Germans saying NO to Tom Cruise, scientologist

Tom Cruise is an actor and a member of the Scientology sect. In his capacity as an actor, he has already requested permission to film in Berlin several times before. And he has repeatedly been turned down. It's all become such a routine that it's almost farcical.

Three years ago, Wolfgang Thierse, the then-president of Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, denied Cruise permission to film the dome of the historic Reichstag building, where the star wanted to shoot a scene for his action thriller "Mission: Impossible III." In the end, Cruise and his film crew left Berlin for Prague.

Now he wants to shoot another film in the German capital: "Valkyrie," in which he is to play the role of Hitler's would-be assassin Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. Part of the film, which is named after the code name Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators gave their 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler, is to be shot in historic locations such as the Bendlerblock, where the plot was hatched, and where Stauffenberg and others were executed following its failure. The building now houses some government departments, as well as the German Resistance Memorial Center.

But once again the answer to Cruise's request is a big "No." And the main reason is that when decision-makers in Berlin look at Cruise all they see is a Scientology member.