Prime Scientologists tried to limit airspace round a Mission: Unattainable premiere to cease a university prankster embarrassing Tom Cruise with an airplane banner, leaked paperwork obtained by DailyMail.com reveal.
The paperwork, handed on by a former high Scientology government, present the drastic lengths the ‘faith’ went to with the intention to cease a prank on the 2006 MI III Los Angeles premiere – together with utilizing contacts within the LAPD.
The person behind the prank, Stephen ‘Josh’ Schofield, was a 21-year-old scholar on the College of Central Florida on the time.
Utilizing round $3,300 donated from mates on an internet discussion board, he organized for 2 planes to fly banners over the fan screening of the Paramount film at Grauman’s Chinese language Theater on Could 4, 2006, poking enjoyable on the ‘galactic overlord’ Xenu in Scientology’s mythology.
Leaked paperwork obtained by DailyMail.com reveal a university prankster’s plans to embarrass Tom Cruise and mock the Church of Scientology with an airplane banner joke on the 2006 premiere of Mission: Unattainable III in Los Angeles
Stephen ‘Josh’ Schofield was the 21-year-old behind the thwarted airplane banner prank which he concocted after receiving $3,300 donated from mates on an internet discussion board
Like many Hollywood film premieres, the pink carpet occasion for the hit motion film happened at Grauman’s Chinese language Theater on Hollywood Boulevard
‘We obtained the thought in all probability after the South Park episode [mocking Scientology] got here out, to attempt to prank Tom Cruise for being a Scientologist,’ Schofield instructed DailyMail.com.
‘One airplane was going to hold a banner that stated ‘Hail Xenu’. It was proper after Cruise had a child, and the opposite one stated: ‘The child belongs to Xenu.’ Suri, Cruise’s daughter with Katie Holmes, had been born on April 18, lower than three weeks earlier than the premiere.
However weeks earlier than the deliberate prank, high Scientologists had been tipped off to it from somebody watching posts on the discussion board Schofield was a member of, offtopic.com.
On April 11, the Church’s ‘Watchdog Committee’ from their ‘Workplace of Particular Affairs’ wrote to their staff warning of Schofield’s plan to ‘put up insulting banners’, describing them as ‘each anti-Scientology and anti-Tom Cruise’. The committee had been alerted by the church’s legal professional Bert Fields.
The third movie within the Mission: Unattainable franchise was launched in Could 2006
The letter ordered ‘Linda’ and the Church’s ‘Director/Commanding Officer within the Workplace of Particular Affairs, Worldwide Division’ to ‘discover out every thing you possibly can about them and let me know without delay’.
It included Schofield’s full title, tackle, cell quantity, and electronic mail, in addition to the title and tackle of a moderator of offtopic.com.
A second doc obtained by DailyMail.com, dated April 27, 2006, is a report from senior Scientologist Kiersten Caetano laying out their extraordinary efforts to thwart the pranksters and ‘be sure that this flyover is killed’.
Scientology’s chief spokesperson Karin Pouw instructed DailyMail.com she had no information of the incident and couldn’t find any paperwork
First they tracked down the banner firm, Star Advertisements, and pilot Mario Lopez at Torrance Airport, Caetano wrote.
Then head of safety for the film premiere Robert Boyland met with the vp of Paramount Safety Providers, former LAPD officer Scott Lachase, and each ‘contacted the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] relating to getting the airspace restricted’, her report stated.
The FAA declined to close down the airspace with out a ‘credible menace’, so the Scientologists as a substitute ready a ‘pack’ of data to attempt to persuade the FAA that the pranksters had been a security concern and Lopez’s airplane must be grounded.
Paperwork obtained by DailyMail.com embrace a replica of the contract between Schofield and Arnold Aerial Promoting for 2 planes to fly an aerial banner studying: ‘THE BABY BELONGS TO XENU’ – in reference to Cruise’s new child daughter on the time – and ‘HAIL XENU’
A letter dated April 11, 2006 reveals the Church’s ‘Watchdog Committee’ wrote a letter to the staff saying the church’s lawyer Bert Fields had alerted them to the prank
Intent on blocking the stunt, church executives even tracked down the banner firm, Star Advertisements, and pilot Mario Lopez at Torrance Airport
‘The FAA terminal and the police shall be briefed on the web postings from the organizers the place they’re speaking about arranging folks to be within the fan crowds who will create some sort of scene as to try to get Tom Cruise to lookup on the banners,’ Caetano wrote.
‘We now have discovered among the consumer IDs on the offtopic message board which have donated funds to the renting of the planes are regarding akin to cerealkiller, assassinmonkey, organdonor, bomberboy, billthebutcher, gunsnwankers, divine vengeance and killerrobotjews.
‘There are additionally photographs on this message board e.g. photographs of weapons, bullets and a photograph of a child holding a gun to its mouth which present that this must be taken significantly.’
