Flaawsome Talk with Kjersti Flaa - The real Tom Cruise !

00:00:00.000 And guess whose name was just added to Dianetics, the highest scripture of Scientology?

00:00:07.860 Taylor Swift.

00:00:13.660 Hi and welcome to Flossom Talk. I'm Sérgio Di Flore, journalist, Hollywood truth teller,

00:00:18.280 and your voice of reason in a town built on delusion.

00:00:21.920 okay finally the journalist behind that infamous Tom Cruise interview that told us absolutely

00:00:32.440 nothing about Tom Cruise is speaking up about what happened behind the scenes you've got to hear this

00:00:40.280 and guess whose name was just added to Dianetics the highest scripture of Scientology

00:00:47.460 Taylor Swift. And talking about Tom Cruise's religion and their book Dianetics the Modern

00:00:55.080 Science of Mental Health let's look at this passage when they talk about the real reason

00:01:00.900 why a seven-year-old girl reacts when a grown man kisses her and kisses her passionately

00:01:08.300 specifically. Yeah there is a lot to talk about. So when I saw that Matt Bellany the journalist

00:01:15.320 behind the newsletter from the POC sat down to interview the journalist who interviewed Tom

00:01:23.080 Cruz, Zach Barron from GQ, I got really excited because I know that Matt Bellany will always ask

00:01:32.460 the real questions. And so he did. Because last week, as you might remember, the interview with

00:01:39.320 Tom Cruise and GQ was everywhere and everyone was like what are we watching what are we reading here

00:01:46.400 how is it even possible to market this interview as anything else than just word salad Tom Cruise

00:01:53.840 revealed absolutely nothing and that is the reason why this interview went viral people were like

00:01:59.600 this is ridiculous we're not buying it anyways now Zach Barron agreed to sit down for an interview

00:02:06.940 to talk about what happened behind the scenes here and I have to admit I was shocked when I

00:02:12.520 heard what he had to say in his own defense. Of course everyone was wondering why Zach didn't ask

00:02:19.180 the most obvious questions to Tom Cruise and we all just assumed that he was told not to ask about

00:02:26.520 Scientology and not to ask about Suri and not to mention anything basically from his personal life.

00:02:33.800 As you know, he was very successful in helping Tom Cruise pretend that he doesn't really have any life outside of making movies.

00:02:41.900 Matt Bellany, who's interviewing him here on his own podcast, The Town, he used to be an editor at The Hollywood Reporter.

00:02:49.640 So he knows a thing or two about celebrity profiles.

00:02:53.040 He knows all the negotiations that goes on behind the scenes before an interview like this happens.

00:03:01.120 he knows the back and forth with the publicist he knows the no no questions he knows all the rules

00:03:09.020 I know all those rules too because I've also been part of that world I've also been told don't ask

00:03:15.160 about this please stay to the movie it's always about please keep the questions to the movie

00:03:19.840 and everyone knows that no one's interested in listening to the same questions being asked over

00:03:25.100 and over and over again what was the most challenging scene in this film what was it

00:03:29.800 like to work with this director did you become like a family on set did you become friends when

00:03:36.360 you were shooting this movie blah blah blah so matt baloney starts off asking how they actually

00:03:43.000 managed to get tom cruise to sit down and do this interview after about 20 years not doing any

00:03:50.220 interviews like this and as you might remember tom cruise if you watched that interview and if

00:03:54.840 you watched my last video about this by the way you should watch that i'll put a link below

00:03:59.380 So Tom Cruise says that he's just like, he's been busy.

00:04:03.340 And then it was COVID.

00:04:04.860 And yeah, he didn't give a good answer.

00:04:07.180 So let's hear what Zach said was the reason that Tom Cruise agreed to do this interview.

00:04:13.560 Give us the backstory on what it took to get Tom Cruise to do his first magazine cover story in a decade or so.

00:04:22.680 I honestly wish that the answer to this were more interesting.

00:04:27.460 It really was as simple as us asking and him saying yes, which don't get me wrong.

00:04:32.640 No, but that's the start.

00:04:34.380 Yes, yes, yes.

00:04:36.000 So he says yes, and then it's but, dot, dot, dot.

00:04:40.120 Not really.

00:04:41.480 And I'm not like spinning or lying when I say that.

00:04:45.960 Yes, they just asked Tom Cruise and Tom Cruise said yes.

00:04:51.320 I'm like, no way.

00:04:53.540 He did admit, though, that he had a correspondence with Tom in the past, that they had been emailing when he had his last Mission Impossible movie out.

00:05:04.400 But then he also denies that there were no limitations to the questions.

00:05:12.280 Listen to this.

