Control switch: On

“Do you want the truth? Can you handle the truth?” asked starlet Katie Holmes on Saturday night as she introduced her new boyfriend, megastar Tom Cruise, to the fans at the taping of the MTV Movie Awards.

Of course, the seeming truth about Cruise has been up in the air for the last few weeks, ever since his couch-hopping, arm-pumping performance as a fool in love on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on May 23. Analyzed like the Zapruder film by Hollywood’s chattering class, the “Oprah” bout, his May-December romance with the 26-year-old Holmes and his May 26 “Access Hollywood” appearance (where his focus was Scientology) have led to open theorizing about a midlife crisis on the part of the 42-year-old star. To say nothing of worries about a full-scale public-relations meltdown. Compounding the tension is an ongoing high-pitched battle with the new Paramount administration over the budget of Cruise’s franchise “Mission: Impossible III,” slated to begin principal photography in weeks, if the studio agrees to continue going forward.

On Saturday night, the slightly subdued actor seemed determined to turn back the clock, and transform himself back into the Cruise America knows best: its most calm and collected movie star. The actor had very noticeably crashed Holmes’ “Batman Begins” junket on Friday. By Saturday, the pair had reverted to movie-star elusiveness, arriving on Cruise’s futuristic motorcycle, with black helmets obscuring their famous features. He shunned the red carpet and holed up in the dressing room beforehand; he also skipped any appearance before the press in the green room.

The reemergence of Cruise’s pragmatic, predictable side seemed to signal a return to business as usual -- no doubt accompanied by a sigh of relief in executive suites. When the business is Tom Cruise Inc., that is significant. While Cruise’s domestic box office has softened ever so slightly recently, he remains the biggest movie star in the world, an international film behemoth. He usually forgoes an upfront salary for a gigantic piece of the back end, including DVD sales. For instance, on “The Last Samurai” (which grossed $457 million worldwide), two sources associated with the film say he earned between $80 million to $90 million.

During the MTV awards, the only reference to the curious media blitz of the last few weeks was the arm-pumping victory dance Holmes did at the end of her introduction for Cruise, who was receiving the cable channel’s version of a lifetime achievement award. To many observers, it seemed a staged and pale imitation of Cruise’s own “Oprah” theatrics.

Cruise kept to the more traditional movie star playbook, kissing Holmes chastely, and self-consciously. Later in the evening, he appeared more jovial and relaxed when bantering with his 11-year old “War of the Worlds” co-star, Dakota Fanning, as they presented another award.

The actor’s apparent return to form seems a calculated attempt to shift the public focus to his upcoming movie, “War of the Worlds,” the reason he’s ostensibly been making the “Oprah” / “Access Hollywood” rounds recently.

Along with his displays of romantic enthusiasm, Cruise has also used his recent press forays to discuss Scientology more openly. In years past, he’s addressed questions about his faith, but not elaborately. In fact, he used to be a textbook case in Hollywood image management. Junket-goers were warned beforehand about questions he would or would not answer, although they were technically free to ask away.

More recently, a number of journalists from publications as diverse as Details and Germany’s weekly news magazine Der Spiegel have been invited to multi-hour tours through the various Scientology centers and outposts in L.A. and have been given an opportunity to check out the electric psychrometer before sitting down with the superstar. (According to Scientologists, the E-meter, which resembles two silver cans, is a device that measures responses to unhappy memories, hence allowing them to be discussed and “cleared.”)

In its recent week-long Cruise extravaganza, “Access Hollywood” permitted the actor a hefty chunk of time to enthuse about his religion, and spout off about a Scientology bete noire, the evils of psychiatry (“You have to understand that with psychiatry, there is no science behind it, and to pretend that there is a science behind it is criminal.”)

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A swipe at Brooke?

Unusual for the most polite man in Hollywood, he even took a swipe at Brooke Shields, who in her recent book “Down Came the Rain” detailed her use of the antidepressant Paxil to help cope with postpartum depression, calling her “irresponsible” and suggesting that vitamins and exercise could have done the trick.

In a contentious interview in an April issue of Der Spiegel, Cruise said that he has personally helped “hundreds of people get off drugs” ... and that Scientology has “the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world,” to which the interviewer responded, “that’s not correct. Yours is never mentioned among the recognized detox programs. Independent experts warn against it because it’s rooted in pseudo-science.”

Although Hollywood reacted in panic last year to Mel Gibson’s evangelical zeal tied to the release of “The Passion of the Christ,” it has generally responded to Cruise’s Scientology fervor with determinedly closed-lipped tolerance.

Still, the movie business has shown wariness to how Scientology plays, especially abroad. Based on the writings of sci-fi author L.Ron Hubbard, Scientology, say its followers, is a set of teachings and practices that promote liberation from negative emotions. Its critics, in the U.S. and abroad, call it a cult that employs mind-control techniques. Scientology has faced particular hostility in Europe, and it has been waging numerous legal battles to get the belief system recognized as a religion there.

As Cruise was about to embark on an international tour to promote “The Last Samurai” last year, the studio, Warner Bros., became increasingly nervous about him touting Scientology, particularly in Germany, where the group has been under federal governmental surveillance. According to three sources involved in the production, it fell to his longtime publicist, Pat Kinglsey, to suggest that mixing movies and religion might not be the wisest course of action. Within two months, their 14-year relationship was over.

Cruise, who declined to talk to The Times, has publicly denied that Scientology had anything to do with the rift. Of Kingsley, he said during his recent stint on “Access Hollywood”: “I give people

Kingsley, a veteran of the public-relations powerhouse PMK/HBH, declined to comment.

