Cruise Film Can't Shoot at German Sites

Berlin says nein because Tom belongs to 'Scientology cult'
By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 25, 2007 4:49 PM CDT
Cruise Film Can't Shoot at German Sites
Actors Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes arrive to the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project Benefit Gala that benefits the clinic at 139 Fulton St. in Manhattan that offers treatments to 9/11 workers, Thursday, April 19, 2007 in New York. (AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh)   (Associated Press)

The makers of a new Tom Cruise movie will be barred from filming at key German military sites, Reuters reports, because of the star's Scientology connection. Cruise is to play the lead in "Valkyrie," about a failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. But the Germans don't recognize Scientology as a real church and are apparently opposed to its teachings.

Cruise, also a producer on the film, plays Claus von Stauffenberg, who tried to kill the German dictator with a suitcase bomb in July of  '44. The plot failed, and he and his co-conspirators were executed. A spokesman for the Defense Ministry said the German military had a "special interest in the serious and authentic portrayal" of the incident. (More Tom Cruise stories.)

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