00:05:13.520 What are the ground rules for Tom Cruise?

00:05:15.660 Obviously, no Scientology talk, no Surrey Cruise, no personal life.

00:05:21.200 those i imagine were explicitly told to you we're not going there no completely incorrect i've never

00:05:28.540 done the why did you ask about scientology one thing one thing i do when i prepare for these

00:05:33.980 things i i had the same thought you did initially when i when i prepare for these things i go back

00:05:38.020 and i look at everything that's ever been um written about a subject it was 2026 i didn't

00:05:44.820 have a ton of time with him i think i understand completely if there are people who wanted to kind

00:05:49.900 of see the car crash version the matt lauer version the jump on the couch version well no

00:05:55.100 but it's the most interesting thing about him he is a high-ranking i don't think i agree he is a

00:06:02.000 high-ranking member of a church that has been accused of some pretty awful behavior you just

00:06:09.680 decided that his personal life was not as interesting as the movie that's coming out

00:06:13.720 Well, I mean, we talk about a lot more than Digger, but yeah.

00:06:17.280 Really, you were not asked specifically to not ask about Scientology and Sir Rick Cruz.

00:06:24.840 And then you as a journalist decided that, no, the public is not interested in that.

00:06:31.880 They're interested in the Tom Cruise just making movies.

00:06:35.360 And when he's not making movies, he's thinking about making the next movie.

00:06:38.900 And when he was a child, he always dreamt about making movies.

00:06:41.980 that's the Tom Cruise that people are really interested in yes and then he admits that I do

00:06:48.240 understand that a lot of people wanted the Matt Lauer version I think I showed parts of that in

00:06:53.920 my latest video as well with Matt Lauer was asking him about Scientology or he says the jump on the

00:07:00.760 couch on the Oprah Winfrey couch but this journalist he was not interested in that Tom Cruise

00:07:07.440 whatsoever which of course matt does not agree with that is the most interesting thing about

00:07:12.720 tom cruise and you go okay this is it all right okay and there's that where you go

00:07:19.120 you know i have to do something don't i yeah you just decided that his new movie coming out

00:07:26.080 is much more interesting than his personal life and he's like yeah i definitely thought

00:07:32.960 people really wanted to get to know more about how much Tom Cruise loves making movies.

00:07:37.760 You could tell that he's nervous answering these questions and that tells me everything

00:07:43.040 about his decision not to ask about these things. Scientology is known for their NDAs and for

00:07:51.040 threatening people who exposes them. So why would we believe this journalist when he says

00:07:57.600 that he just didn't believe that people would be interested in that and now his interview went viral

00:08:04.000 because it was so terrible matt also mentions they're exactly the same thing that i said

00:08:09.520 you know that tom cruise made his persona about this person who's just married to his job and he

00:08:16.480 can't talk about anything else because that is what he decided that is his basically his whole

00:08:23.360 identity and he's using that to deflect from what's really going on that he is one of the

00:08:29.380 highest member of this awful cult like he said you know I don't live anywhere I just live where

00:08:35.400 I am and I'm just me who is Tom Cruise he asked and he's like I'm me I'm always me and he was like

00:08:42.620 okay that's great and where do you live I just live wherever I am I live all around the world

00:08:48.440 and you're just like yeah please don't ask any follow-up questions about that i mean one thing

00:08:54.180 that zach this journalist is trying to sell us here is that he believes that people are interested

00:09:01.600 in this part of tom cruise that he is personally interested in he said for him personally he found

00:09:09.920 it very interesting that tom cruise only talks about movies so to me that just says a lot about

00:09:16.600 you as a journalist, if you believe that good journalism is only what you believe is interesting

00:09:22.980 about a person, you are not serving the public then.

00:09:27.040 I'm interested in the guy who's kind of like, I've sacrificed everything at the altar of

00:09:30.580 movies and this industry is me.

00:09:32.640 I was interested, you know, this isn't like, you know, brain surgery, but I was interested

00:09:37.960 in his like relationship with his phone.

00:09:39.700 I just think I think there's actually a lot of curiosity about Tom Cruise that that is

00:09:45.020 not about this subject. And that's genuine. Again, that's not me like lying or spinning.

00:09:50.620 I think that was the conversation I wanted to have. Interested. Always very interested. What

00:09:54.640 are they interested in? I get kind of interested in what they're interested in. What do they think

00:09:58.040 of life? And I'm interested in what do they think? As I said, I'm more interested in you than me

00:10:01.600 talking about this. Everybody's life has a journey and a story and it's interesting and I'm

00:10:05.840 interested. Look at the light in here. Look at the architecture. I'm looking at civilization and

00:10:09.920 the designs and why the designs and how that affects and what happens. And I've been interested

00:10:14.560 in something but it's like I want to learn it I want to understand it when you build a bridge

00:10:18.320 can people drive across it the theory works yeah and very interesting very interesting and it's

00:10:24.780 I'm very interested in all that stuff that's so interesting anyways then they start talking

00:10:32.000 about the cover and Matt asked Zach here if Tom Cruise had any control any creative control

00:10:41.360 over that cover and Zach says no he also asked if Tom Cruise demanded to read the interview or

00:10:51.100 to read the article before it was published because it was printed in the magazine and it

00:10:55.360 was also on YouTube as a video and Zach says no I'm like yeah really really we believe that Tom

00:11:07.080 Cruz did these photo shoots with his shirt open and not asked or demanded to see any of these

00:11:15.520 photos after. I think it's safe to say that all big publications although there are not many left

00:11:22.440 of these types of publications anymore for a reason for reasons like this by the way but if

00:11:28.020 you ask any of these publications do you want to sit down and interview Tom Cruz all of them would

00:11:33.920 say yes and Zach here is trying to convince us that there were absolutely no strings attached

00:11:41.620 to this interview that they just all agreed that we wouldn't be interested in anything else about

00:11:47.740 Tom Cruise yeah anyways I wish that Matt would have done a little more follow-up questions

00:11:53.540 about this interview if actually Zach was happy about it if he thinks that he did a good job here

00:12:01.560 if he was proud of this interview that went viral

00:12:04.740 because it was absolutely BS.

00:12:08.520 But I have to give it to him anyway

00:12:10.200 that he actually asked these questions that he did.

00:12:13.200 And for me, sitting here observing these two journalists

00:12:15.680 having this conversation,

00:12:16.760 when they both know what's really going on here

00:12:20.260 and one of them is just pretending that he really doesn't.

00:12:24.880 They also have an interesting conversation

00:12:26.320 about how the world has changed

00:12:28.080 with these celebrity profiles

00:12:29.740 that they don't really do them anymore.

00:12:31.880 There's only a few magazines that do these.

00:12:34.600 And it's pretty obvious why this has happened.

00:12:37.260 The public has changed.

00:12:39.000 People want more transparency.

00:12:41.240 They want to see what's real.

00:12:43.040 They're tired of being sold these fake images of celebrities.

00:12:48.500 And these magazines' mission is to keep that image alive,

00:12:53.900 that fake image that we've been sold.

00:12:56.500 and they're helping the celebrities in Hollywood to do that and I think that's the reason when you

00:13:01.900 go on YouTube and you look at interviews with celebrities they don't get that many views anymore

00:13:09.100 people who are actually commenting on these interviews often get more views because they're

00:13:16.480 being honest and to be honest none of this is journalism it is PR journalists are being asked

00:13:24.060 to just be publicists and everyone just agrees to do it because then they get to meet celebrities

00:13:29.940 and they think it's exciting because it gives them some extra cred and I see that a lot amongst

00:13:35.840 my colleagues in LA they're using their meetings with celebrities as leverage to show hey look at

00:13:41.620 me I'm meeting celebrities I am somebody but anyways I think that these magazines have

00:13:47.940 underestimated the public for way too long and now people are like this is just bs we're not

00:13:55.000 buying the fact that you're saying to us that this interview is revealing anything about Tom

00:14:00.860 Cruz the only headlines I saw anyone else picking up from this interview was Tom Cruz admits that

00:14:08.720 he is intense these two also talk about how everything is so fake by the way I do like that

00:14:15.740 matt bologna is just saying it's fake let's face it well it's all fake let's be honest any staged

00:14:21.940 circumstance is fake you want to make it as less fake as possible correct the goal the entire goal

00:14:28.780 of these publicists now is to avoid being aggregated for the wrong reason you don't want

00:14:34.620 any quotes that could potentially be problematic to come back and bite you in the ass and from a

00:14:40.820 celebrity profiler point of view, that sucks because your whole goal is to illuminate this

00:14:47.220 person in a way that will make them interesting and have that travel on the internet.

