<\/p>\n
Tom Cruise allegedly built a soccer pitch to \u201cwoo\u201d David Beckham for the Church of Scientology.<\/p>\n
The \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d actor was reportedly keen to introduce famous faces to the faith, with the sportsman and his fashion designer wife Victoria Beckham at the top of his list.<\/p>\n
So it was agreed to have a \u201cprofessional-grade\u201d pitch constructed at the Gold Base headquarters in California in order for the Hollywood star to have a reason to bring the former England player to visit the site with him.<\/p>\n
Mike Rinder \u2013 a former high-ranking officer in the church \u2013 wrote in his new book \u2018\u201cA Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology\u201d: (Tom) was doing his best to court celebrities other than those with whom he was working on films. Perhaps the most famous were David and Victoria Beckham.<\/p>\n
Watch video:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cA professional-grade soccer pitch was constructed on the property at Gold.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ground was levelled, irrigation installed, perfect turf, goals raised. A full-time caretaker was appointed from the Gold staff \u2026 It was built for one purpose only: so Tom Cruise could woo his friend David to come to Gold. It never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n The writer also claimed the church helped the \u201cTop Gun\u201d star with his love life, with a lot of funding going towards renovating a building in Spain while Cruise was dating Pen\u00e9lope Cruz \u2013 only for them to break up before it opened.<\/p>\n He wrote: \u201cTom had been dating Spanish actress Pen\u00e9lope Cruz, which was a contributing factor as to why so much money was spent to buy and renovate the beautiful building there.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s a bit ironic that by the time it was completed Pen\u00e9lope had broken up with him.\u201d<\/p>\n At the ceremony, Cruise is said to have complained about his personal life, prompting church head David Miscavage to take his comments \u201cto heart\u201d and set up \u201cauditions\u201d to find him a partner.<\/p>\n The 60-year-old actor then embarked on a brief relationship with actress and fellow Scientologist Nazanin Boniadi, before settling down with Katie Holmes, who went on to file for divorce in 2012 after six years of marriage.<\/p>\n Rinder worked as Scientology\u2019s international spokesperson and head of its Office of Special Affairs but left the organisation in 2007 when he was 52, prompting his wife Cathy to divorce him and their two children to \u201cdisconnect\u201d from him.<\/p>\n He is also no longer in contact with his siblings and their families, while his mother \u2013who introduced him to the faith when he was five-years-old \u2013 also \u201cdisconnected\u201d from him and he wasn\u2019t told when she passed away in 2013.<\/p>\n The whistle-blower claims to have been followed, hacked and spied on since leaving the church but he has no intention of stopping speaking out.<\/p>\n Related video:<\/strong><\/p>\n Rinder said: \u201cI always respond truthfully. I brought two children into that world and they know no better. I want them to have a chance to think for themselves and make up their own minds.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the church slammed the author, branding him an \u201cinveterate liar\u201d who has been \u201charassing\u201d the organisation.<\/p>\n The representative told the New York Post newspaper\u2019s Page Six column: \u201cMike Rinder is an inveterate liar who seeks to profit from his dishonesty.<\/p>\n \u201cHe supports himself by orchestrating the harassment of his former Church and its leader through false police reports, incendiary propaganda and fraudulent media stories.\u201d<\/p>\n