PARIS CITY HALL WILL NOT HONOUR SCIENTOLOGIST CRUISE

PARIS July 12, 2005 (AFP) - The Paris city hall has pledged not to make US actor Tom Cruise an honorary citizen because of his membership of the Church of Scientology.

In a debate late Monday, the Socialist-controlled municipal assembly approved a resolution "never to welcome the actor Tom Cruise, spokesman for Scientology and self-declared militant for this organisation."

[Last month Mr. Cruise] was also made an honorary citizen of the southern French city of Marseille.

We are not fans of Tom Cruise. Nor do we hold a brief for The "Church" of Scientology -- a tax dodge dressed up in science fiction as a self-celebrating religion for monied personalities and run by accountants, lawyers, fascists with low self-esteem, and an inner huddle of consummate scam artists. But as far as we know, neither Mr. Cruise nor his publicists nor The "Church" of Scientology nor any slavey acolyte or celebrity-maddened fan had sought any special honors for Mr. Cruise from Paris or its keepers.

We find this resolution curious for several reasons:

1. Mr. Cruise is but a poor-to-middling actor who is paid a lot of money for poor-to-middling performances. With all that must be before it, why has the conseil municipal bothered itself with whatever religion, genuine or phony, Mr. Cruise chooses to profess? And then only to resolve not to do something it was neither obliged nor provoked to do?

2. How is it that a conseil municipal, elected and serving provisionally, has taken upon itself to withhold unsolicitied honors for Mr. Cruise for all time, beyond the conceivable tenures of the current conseillers?

3. As self-advertised Republican secularists, what are the conseillers municipaux doing with their Republican noses in Mr. Cruise's religion?

4. Since the conseil municipal is now in the business of pronouncing non-honors, why has it limited itself to Mr. Cruise? Where is the resolution not honoring John Travolta? Especially after Mr. Travolta's risible valentine to Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard (Lafayette Ronald Hubbard). Where are proclamations withholding honors from Priscilla Presley? Lisa Marie Presley? Edgar Winter? Kirstie Alley? Jenna Elfman? Don't these Scientology worthies deserve the promise of never being made honorary citizens of Paris? For that matter, short of the False Purpose Rundown counselling, what do we need to do to have the conseil municipal forever deny us Parisien honors?

And who does the Mairie de Paris deem worthy of its special favor? A convicted cop-killer.

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