Tom Cruise Church of Scientology Banned Videos

In late 2004, Cruise received the Freedom Medal of Valor from the International Association of Scientologists - the first such medal ever awarded.
He was given the award for: "spearheading LRH Purification tech into the heart of human disaster, to changing the face of education at national levels, from eradicating the very thought of psychiatry, to full global dissemination, it is factually a tale of towering scope, and a litany of accomplishments which would take a magazine in itself to catalog." The feature then states that millions of people learn about Scientology, Scientology study tech, and the evils of psychiatry from Cruise, and claims that "every minute, of every hour - someone reaches for LRH technology [that is, expresses an interest in Scientology] ... simply because they know Tom Cruise is a Scientologist."

On January 14, 2008, a video produced by the Church of Scientology featuring an interview with Tom Cruise was posted on YouTube. In the video, music from Cruise's Mission: Impossible films plays in the background, and Cruise makes various statements, including saying that Scientologists are the only people who can help after a car accident, and that Scientologists are the authority on getting addicts off drugs. According to The Times, Cruise can be seen in the video "extolling the virtues of Scientology". The Daily Telegraph (Australia) characterized Cruise as "manic-looking" during the interview, "gush[ing] about his love for Scientology".

The Church of Scientology asserted that the video material that had been leaked to YouTube and other websites was "pirated and edited" and taken from a three-hour video produced for members of Scientology. YouTube removed the Cruise video from their site under threat of litigation. The web site Gawker.com did not take down their copy of the Tom Cruise video, and other sites have posted the entire video. Lawyers for the Church of Scientology sent a letter to Gawker.com requesting the removal of the video, but Nick Denton of Gawker.com stated: "It's newsworthy and we will not be removing it."

-- Wiki