Update: On Friday morning, Dan Harris of ABC News stirred up some speculation about Leah Remini's much-publicized 20/20 special, during which the former Scientologist discusses her experiences with the controversial organization and its highest-profile member Tom Cruise. While appearing on Good Morning America, Harris, who interviewed Remini, teased that audience members who tune into 20/20 are “also going to hear from Katie Holmes, the former wife of Tom Cruise [and] what she is now saying about Leah.”
Many outlets, ours included, took this to mean that Holmes voluntarily took part in the special. But on Friday afternoon, the actress's publicist clarified that her participation was not intentional.
“In response to an email sent from the producers or fact-checkers from 20/20 asking a plethora of questions, we supplied no answers and instead gave only a one-sentence statement in response,” the actress's publicist told People. That statement: “I regret having upset Leah in the past, and wish her only the best in the future.”
“Katie is not making an appearance on the special, nor is she discussing Scientology, or her former marriage,” the publicist concluded.
Original post: Since her 2012 divorce from Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes has stayed relatively mum about her marriage to the movie star and her experience with Scientology. But in a news segment on Leah Remini’s defection from the controversial organization that airs Friday, Holmes will address Remini’s recent derogatory claims about Scientology, which include recollections about her interactions with Holmes and Cruise.
On Friday morning, ABC News’ Dan Harris, who interviewed Remini for the 20/20 segment, appeared on Good Morning America to tease Holmes’s participation in the special.
“You’re also going to hear from Katie Holmes, the former wife of Tom Cruise,” Harris teased. “[And] what she is now saying about Leah.”
In the special, Remini describes her first meeting with Cruise. “At first it’s very effusive, it’s very loving—you get the laser in on you and you’re the most important thing that ever happened,” the King of Queens actress said, before recalling a time she was invited to Cruise’s home to teach him salsa dancing. When she arrived, she claims that two high-ranking Scientology officials were there to observe, as well as Cruise’s then girlfriend, Katie Holmes.
“He was, like, forcibly kissing Katie,” Remini said in a newly released clip from the interview. “I said, ‘Hey, get a friggin’ room.’”
Her remark got her in trouble with the organization, Remini alleges.
“I was written up for that,” she said, referencing Scientology’s practice of reporting on each other by filing Knowledge Reports.
Remini understands that speaking out against Cruise won’t win her any affection with Scientologists.
“Being critical of Tom Cruise is being critical of Scientology itself,” Remini continued. “You are evil.”
According to Tony Ortega, who runs the reputed Scientology blog, the Underground Bunker, Remini has bad blood with both Cruise and Holmes after disrupting their 2006 wedding in Rome. In a post based on Knowledge Reports he claims to have seen, Ortega wrote:
After arriving in Rome they all attended a dinner in town, where Leahfirst noticed that Tom’s best man, Scientology leader David Miscavige,was there without his wife, Shelly. The wedding itself took place thenext day at Castello Orsini-Odescalchi, about an hour outside of town.Leah and Angelo ended up leaving their hotel late — waiting for J-Lo’ssecurity detail to give them the green light — and arrived at thecastle about an hour after the other guests.
Again, Leah noticed that Miscavige was there without his wife, and wasinstead getting friendly with his female assistant. Leah asked aboutit, and was told by Tommy Davis, the son of actress Anne Archer and aSea Org lackey to Tom Cruise, that Leah “didn’t have the f*cking rank”to ask about Shelly’s whereabouts. (What Leah didn’t know at that timewas that more than a year earlier Shelly had been banished to asuper-secret Scientology compound in the mountains above Los Angeles,where she remains to this day.)
Leah also caused a stir when she asked to have Jennifer Lopez movedbecause J-Lo wanted to sit with her. These disturbances wereapparently enough to concern both Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, whoslighted Leah and Angelo and wouldn’t shake their hands after theceremony.
In fact, Leah’s behavior caused such a stink, after the wedding theScientologists in attendance did what Scientologists do, and theyfiled Knowledge Reports with the church in order to snitch on eachother. Leah filed one complaining about Miscavige’s behavior with thehelp of her assistant in Los Angeles, Melinda Brownstone. Katie Holmes(who had become a Scientologist for Tom, at least at that time) filedone on Leah, blaming her for ruining the wedding.
