Fans of South Park should remember the episode where they ridiculed both Tom Cruise and the entire Scientology community. People laughed, the church was less than impressed and Cruise reportedly threatened to stop promoting Mission Impossible III if the show was aired again.

Well, if reports are to be believed, a new documentary shown at Sundance paints an even less flattering picture of the religion created by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard (pictured below, perhaps looking smug after counting his riches).

HBO, the people responsible for the doccie, are said to have hired a team of 160 lawyers to check Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief for potential legal issues. The Daily Beast have attended the first screening and it doesn’t look pretty for Cruise and his fellow believers.

Some of the more shocking claims include a concerted effort by the church to pressure Cruise into separating from his wife Nicole Kidman, whom it was believed was responsible for Cruise distancing himself from the religion.

Marty Rathbun, who was previously second highest ranking official in the Church of Scientology, also dropped a few other bombshells. This from the Daily Beast:

…the Church of Scientology “re-educated” Cruise’s adopted children with Kidman, Connor and Isabella, into turning against their mother so that Cruise could retain custody.

…the Church of Scientology takes great pains to accommodate Cruise, including installing all the audiovisual equipment in his home, purchasing him limousines and airplanes, and once even having its members design a meadow for Cruise and Kidman to run through—an alleged fantasy of Cruise’s.

We knew Tom was a little, um, ‘out there’ when we saw him bouncing on Oprah’s couch but if the documentary is to be believed there were some pretty sinister forces at work. I imagine the team of 160 lawyers would have yanked such claims were there no truth to them, so we are pretty excited about getting our hands on a copy of this truth-nugget some time soon.

[source:dailybeast]