Celebs back Tomkat birth
2006-04-07 08:52
Los Angeles - Hollywood stars John Travolta and Anne Archer are publicly backing fellow Scientologist Tom Cruise and fiancee Katie Holmes's plan to give birth to their highly anticipated baby in silence.
Cruise and Holmes, together dubbed "Tomkat" by the popular press, are preparing to welcome their first baby into the world any day now using the church's "quiet birth" method, which has been the object of media derision.
But as Cruise and Holmes completed their last-minute baby shopping, a constellation of celebrity Scientologists has came out in support of the birth method in which the mother, father and medical staff in the delivery room are strongly discouraged from speaking.
The church's founding father, science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard, believed that babies, like other people, can subliminally soak up words shouted around them at birth that could come back to negatively influence him later in life.
'Silence imperative'
"It's just good common sense to have a quiet and creates a calm and loving environment," said Archer, best known for her role as Michael Douglas's cuckolded and terrified wife in the 1987 movie Fatal Attraction and her poignant role in Robert Altman's Short Cuts.
"When a woman is in labour, it is very intense, and when everyone is moving around and chatting, it's very hard to deal with the discomfort," she said in an interview.
Pulp Fiction and Saturday Night Fever Travolta and his actress wife Kelly Preston also weighed in this week, telling the movie website imdb.com that absolute silence was not required of a mum-to-be.
"Just try to keep it as quiet as possible. Of course you're going to groan and yell. It hurts. Just keep it to a minimum," Preston said.
"There are unwanted emotions and pain that goes along with any birth," added Travolta.
Public attention was focused on the Scientology birth method last week when photographers snapped pictures of "birthing boards" being delivered to the Beverly Hills mansion shared by Cruise, 43, and 26-year-old Holmes.
One board is said to have read: "Be silent and make all physical movements slow and understandable," sparking media controversy and mockery over the Scientology technique.