French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy rejected criticism of his meeting earlier this week with Hollywood star Tom Cruise, an avowed Scientologist, as much ado about nothing.
"Tom Cruise wanted to meet me, it was an extremely pleasant meeting and to those who would ask questions about it, I refer them to my record at the interior ministry. They should have supported me at the time rather than criticizing me today," Sarkozy told reporters.
He dismissed as "groundless" the comments of Jean-Pierre Brard, a member of France's interministerial anti-sect advisory board who said Sarkozy should not have met Cruise, whose Church of Scientology is seen as a dangerous sect here.
Brard, a Communist parliamentary deputy from the Paris suburb of Montreuil, told AFP: "I don't understand how a government minister can receive a conspicuous member of the Church of Scientology."
Cruise, who was in Paris this week to promote his latest film "Collateral", met with Sarkozy for 90 minutes on Monday. The two discussed Franco-American relations, and Cruise invited the minister to visit his Colorado ranch.
"Even if the minister says that the issue of Scientology was not raised, it's still a mistake to have received him," Brard charged, noting that Scientologists have been convicted of wrongdoing in French courts.
"To give an analogy, one wonders if the minister would receive a member of an international drug trafficking or prostitution ring and then say 'We didn't talk about drugs or prostitution'," he added.
Sarkozy, who served as interior minister for two years before switching to the finance ministry, retorted: "Tom Cruise is a great actor. I'm a movie buff and I have a lot of time for him. He wanted to see me to talk to me. It was really nice and as we're practically the same age, we had a lot to discuss.
"Tom Cruise does not try to hide who he is in the United States, so does that mean we no longer have the right to go to the cinema to see certain actors?"
Founded in the United States in 1954 by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology was accorded the status of religion there in 1993, but is regarded with suspicion in many European countries, where opponents accuse it of manipulating members for financial ends.