Tom Cruise pulled off the best Scientology stunt ever. Ifonly he could really levitate | Catherine Bennett

Waving the Olympic flag in Paris, the cult's star made the world forget about the unpleasant bits

Around 75m years since a mighty intergalactic leader somehow triggered the existence oftoday's Scientologists, the interests of their religion and the rest of humanity seem finally to have aligned: in shared devotion toTom Cruise.

After Cruise leapt into the Olympics closing ceremony to pick up a flag that he took - once he had been hailed by dazzled elite athletes - via motorbike, plane and parachute to LA's Hollywood sign, both his feats and his casting were hailed as inspired. You would never have known from unstinting appreciations acknowledging him as the best loved, the bravest, most revered star in the world, that Cruise has been long and widely considered too senior a Scientologist to be unconditionally admired or, given the reported mischiefs of that organisation, much tolerated.