Even with the surreal nature of Tom Cruise’s personal life, this rumor is pretty outstandish. It is that the Church of Scientology arranged for the mega-star to date and marry to Elisabeth Moss.
The rumor is no doubt fueled by the idea that the church might truly like to see Cruise, 57, and Moss, 37, as a Scientology power couple, given that both are among the organization’s most high-profile members. A tabloid magazine picked up on the rumor and ran with it in 2019, with a cover headline that proclaimed, “It’s On!” The magazine promised to reveal “the shocking secret” that brought them together and details about “their bizarre Scientology dating rituals.”
Moss recently showed she has developed a sense of humor about certain Scientology-related reports about her, especially the outlandish ones. While appearing on Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happens Live,” the Emmy-winning star of “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Mad Men” agreed to humorously answer a fan’s question about the engagement rumor.
“What was your reaction when you read those gossip stories that you were getting married to Tom Cruise,” the caller asked.
“I actually was confused and also mainly got texts from people being like, ‘I didn’t know, why didn’t you tell me?,'” Moss, 37, told Cohen. “And just confusion from my friends, but mainly poking fun at it ’cause obviously they knew it wasn’t true.'”
Moss, who stars in the new horror film “The Invisible Man,” said she also saw the tabloid’s cover, which showed of photo of her supposedly cuddling with Cruise, who has been married and divorced three times to Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes.
“I was like, ‘I’ve never had that haircut,'” said Moss, who was married to Fred Armisen from 2009 to 2011. “Like, it was supposed to be a picture of the two of us and I was like, ‘I’ve never styled my hair like that.'”
As much of Moss was able to joke around with Cohen, she hasn’t always found questions about her Scientology association to be a laughing matter.
In 2017, fans took to social media to criticize her for belonging to an organization that has faced allegations of subjecting its members to the kind of thought control and repression that was depicted in “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Moss responded to the criticism by saying, “Religious freedom and tolerance and understanding the truth and equal rights for every race, religion and creed are extremely important to me. The most important things to me probably.”
The fans’ criticism came after Moss reportedly walked out of the Television Critics Association awards in 2017 after the group honored both her and actress Leah Remini. Moss received a trophy for “The Handmaid’s Tale,” playing a young woman sold into sexual slavery by a dystopian, fundamentalist society. Anti-Scientology crusader Leah Remini was honored for her documentary series “Scientology and the Aftermath,” which investigates the church and its cult-like activities.
Remini publicly denounced Scientology in a 2015 tell-all book; she had left the church after 34 years. Through her documentary, she pushed for the FBI and other federal agencies to investigate the organization.
Remini said in an interview that Moss would probably never talk to her if they crossed paths at future awards events. Remini and others say the Church forbids current members from associating with defectors because those people are considered to be a negative influence, or “Suppressive Persons,” “SPs.”
“She believes that I’m an antisocial personality — because I’ve spoken out against Scientology,” Remini told the Hollywood Reporter. “So she isn’t allowed to talk to me,” Remini continued. “And me knowing that, I wouldn’t put her in the awkward position.”
Since then, Moss has mostly kept quiet about Scientology. But during a 2019 interview with The Daily Beast, she opened up a bit about how her role in “The Handmaid’s Tale” affected her religious beliefs.
“It’s funny, there’s two things you’re never supposed to talk about at a dinner — politics or religion — and of course I’m doing ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ which is politics and religion, so it’s a strange situation where you’re going to be asked about these topics,” she told the Daily Beast. “I choose to express myself in my work and my art. I don’t choose to express myself about it in interviews. I don’t choose to talk about not just religion, but my personal life—who I’m dating and that kind of thing.”
“So for me, it’s so hard to unpack in a sound bite or an interview, but I will say that the things that I truly believe in are the things that I’ve mentioned, and I think that they’re very important.”
She continued, “I think people should be allowed to talk about what they want to talk about and believe what they want to believe and you can’t take that away — and when you start to take that away, when you start to say ‘you can’t think that,’ ‘you can’t believe that,’ ‘you can’t say that,’ then you get into trouble. Then you get into Gilead.”
