Tom Cruise is banned from second Berlin location
Berlin police refused yesterday to allow the actor and controversial Church of Scientology member to use a police station in the city’s Kreuzberg district to shoot his film, Valkyrie, in which he plays Claus von Stauffenberg, a member of the German nobility who tried to kill Hitler in 1944.
A police statement said the presence of a film crew on the site would hamper the activities of police “so seriously” that permission to use the station as a location could not be granted.
It was the second time that Cruise was refused permission to use a Berlin location to shoot his film. Last week, the German Defence Ministry banned the actor from setting foot on key military sites in the German capital that were to have featured in the production. The ministry said the actor’s membership of the Church of Scientology was the reason behind the ban, and insisted that the makers of the film would not be allowed on its premises “if Count von Stauffenberg is played by Tom Cruise, who has publicly professed to being a member of the Scientology cult“.
Germany treats Scientology with suspicion and keeps it under surveillance. MPs have stated publicly that, although it is not banned, they regard the organisation as a cult which recruits impressionable young people and is bent on making money.
3 votes
