Cruise pitch too
good to be true

While Kabbalah-obsessed Madonna was traipsing around the Western Wall, Tom Cruise was busy spreading his religion in Spain.

The “Collateral” star opened a Scientology center in Madrid over the weekend at a ceremony attended by an estimated 1,000 people. Some are wondering if the turnout was so high because fliers were distributed beforehand inviting people to “a party which will be attended by Tom Cruise,” according to a journalist for Agence France Presse.

The new center raised some eyebrows among critics of the controversial religion because Scientology has had such a troubled history in Spain — where government prosecutors tried for more than a decade to charge the church with illegally bilking people out of their money. The church was acquitted in 2002.

“Perhaps by promising the Spanish people a party with Mr. Cruise, Scientology thought they might net a few members,” Rick Ross of Cultnews.Com tells the Scoop. “Though I doubt it. Scientology doesn’t have the best reputation in Spain.”    

Airing her grievance
Lauren Hutton was not a model of restraint on an airplane recently.

The modeling icon was aboard a Delta flight on Sunday when she erupted into what one passenger calls “a case of air rage” during an argument with an animal rights activist.

“Lauren Hutton is a spokeswoman for Premarin [an estrogen replacement drug] which is a very cruel industry to be the public face for,” Dan Mathews, the spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals tells the Scoop. “I very politely approached her and asked her if she knows that to make it, the drug company keeps pregnant horses dehydrated and confined to stalls their whole pregnancy and after their foals are born they are sold to slaughter.  . . . I hoped to open up a dialogue with her, but instead she started screaming at me. Something like, ‘What do you know about animals? Have you ever been to Africa? Have you ever been in nature?’ I was a little startled. Premarin isn’t made in Africa”

Matthews says that the other passengers stared in silent shock as Hutton’s voice continued to rise as the exchange spilled over from the airplane to the airport. Finally, according to Mathews, “I said, ‘I’m not sure I’ve reached you, but have a nice day.’ She then smiled, realizing that she’d gone over the edge, and said, ‘Thank you — what’s your name?’ So I introduced myself and invited her to check out the information on line.”

Hutton’s spokeswoman downplays the exchange, telling the Scoop. “They did have a discussion. He expressed his opinion, she expressed hers, but they shook hands in the end.”

Notes from all over

Kevin Winter / Getty Images file Paul Bettany

Brit hottie Paul Bettany likes his language salty. “He uses the word ‘c’ [word] more than anybody I’ve ever met, mostly for guys, but he completely uses it like he’s saying the word ‘water,’” Bettany’s “Wimbledon” co-star Kirsten Dunst said while promoting the flick. “I mean, he has the worst mouth ever.” . . . Paris Hilton looks so different today than she did a few years ago that AwfulPlasticSurgery.com was compelled to run a whole series of photos to prove to skeptics that the “before” pictures really are the hotel heiress. . . . Meanwhile, Hilton has trademarked the phrase “that’s hot” according to World Entertainment News Network. “I’ve been saying it forever,” says Hilton. “I want to put it on T-shirts and stuff like that.”

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