Katie Holmes “Could Blow Scientology Wide Open”

Katie Holmes has the potential to be Scientology’s worst nightmare in her split from Tom Cruise, former insiders at the church have warned.

Her divorce filing allegedly blindsided Cruise, and indications that she doesn’t want daughter Suri raised as a Scientologist show that she plans to aggressively take on the church, Hollywood Reporter indicated. The report said Holmes learned lessons from Cruise’s divorce from Nicole Kidman, in which Scientology officials turned the couple’s adopted children against Kidman.

“With Katie, it’s like she’s taking a leaf from L. Ron Hubbard’s own playbook,” Marc Headley, an ex-Scientologist who worked closely with Cruise and the powerful and feared chairman David Miscavige, told Hollywood Reporter. Headley fled the church in 2005 with the help of police in 2005. “Hubbard always said: Attack, don’t defend.”

Her actions so far have been much more aggressive than others who have tried to distance themselves from the church, partly because of the church’s decline over the past decade. Many high-ranking officials have left the church and in many cases become critics of Miscavige’s controlling and sometimes violent behavior, the Hollywood Reporter stated.

Holmes’ decision to file for divorce in New York State and ask for sole legal and primary physical custody of 6-year-old Suri also show a strong message that the is not afraid of taking on what is known as a powerful and litigious church, the report said.

“Katie ambushed Tom Cruise and in so doing outwitted some of the most controlling people on earth,” Karen De La Carriere, a former high-ranking executive in Scientology, told Hollywood Reporter. “I have no doubt that she’s being tailed by them. It’s par for the course. But she had to have planned this very carefully, right down to using disposable cell phones and laptops to throw people off her trail. It had to have been a very cloak-and-dagger operation.”

Holmes allegedly fired Cruise’s adopted daughter, Isabella, from working at her clothing line to begin cutting ties. Amid reports that she feared their daughter would be sucked into the church, Holmes has also cut off contact with Cruise entirely and is restricting how and when he can speak to Suri, TMZ reported.

Marty Rathbun, one of the church’s top officials who worked closely with Cruise before leaving Scientology in late 2004, said Holmes has the potential to expose many of the underhanded practices of the church.

“Katie could blow Scientology wide open,” Rathbun told Hollywood Reporter.

Do you think Katie Holmes will battle with Scientology during her divorce with Tom Cruise?