The actor travels specifically on behalf of Scientology, such as flying to Madrid in 2004 for the opening of a new center. And when Cruise discusses Scientology, people apparently listen. According to his sister and spokesperson, Lee Anne De Vette, church recruitment goes up. “That definitely happens,” she says. “Tom wears a pair of Ray-Bans and the sales of Ray-Bans go up. Tom goes on ‘Oprah’ and he’s her highest-rated show since 1997. That’s the nature of who Tom is, and how big Tom is and how much he has affected people.”

Still, De Vette, also a Scientologist, stresses that Cruise isn’t purposely proselytizing. “It’s that Tom truly wants to help people, and if he finds something that works and helped him, he’s more than happy to tell people about it. He wants people to know about it. It’s more about he’s sharing.”

She adds that journalists aren’t required to learn about Scientology before they talk to Cruise. Rather they’re just presented an opportunity to get up to speed on his beliefs. (Indeed, she invited the The Times to take a tour, and then talk to Cruise about it.) “Some take it up and some people don’t. Every time I’ve invited someone in the past, they’ve been like, ‘Are you kidding? I’d love to go over there. I’m curious about it, and I’ve always been afraid to ask.’ ”

“I think it’s weird that [journalists] put up with it,” says Martin Kaplan, associate dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. “It’s OK for him or anyone to try to evangelize if they want to. It’s a two-way street. What it demonstrates to me is how degraded the position of entertainment journalism is, that it not only succumbs to conditions like byline approval and photo approval, but also Scientology boot camp. I think the same thing is true for any other conditions for press coverage that don’t have to do with the content of the work.”

Cruise will soon begin his global publicity tour for “War of the Worlds,” starting with a premiere in Tokyo on next Monday, followed by stops in Berlin; London; Marseilles, France; Madrid; New York; Austria and the Netherlands. The film, directed by Steven Spielberg, is being released by Paramount and DreamWorks SKG.

Marvin Levy, Spielberg’s personal publicist, says of the way Cruise’s discussion of his beliefs has dominated the recent public discourse, “Obviously, we’d like more attention paid to the movie.” Asked if he thinks Cruise’s religious fervor will affect the global publicity, he says: “I don’t think it helps,” before adding, “I don’t think it hurts too much. I hope the focus will be back to close to 100% on the movie. Anyone is entitled to express their opinions on anything. You try to balance out a time and place.”

Of Cruise’s upcoming global blitz, De Vette says: “When Tom is asked about something, he’s going to talk about it. But what Tom is interested in doing is promoting his movie and talking about his movie.”

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Unconventional PR

Whether it’s religion or relationships, Cruise’s new forthrightness isn’t the conventional approach to public relations, says Allan Mayer, an L.A.-based crisis-PR consultant. “On one hand, you can sit back and say, ‘How silly of him because he’s only asking for trouble.’ But you can also ask the question: ‘What’s the point of being a fabulously successful and supposedly powerful movie star if you can’t be in any true sense who you are?’ ”

Besides being a box-office draw, Cruise also gets plaudits as a responsible producer. When he wanted to push back production of “Mission: Impossible III” so J.J. Abrams, one of the creators and executive producers of ABC’s hit drama “Lost,” could step in as director, he promptly brought Paramount “War of the Worlds.” Whether or not Cruise’s recent publicity spin will ultimately have an effect on his career, insiders still expect “War of the World” to be a blockbuster.

Several Paramount sources say the negotiations over the budget for “Mission: Impossible III” are not so different from those that occurred over “Mission: Impossible II,” which resulted in Cruise shaving his back-end deal. Paramount spokesman Janet Hill adds, “The movie is creatively in a great place with a script by J.J. Abrams and J.J. Abrams directing, and Tom in place to star, but Paramount’s decision to go forward will be based solely on whether or not the economics of the movie make good business sense.” “Mission: Impossible II” grossed $546 million worldwide.

While Hollywood remains a largely secular industry, Cruise has been increasingly open about his Scientology beliefs with Hollywood colleagues, and he has even brought those beliefs to the workplace. For instance, he was allowed to establish a now famous tent on the set of “War of the Worlds,” where crew members were offered “assists,” a form of massage from volunteer Scientology ministers. He also invited the managers of United International Pictures, which is charged with distributing “War of the Worlds” overseas, on multi-hour tours of the Scientology facilities in Los Angeles and Brussels. He handed out the Scientology brochure “The Way to Happiness,” which was embossed with his name. He also handed out the brochure at an elementary school where “War of the Worlds” was shot.

De Vette describes the book as a “nonreligious” guide to morals and adds, “The school called and said they loved the book so much they wanted to add it to their curriculum.”

At Christmas, Cruise sent out a plaque bearing the teachings of Hubbard to various studio executives. He often invites members of his Hollywood family to the annual gala dinners at Scientology’s Celebrity Center, such as the one celebrating the group’s 35th birthday. The dinners have routinely drawn legions of those who are in business with Cruise such as Viacom chief Sumner Redstone and former Paramount head Sherry Lansing, as well as many of the directors he’s worked with, and “Mission: Impossible” screenwriter Robert Towne.

However, De Vette does dismiss rumors that Cruise hopes to one day lead the church: “Tom’s an artist. He wants to make movies as long as humanly possible.”

She adds that her brother has not undergone any recent change: “He’s being who he is and he’s really enjoying life and he’s really happy. He’s just excited to be able to share that.” She says that Cruise received many calls and letters congratulating him after his appearance on “Oprah.” “I’m enjoying seeing him enjoying life,” she says. “I think for the most part, besides our world of the media, it’s being embraced.”

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Rachel Abramowitz is a Times staff writer; Chris Lee is a freelance correspondent.