48 hours to speak to him and get him in for an auditing session. There was so much heat and pressure on this it was outrageous." Cruise's recruitment was a coup for his wife Mimi but when their marriage began to fail in 1990 the hierarchy sided with him, according to Morton. He quotes a former Scientologist saying: "The impetus was to help Tom Cruise and within 24 hours they had agreed to split up."

Morton says David Miscavige sought to rebuild Scientology's reputation, battered by a fraud scandal in 1982. He invited Cruise to his "desert lair" in 1989, a 500-acre resort in Hemet, 90 miles from Los Angeles, nicknamed "Gold Base". Miscavige lives there with Scientology's most devoted followers called Sea Organisation or Sea Org. Morton claims the base was surrounded by security cameras, with "secret plans to rig the perimeter with homemade explosives in case of attack", as well as a "man-made eyrie where eagle-eyed guards with high-powered rifles fitted with telescopic sights scanned sunbaked California scrub for possible intruders".

According to Morton, the followers were not treated well. Miscavige, he says, was followed everywhere by an entourage "who slavishly tape-recorded his every utterance". Scientologists say Gold Base is simply home to their film studios and production facilities where the organisation's literature, videos and E-meters are made, and object strongly to Morton's characterisation of Miscavige, saying it is based on testimony disproved in court....

Scientology executives contributed to the failure of Cruise's marriage to Kidman, Morton implies. The author says that Cruise was asked in 1999 to do a "Potential Trouble Source/Suppressive Person course...designed to anchor an individual's faith while pinpointing those in his life who create problems". Morton claims Scientologists were worried that Kidman might be a problem because her father was a psychologist - "which automatically made her a Potential Trouble Source" - and she had given an interview emphasising her roots as a Catholic.

"The fear was that a lukewarm Nicole could fatally compromise Tom's commitment to his faith," Morton writes. "Somehow Tom had to be inoculated against the virus of doubt. "The surefire cure for scepticism was the Potential Trouble Source/ Suppressive Person course, which reinforced wavering Scientologists' loyalty while making them more suspicious of those around them who were not members of the faith."

When Cruise decided to leave Nicole in 2000, she was worried that she might not be able to see the two children the couple had adopted. Morton quotes a former highranking Scientologist claiming he received a call from Kidman's lawyer Bill Beslow: "At this point Nicole hated Scientology but was concerned for the kids. "She did not want to ruin her relationship with them. I told the lawyer if she wants to stay with the children she will have to be quiet and not speak out about Scientology."

In particular, Morton claims she was worried about her "audit" tapes, which contained details of her sex life and which she feared might be leaked if she spoke out. Morton recounts allegations that "auditing" focuses on the subject's sex life. He quotes Hubbard's son, Ronald De Wolf, who fell out with his father, giving a Playboy interview: "You have complete control of someone if you have every detail of his sex life and fantasy life on record. In Scientology the focus is on sex. Sex, sex, sex. "The first thing we wanted to know about someone we were auditing was his sexual deviations. All you've got to do is find a person's kinks, whatever they might be. "Their dreams and their fantasies. Then you can fit a ring through their noses and take them anywhere. You promise to fulfil their fantasies or you threaten to expose them."

Morton says Karen Pressley was at Gold Base one evening when John Travolta's sexuality was openly discussed. He writes: "'It made my head spin,' she recalls, 'and made me realise that the idea of confidentiality was a chimera.' As another Scientology executive admitted bluntly, 'These files come in handy if they want to blackmail you'."

Cruise's attempts at new relationships, with actresses Penelope Cruz and Sofia Vergara, did not work out....Morton claims: "It was on this trip that Sofia realised Tom was never alone. Everywhere he went, he was surrounded by Scientologists. They were at his home, they were in his car, they were at the restaurant. They were never short of smiles, but she found them 'powerful and authoritarian'. "One friend told me, 'She met his children, there is no doubt he was auditioning her for the part of his wife.' Sofia told friends she had been deliberately targeted not only as a possible bride for Tom, but as a high-profile Scientology recruit who would be an alluring figurehead for a future recruitment drive in Latin America."...

Of the bizarre beliefs Morton ascribes to some Scientologists about Cruise's third wife, Katie Holmes, whom the actor married in a whirlwind romance, the author says, incredibly: "Some Sea Org fanatics even wondered if the actress had been impregnated with Hubbard's frozen sperm. [daily mail/uk]