Oscar Winner Leads Voices Criticizing Germany over Cruise Film

It's good to see German's speaking up about last week's official comments about Tom Cruise and Scientology It is good to know that unlike intolerance in years past, Germans of today will not put up with it.

Germany's Oscar-winning director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the creative brains behind Stasi film "The Lives of Others," which won the best foreign language picture award in February, slammed the government for wasting "a golden opportunity."


Having Cruise play Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg in director Bryan Singer’s film "Valkyrie" would promote Germany's image "more than 10 soccer World Cups," Henckel von Donnersmarck wrote in a full-page article in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

And now the official statement has taken a 180 degree turn, with German media reporting, "While some German politicians have said that Cruise, 44, is unwelcome because of his involvement with the Church of Scientology , officials have said that the decision to prevent filming at the Bendlerblock, now part of the defense ministry, was unconnected with the star's beliefs and was based purely on the disruption it would cause."

I'm sure the picture will be produced and that it will be a work of love and a work of art, and Cruise will excel in the genre he does better than any other actor today.

And here's to it being a blockbuster!



^{"Never regret yesterday. Life is in you today, and you make your tomorrow." — Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard}