Leah Remini Describes Her Reaction to Tom Cruise’s Request to Play Hide-and-Seek in Memoir, ‘Troublemaker’

Leah Remini left Scientology years ago, but she still has plenty of stories about her time in the religion, including one about a game of hide-and-seek with Tom Cruise
Leah Remini might be best known for playing Carrie Heffernan in The King of Queens, but the famed actor is also a published author. In 2015, Remini published a book about her journey in and out of Scientology and the infamous celebrities she encountered while a member of the religion. Remini even revealed a bizarre meeting with Tom Cruise, where he insisted guests at a dinner party play hide-and-seek with him. Remini’s reaction to the request was kind of hilarious.
Tom Cruise had dinner guests play hide-and-seek once
In her memoir, Troublemaker, Leah Remini pulled back the curtain on her time in Scientology, but some of her most amusing anecdotes included movie star Tom Cruise. In the book, Remini recalled a particularly eventful dinner party at Cruise’s California compound.
Leah Remini | Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images
Remini said that Cruise decided he was up for a rousing game of hide-and-seek during the dinner and enlisted his guests to play along. At one point, he told Remini she was “it” and ran off to hide in his 7,000-square-foot home. Her response was to pass the responsibility to her husband, who was equally stunned by the suggestion.
Leah Remini enlisted her husband to play the game because she didn’t want to
Remini wasn’t prepared to give in to Cruise’s gametime whims. Instead, she revealed that she pulled her husband, Angelo Pagan, aside and told him that she was not “it” and wouldn’t be playing a game of hide-and-seek while wearing Jimmy Choo shoes.
Remini didn’t mention who won the game of hide-and-seek, but considering her other sordid tales about Cruise’s downright strange behavior and how people in Scientology catered to him, it seems likely Cruise won. Remini and Pagan spent more time with Cruise and his eventual wife, Katie Holmes, because of their connection to Scientology. Eventually, their relationship did sour following Cruise and Holmes’ destination wedding.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes | Getty Images
Cruise and Holmes eventually divorced. Since his high-profile marriage to Holmes, Cruise has kept his dating life very quiet. According to Cosmopolitan, he was linked to Hayley Atwell at one point, but the two never confirmed a relationship. He has never commented on Remini’s book or her stories about him.
Remini has since left Scientology, as has Katie Holmes. Cruise hasn’t spoken publicly about Scientology in recent interviews. Still, according to Rolling Stone, there is no direct evidence he’s actually walked away from it. According to Entertainment Tonight, Holmes issued a public statement saying that she regretted any upset she caused Remini. She also wished her the best. The former friends don’t appear to have reconnected, though.