BERLIN, July 23 (UPI) -- A spokesman for Germany's Protestant Church likens Tom Cruise and his support of Scientology to Joseph Goebbels and his Nazi propaganda.
The Oscar-nominated star, in Germany to work on a film about an attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler, was accused of producing "propaganda for Scientology" by Thomas Gandow, a spokesman on religious cults for the German Protestant Church, Britain's Telegraph reported Monday. German authorities consider Scientology a cult.
Cruise, because of his status as a Scientologist, has been barred from filming at military sites for the movie "Valkyrie," which recounts Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg's leading an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the Nazi dictator with a bomb hidden in a briefcase.
Despite Gandow's denouncing Scientology as a "totalitarian organization" and calling Cruise the "Goebbels of Scientology," the film received sponsorship from the country's film board.
"Valkyrie," named after the operation's codename, is scheduled for a 2008 release.