00:14:52.600 As a journalist, if you're a good journalist, that's your job to find something in a conversation,

00:14:59.320 to get something out of that person that will create a conversation. If you don't do that,

00:15:06.020 you're not doing a great job. I don't like it when I hear fellow journalists

00:15:10.580 complain about this being like the game has changed and they wouldn't give me anything and

00:15:14.840 the publicist engineered this situation so that nothing could happen i'm like those are all you

00:15:19.300 failures in this in this interaction there is only one professional and that is me and the

00:15:24.980 interesting part here is how sack admits that it's his job to make an interview interesting

00:15:31.540 and then the way he chooses to do this interview with tom cruise that is so uninteresting that it

00:15:37.860 goes viral for being uninteresting. That is really interesting to me. All these celebrity profiles,

00:15:46.020 all these journalists that work for these types of magazines are helping Hollywood to keep these

00:15:51.420 illusions alive. That is their job. It's a part of that whole ecosystem. But the thing is, the longer

00:15:59.220 you trick the audience into believing that the person you're portraying is someone completely

00:16:06.680 different from who they really are, the bigger the fall. Look at Ryan Reynolds right now. The guy

00:16:13.700 that was the funny guy, the joking guy, the supportive husband in Hollywood. His fall from

00:16:20.200 grace has been enormous because we were fooled for so long. The thing with Tom Cruise though,

00:16:27.940 it's a little bit different because we already know who he really is. And that is what makes this

00:16:35.060 so, so shady to me. Anyways, let's talk about how Taylor Swift's name has now appeared in the

00:16:43.760 scripture, in the highest scripture of Scientology. But before we get into that, a big thank you to

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00:18:29.940 slash Shasti, and make sure to tell them that I sent you. Okay, so let's get back into it.

00:18:36.460 As I predicted last week, by the way, I said that Tom Cruise would appear on New Heights,

00:18:43.800 Taylor Swift's husband's podcast, Travis Kelsey and his brother Jason.

00:18:49.240 They have this podcast together.

00:18:51.500 And of course, Tom Cruise did show up the next day on New Heights.

00:18:56.700 And also, as predicted, he would talk about his fat suit in the movie and the prosthetics

00:19:03.900 he was wearing, because that is his storyline for promoting this movie, because he can't

00:19:09.680 talk about stunts, something that he's been talking about for the last 20 years. He had to come up with

00:19:15.460 something different and as I showed the other day as well when he was on Jimmy Fallon, it was all

00:19:21.760 about prosthetics, it was all about their fat suit and then I guess Jimmy Fallon didn't have more

00:19:27.300 questions for him so he made Tom Cruise go out to the audience and give them popcorn. That image in

00:19:34.100 itself is exactly what's happening right now Tom Cruise is just giving the audience popcorn

00:19:41.260 hoping that they would just keep their blinders on as long as he can just entertain them anyways

00:19:49.040 this was really interesting thank you Linda so much for sending this to me so this is a newsletter

00:19:55.860 on Substack by Tony Ortega I don't know if that is the real name of this person but this person

00:20:02.460 knows a lot about Scientology. And he said here just a couple of weeks ago, Scientology put Taylor

00:20:12.420 Swift's name in the new Dianetics. Now she's hanging with Tom Cruise, pointing out that Tom

00:20:19.980 Cruise and Taylor Swift now are the new friends in town. Also, of course, one of the speaking points

00:20:27.560 of Tom Cruise Oscar campaign this year I also spoke about that in my episode last week they've

00:20:34.720 been hanging out at football games and also Taylor Swift invited Tom Cruise to her wedding and he's

00:20:42.260 been going to her concerts so it's safe to say that the two of them are at least superficial

00:20:48.440 friends I don't know if they're close friends if there is such thing as close friends or if

00:20:55.220 everything is just for PR these days. I don't know, Hollywood is, yeah, whatever. But anyways,

00:21:01.660 here in this Substack article, this person said that in May of last year, Scientology leader

00:21:11.720 David Miscavige held a special event in Clearwater, Florida, in order to celebrate the 75th anniversary

00:21:20.740 of Dianetics, the modern science of mental health. That is like the bible of Scientology. It is a book

00:21:28.880 from 1950 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard and at this event Miscavige announced that a new

00:21:37.720 75th anniversary edition of Hubbard's famous tome would be released. And there is a little new

00:21:46.740 detail that's quite interesting in this new edition. Taylor Swift's name shows up. So according

00:21:54.560 to this person, you're not allowed to change things up, words that came directly from Hubbard

00:22:01.920 in this book. And he says that his policies are still followed to the letter and they aren't

00:22:07.440 supposed to be altered. However, Miscavige risked the wrath of his followers by putting a whole new

00:22:14.120 section in this most important book with testimonials from Scientologists like John

00:22:20.780 Travolta, Erika Christensen, and Elena Cardone. And here is the testimony from David Campbell.

00:22:31.900 Free the dark days of the past, free from the uncertainties of the present, and free from

00:22:39.900 anxiety about the future. That was my new outlook on life after reading Dianetics.