There was no proof that the pranksters deliberate to bodily hurt anybody.
The Church’s safety wing even consulted retired FBI agent Scott Nelson to seek out out what can be required to get a airplane grounded.
The report stated the Church’s then-chief spokesman, Tommy Davis, was planning to ‘transient’ LAPD officer Ron Sanchez, who was head of the Hollywood Police Actions League and pleasant with a number of high-ranking Scientologists, to ‘decide precisely what the police can do to cease this’.
‘The already skittish proprietor of Star Advertisements, Mario Lopez, shall be contacted by a Safety skilled and briefed on the scenario and dealt with to haven’t any a part of it,’ Caetano added.
‘If wanted, this shall be performed on Tuesday so Schofield and Fazle don’t have ample time to reorganize.’
Caetano signed off the report the initialism ‘MLV’ which means ‘a lot love’, a standard salutation for Scientologists.
In the long run, the climate stopped the prank.
Lopez and Schofield instructed DailyMail.com that the flight was canceled resulting from fog that night, and the faculty scholar was refunded the cash.
In a report dated April 27, 2006, senior Scientologist Kiersten Caetano lays out the extraordinary efforts to ‘be sure that this flyover is killed’
An April 19, 2006 contract with Lopez’s affiliate, Arnold Aerial Promoting Inc, shared with DailyMail.com by Schofield, says the 2 planes’ flights had been scheduled from 5pm to 8pm.
A climate report for Torrance on Could 4, 2006 reveals a cloudy day within the mid 60s Fahrenheit, till 5:50pm when situations improved to ‘honest’ via 6:57pm.
‘Simply earlier than sundown the marine layer got here in and we weren’t capable of fly. It was stopped by low clouds and fog,’ Lopez stated.
The pilot, now retired, stated that he obtained an odd variety of calls that week from folks asking if he was accessible on Could 4 – which he now suspects had been Scientology operatives making an attempt to uncover the pranksters’ plans.
‘It was actually humorous as a result of usually we don’t fly through the week. This occurred on a Thursday evening.
‘I stored getting calls asking if I used to be busy on a Thursday evening. I discovered that odd, like someone was looking for one thing,’ he stated.
Schofield stated he was shocked to find his title and particulars had been written up in a Scientology report.
‘It’s positively on the market. They actually tried to manage their folks, the faith and the narrative,’ he stated.
‘You see folks speaking about their experiences and it’s all the time that they ‘escaped’ it. I view it as a cult.’
Schofield added that he was not stunned the group appeared to have a direct line to the LAPD concerning the incident.
‘With the sum of money that group has, they’ll pay to have whoever they need, whether or not it’s personal investigators or rich folks with connections that may get them entry. It doesn’t actually shock me,’ he stated.
The screening occasion in the end went down with out a hitch because of dangerous climate which prevented the airplane from flying
Tom Cruise and then-wife Katie Holmes – who had arrived in Bugatti on the screening
Cruise is Hollywood’s most notable Scientologist, despite the fact that the church has been publicly criticized by former members
Scientology’s hyperlinks with the LAPD are at the moment underneath scrutiny after allegations emerged that its officers leaked confidential info to the Church and had been embroiled in a canopy up of the disappearance of Scientology chief David Miscavige’s spouse, Shelly.
Final yr former Scientologist turned critic Leah Remini accused former LAPD officer Cory Palka of leaking details about sexual misconduct accusations in opposition to ex-CBS CEO Les Moonves to the community.
Palka even allowed Scientologists to arrange an ‘informational kiosk’ with a TV and flyers for the Church on the LAPD Hollywood division for a short interval.
Remini additionally filed a lacking particular person report for Shelly Miscavige, the spouse of Scientology chief David Miscavige in 2013, six years after she was final seen.
In June journalist Yashar Ali reported that LAPD closed the Miscavige case after taking fingerprints from a girl claiming to be Shelly at a café on August 8, 2013 – regardless of the fingerprints being too faint for a optimistic match, and the surveillance footage from the espresso store being scrambled.
‘Scientology hires off-duty LAPD cops as safety and donates to LAPD charities,’ Remini wrote on Twitter in November.
‘All whereas instructing their members by no means to assist any prison investigations involving Scientologists and making it a excessive crime inside Scientology to report Scientologists to regulation enforcement.’
Remini accused the detective accountable for the lacking particular person case, Lt. Andre Dawson, of getting a ‘cozy relationship with Scientology’, exhibiting an image of him talking on the organizations Movie star Middle in Los Angeles on December 10, 2014 for an occasion about human trafficking.
Scientology spokeswoman Pouw the church has no coverage reporting prison exercise to regulation enforcement. ‘Fairly the other, church coverage explicitly calls for Scientologists abide by all legal guidelines of the land,’ she stated.
Supply: | This text initially belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
