Yeah, but to what extent can they? I know PTA is buddy buddy with Tom Cruise after Magnolia, but from what I've read he's also usually pretty unwilling to compromise.
I don't think Tom Cruise is genuinely buddy buddy to anyone.
I bet scientology tries to ignore this and play down the connection without facing it head on. They may not like it but trying to attack this film only puts a spotlight on the wackier accusations about L. Ron, which already have some supporting evidence.
The tragic thing is that we have been misdirected to stare at the religion with waning political influence cause by internal power struggles, and the one religion that actually stands to destroy everything we hold valued in this nation has a candidate up for fucking president, and nobody's making a movie about the magical underpants that deflect bullets.
Well, The Book of Mormon openly and directly mocked the mormon faith in a pop culture way. This is an esoteric allusion to Scientology by a director who doesn't really have pop culture appeal. So to say that American entertainment and its audience is ignoring Mormonism, or giving it a carte blanche is pretty out of touch.