00:22:47.100 Then, as I continued to use what I learned from Dianetics, my life steadily improved to a bright,

00:22:54.180 secure, and worry-free, highly productive, and happy life. Then they're introducing here who

00:23:01.020 David Campbell is, legendary composer, arranger behind over 450 gold and platinum albums,

00:23:10.220 including the works of Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, and Taylor Swift. So you might say

00:23:17.980 that she's just mentioned as connected to one of the members here, but the fact that her name is

00:23:24.900 in here says a lot because this is the most important book in the world according to

00:23:32.740 Scientologists. And in this new edition that was released last year they added Taylor Swift's name

00:23:40.240 into it. I don't know if Taylor Swift knows about this because who wants to be associated

00:23:46.740 with something like this? Let's talk about some of the other stuff that's in this book

00:23:53.980 that is still in this book even in this new audition this is truly truly disturbing so this

00:24:02.100 appears in book three chapter four part two the seven-year-old girl who shudders because a man

00:24:10.280 kisses her is not computing she's reacting to an engram since at seven she should see nothing wrong

00:24:19.480 in a kiss, not even a passionate one. There must have been an earlier experience, possibly

00:24:28.200 prenatal, which made men or kissing very bad. This scripture is saying that a seven-year-old girl

00:24:38.520 should not react to a man kissing her even passionately. And the reason why she does

00:24:47.240 is because she experienced something prenatal.

00:24:53.380 This is part of what this cult believes in,

00:24:56.960 that everything you experience today is a result of things that happened to you in the past.

00:25:03.400 It is so, so sick.

00:25:06.260 They're basically saying that she is having an irrational reaction to a man kissing her.

00:25:12.660 And think about the fact that Tom Cruise, who believes in this scripture,

00:25:18.400 is out there promoting a movie to get people into the theater to watch him.

00:25:23.740 And the money that he makes on these movies, guess where that money goes?

00:25:28.500 Straight back into Scientology.

00:25:31.540 Straight back into making new editions of this scripture, for example.

00:25:36.000 And here is another passage from this scripture that is worth noting as well.

00:25:41.380 It says, the sexual pervert, and by this term, Dianetics, to be brief, includes any and all forms of deviation in dynamic two, such as homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc., and all down the catalog of Ellis and Kraft Ebbing, is actually quite ill physically.

00:26:09.880 they believe that anyone that's gay are physically ill so yeah who knows if Tom Cruise is out there

00:26:18.460 trying to recruit Taylor Swift and her husband Travis Kelsey to become part of his religion

00:26:26.700 by the way this religion is not a religion anywhere else in the world I believe it's only

00:26:33.740 in the U.S. that it's called the Church of Scientology. In most countries in Europe, as far

00:26:40.000 as I know, it's only been seen as a cult. The reason, of course, why they want it to be a church

00:26:46.880 is because you don't have to pay taxes if you are a religion in the U.S. So yeah, there's that too.

00:26:55.220 and in the meantime Tom Cruise is out with his co-stars having dinner in London and here in the

00:27:04.340 Daily Mail they're saying that Tom Cruise 64 displays his youthful looks as he enjoys a Mayfair

00:27:12.380 dinner date with his Digger co-stars. This was yesterday I don't think Tom Cruise looks so much

00:27:19.780 younger than 64 but anyways I'm guessing this is what his publicist meaning his sister I think

00:27:26.520 she still works for him or anyone else in Scientology because he's only surrounded by

00:27:31.700 people from the church is what they planted in the Daily Mail here and just think about it do

00:27:38.260 you ever see Tom Cruise having dinner anywhere with a paparazzi except from when he's promoting

00:27:44.380 a movie now is like a regular guy going to restaurants with his co-stars like really

00:27:51.240 I find it fascinating how some people have been taking steps back to work for or with

00:27:58.260 certain celebrities and with Tom Cruise it seems like no one's doing that and they all know what

00:28:06.460 he is about it reminds me of that speech from Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes a few years

00:28:12.680 ago when he said if ISIS tell you that they have a new tv show you'll call your agent yeah and

00:28:19.020 they're even quoting Tom Cruise from the New Heights interview here by the way saying that

00:28:24.000 oh he was wearing a fat suit and he had prosthetics anyway that's it for me today you guys thank you

00:28:30.820 so much for watching and thanks for all your support and the tips you're sending me if you

00:28:35.580 have any tips please send them to tips at flawsom talk.com and a big thank you to my executive

00:28:41.280 producer Oscar who thinks everything is really really interesting and and he says please subscribe

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00:28:56.460 right Oscar and we'll see you tomorrow bye

Flaawsome Talk with Kjersti Flaa - September 23, 2026

The real Tom Cruise !

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