Radar

Radar Exclusive: Update
Radar Didn't Call Will Smith A Scientologist

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GOSSIPS JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND Smith (Photo: Getty Images)
For the record, kids: Radar's April issue does not, as Rush & Molloy report, claim that Will Smith and his wife have "been recruited into—dun dun dun!—the Church of Scientology." The takeaway among the bleary-eyed gossip crowd from our cover story on the religion, which includes church leader Dave Miscavige's own niece recounting being forced into hard labor as a child and separated from her parents for months at a time, seems to be that we said Will Smith is a Friend of Xenu. Which would make his forceful denials of the accusation awkward for us, right?

Here's what we said about Will Smith:

"The Church has also set its sights on African Americans, opening up a center in Harlem in 2003 and making a strong play for Hollywood supercouple Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith." That's the only reference to Smith in the story. Note how we didn't say Will Smith and his wife are Scientologists.

Here's what Will Smith has said about Tom Cruise's efforts to recruit him to Scientology: "I was introduced [to] it by Tom and I'm a student of world religion.... I was raised in a Baptist household, I went to a Catholic school, but the ideas of the Bible are 98 percent the same ideas of Scientology, 98 percent the same ideas of Hinduism and Buddhism."

And this: "I've studied Buddhism and Hinduism and I've studied Scientology through Tom. [I]n all of the experiences I've had with Tom [Cruise] and Scientology, like, 98 percent of the principles are identical to the principles of the Bible."

Also, Will Smith has donated $20,000 to a Scientology front-group. Does that make him a Scientologist? We don't know! That's why never called him one!

By John Cook   03/18/08 3:30 PM
Related: Pop, Radar Exclusive: Update, Scientology, Tom Cruise, Will Smith
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