Tom Cruise's Ex-Girlfriend and Other Former Scientologists Lash Out In Never-Before-Heard Anti-Scientology Rap
Scientology damag! es people. For proof, look no further than this bizarre anti-Scientology rap produced by a who's who of prominent apostate members of the cultfrom its former top spokesman to Tom Cruise's former confessor to Cruise's Xenu-approved ex-girlfriend. It's like the We Are the World of the anti-Scientology movement.
The brainchild behind this all-star effort is Titziano Lugli, a Los Angeles-based Italian producer and musician who was ex-communicated from Scientology in 2010. (We got the video above from former Village Voice editor and veteran Scientology watchdog Tony Ortega.) Lugli invited Marty Rathbun, a former Scientologist who was powerful enough in the church's hierarchy to serve as Cruise's "auditor," or spiritual interrogator, to tell the story of his ongoing battle with church leader David Miscavige in rhyme. (Sample: "the little dictator ain't nothin' but a hack / Or like Kobe says, 'You can't guard me jack.'" Really.) It also features a contribution from Mike Rinder, the Australian former head of PR for the church who could be seen representing Scientology by spitting out red-faced accusations of bigotry on cable news before "blowing" five years ago:
Scientology's being toasted by a midget with a blowtorchPretender to the throne, he's just a big-ass pain in the zorch....Dave and his BFF little TomThese half two menThink they're really the bombBut I couldn't take their shit no moreSo I said "Fuck you" and walked out the door
("A pain in the zorch," Lugli tells me, is a Scientology terms derived from a training manual for auditors"it's shit Scientologists say," he says.")
Perhaps the most intriguing contribution comes from Nazanin Boniadi, the Iranian-born actress and model who, according to Vantiy Fair's Maureen Orth, was personally selec! ted by Mi! scavige in a church-sanctioned search for Cruise's next girlfriend back in 2004. The relationship didn't lastCruise wanted her incisor teeth filed down, and he eventually dumped her after she insulted Miscavige by asking him to repeat himself. Boniadi has never spoken out about being pimped out, North Korea-style, to a probably gay crazy actor by a cult leader (she declined to talk to Orth). So her participation in the "rap" is the first public proof from Boniadi herself of her break with the church. She raps: "This ain't no road to freedom / It's a blind alley, like Kirstie Alley / Travolta, and Cruise, but we ain't no fools."
Ortega, who shot footage of the song in Lugli's home studio, sent us this backstory explaining how it came to be:
Back in September, Maureen Orth uncorked a beauty in Vanity Fair magazine. She wrote that in 2004, the Church of Scientology held "auditions" of young Scientologist actresses to find a new girlfriend for its biggest celebrity, Tom Cruise. One of those women was Iranian-American actress Nazanin Boniadi, who was then groomed to be the perfect mate for Tom. According to several ex-Scientologists Orth interviewed for her story, Boniadi lived with Cruise from November 2004 to January 2005 until he tired of her and had her sent away.
Boniadi herself, however, didn't talk to Vanity Fair, and Orth was also unable to find any photographs showing Cruise and Boniadi together.
But I was assured by the ex-Scientologists I know, and who are friends with Boniadi, that the story was true, and that Nazanin was deeply disillusioned about the church and about Tom Cruise.
Then I got a tip from Marc Headley, one of the former church members interviewed for Orth's story. He said that several months ago, some ex-Scientologis! ts had be! en goofing around and had recorded a rap song at the home studio of Tiziano Lugli, a former church member who is also a music producer. The song, Headley told me, ridiculed Scientology leader David Miscavige, the harsh life working for the church, and its celebrities.
Among the ex-Scientologists who had helped sing on the rap song, he added, was Nazanin Boniadi.
In November, I was in Los Angeles and was hanging out with a British television crew that is making an hour-long documentary about Scientology for Channel 4 that will air in March. I told them about the song, and they were anxious to see if we could get Lugli to play it for us. We met him at his Hollywood Hills home, and he took us into the studio.
He confirmed what Headley had told me, that after Headley had come up with a bit of rhyme, they thought it would be funny to make an entire song. So when various ex-Scientologists came by to visit Tiziano, he asked them to come up with a few lines and then record them.
Among the people who performed on it were Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder, two formerly top-ranking executives in the church. Lugli sings on it, as does his wife, actress Jamie (Sorrentini) Lugli. And Lugli tells me he wrote the lines that we hear Nazanin Boniadi perform...
"But we all know how it isThis ain't no road to freedomIt's a blind alley, like Kirstie AlleyTravolta, and Cruise, but we ain't no fools"
Lugli told me he had also written more lines for her that spoke directly to the way she'd been treated by Cruise. She said she'd rather sing another song that she'd written, a weepy ballad about her "faith" being betrayed by someone who was going to be visited by "demons."
(Lugli played that song for us, but he would not allow us to film him doing it.)
To finish his first draft of the rap song, Lugli himself raps the words he had written for Boniadi, and raises his voice artificially (which is obvious when you hear it)...
"My name is NazYou might not know who I amBut trus! t me, I'm! sure DMIs now shitting his pantsI was pimped outTreated like a prostituteI was used and abusedYou really thought I was a foolMy integrity has got a priceThat your creeps can't buyI won't bend, I won't break,I will not hesitate to expose your plansTo the entire nationYour population needsSome serious emancipation"
Again, it's important to point out that Nazanin did not perform these lines herself.
But she did contribute a few lines that name Scientology's three biggest celebrities, and not in a flattering light.
Lugli played the rap song for us three separate times, in each instance with the British TV crew filming him. And I recorded this video on my flip cam.
I confirmed the above account with Lugli and Rathbun. Lugli says the song is still a work in progress, and that "the plan is to sell it as a single, and use that money to give to people who are leaving the church and don't have anything."
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