The Church of Scientology had a serious issue with Tom Cruise while he was with "negative influence" Nicole Kidman ... this according to a former church officer that was once high up in the religion.

Mike Rinder's new book, "A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology," is peeling back the layers of the always-secretive world of Scientology ... and Mike's revealing a time when the Church began to drive a wedge between Tom and Nicole.

Mike claims the church got worried when Tom began ignoring calls from Church honcho David Miscavige ... while away filming Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" in London.

Miscavige was super worried he might lose his grip on Tom, so he sent a top exec to the UK to audit the actor -- meaning he'd be walked through the negativity in his life to become "clear" once again.

Mike claims Tom eventually returned to the fold, which caused a serious divide between him and Nicole. He says the Church was so threatened by Nicole's influence, they allegedly hired a PI to spy on her and tap her phone.

The Church denies the wiretapping claims ... telling Page Six, "Mike Rinder is an inveterate liar who seeks to profit from his dishonesty. He supports himself by orchestrating the harassment of his former Church and its leader through false police reports, incendiary propaganda and fraudulent media stories.”

Danny Masterson's rape accusers -- who sued him and The Church of Scientology for allegedly stalking them -- are facing an uphill battle ... because the church's own leaders will ultimately get to play judge and jury in their case.

According to a new court order obtained by TMZ ... Chrissie Carnell Bixler -- along with her husband, Mars Volta singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala -- and another rape accuser entered into a written agreement when they were still members of the church, which says "any dispute, claim or controversy" that arises between them must be resolved by the church ... instead of by the courts.

The L.A. Superior Court ruled on Wednesday that this agreement is binding, and requires them to "use Scientology internal Ethics, Justice, and binding religious arbitration procedures" for such disputes.

The arbitration clause goes on to say these issues will be resolved by "application to senior ecclesiastical bodies, including, as necessary, final submission of the dispute to the international justice Chief of the Mother Church of the Scientology religion."

As we reported ... Bixler and 3 other women who've alleged Masterson sexually assaulted them filed their suit in August 2019, claiming they've been mercilessly stalked by the Church of Scientology in an effort to silence them.

The Church of Scientology has gone on the attack against A&E, alleging a glaring double standard by cancelling "Generation KKK" but touting its Leah Remini anti-Scientology program.

TMZ obtained a letter Scientology's lawyer fired off to A&E, in which it scoffs at the network's decision to pull the plug on the 'KKK' show because producers paid some of the Klan members money. A&E said it was a direct violation of its policies to pay the subjects of a documentary.

The Scientology lawyer counters in the letter, "Church of Scientology understands that two on-air accusers/participants in Leah Remini's docuseries, "Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath" received substantial cash payments for their participation, in violation of the same standards."

The letter goes on to essentially accuse A&E of becoming partners in Remini's show, giving them "free advertising and promotion for anti-Scientology books they have published."

And the lawyer says, "It is hypocritical for A&E to proclaim its intent to 'expose and combat racism and hatred in all its forms' in cancelling the KKK show and at the same time promote Leah Remini's program which promotes hatred that A&E claims that it wants to stop."

An official at A&E tells us there's a difference in the 2 shows because Remini is an executive producer on her show and she's "not the member of a hate group."

We reached out to Remini's rep but so far, no word back.

Mariah Carey was ordered out of the house she was sharing with billionaire James Packer, but she's staying put and demanding that he buy her an L.A. mansion as PART of a settlement in what has become a nasty breakup ... so say sources connected to Mariah.

Our Mariah sources say she doesn't blame the breakup on James ... she blames it on famed, former Scientology bigwig Tommy Davis ... who worked closely with Tom Cruise until Davis broke from the org.

Mariah believes Davis has had an extreme influence on Packer, whom they say has not been himself since Davis got in his ear. Our Mariah sources believe Davis poisoned the relationship, complaining to Packer he was spending an exorbitant amount on lavish gifts for her.

Other sources tell us Packer brought Davis in partially to help curb wasteful spending, and he immediately ID'd gifts to Mariah as prime examples. BTW, Davis played a similar senior role as Chief of Staff for Tom Barrack's private equity firm, Colony Capital. This situation became a very contentious thing between Davis and Mariah's manager, Stella.

One source pointed out that Mariah has a multi-million dollar home in NY.

As we reported, Mariah said peace out after an alleged incident on a yacht in Greece between James and her assistant. Our sources say when she returned, she was ordered out of their Beverly Hills home, but she refused.

TMZ broke the story ... Mariah is demanding $50 mil from Packer, partly because she uprooted her family to be with him in L.A. and partly because the breakup left her so distraught she had to cancel a leg of her tour.

We're told part of Mariah's demand is that Packer buy her a home in L.A.

Our sources say Packer is expected to respond to Mariah's demand Monday.

President Obama, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton may not all be square politically, but they're all in the same boat, because they're now part of an LAPD death threat investigation.

Law enforcement sources tell us cops have been on the case since September. According to docs -- obtained by TMZ -- a woman sent a message on the Church of Scientology website saying, "I hate the United States Because I never get anything I want 100%. I hate President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, all Gerontologists ..."

She goes on ... "This is why I will gladly serve you to the satan ..."

Cops are not saying how serious it is, but they're calling it a death threat investigation. They've served a search warrant and believe they know the identity of the suspect, but she hasn't been arrested.

Tom Cruise has been pulled into the middle of a police investigation surrounding a potential suicide bomber who made alarming threats to the Church of Scientology.

Cops say the man called the Church back in April asking, "Are there any bombings I can do?" The man, who ID'd himself as a Muslim, said he "liked to do suicide bombings."

According to police docs, the caller began singing, "Allah Akbar, Tom Cruise" ... the phrase some terrorists have used as they attack. He then hung up.

The guy who allegedly threatened to kill Scientology leader David Miscavige is a free man ... after pleading no contest to making death threats and stalking the church leader.

Andre Barkanov, a 47-year-old Illinois resident, was sentenced to 1 year in county jail, but got credit for time served and won't have to spend another day behind bars.

Barkanov was also hit with five years of formal probation and a 10 year protective order, requiring him to stay clear of Miscavige and the church. He also has to complete a 1 year substance abuse program.

The father of Scientology leader David Miscavige appeared on 20/20 Friday night as a victim of his son's wrath, but sources connected with the Church say his dad is the real bad guy.

Church sources tout this pic of Ronald Miscavige in a Nazi uniform, taken a few years back. They also point to several letters sent to a publisher of a book Ronald wrote about his time in Scientology, warning them Ronald was a racist who was not afraid to hurl the n-word. One of the musicians claims one of Ronald's favorite lines was to sing and chant, "There is a n***** in the alley with a hard-on, spread the lard on, rub it in." They say he'd sing it to the tune of the National Emblem March.

Ron's people tell us the letters were sent at the behest of the Church to block publication of the book.

A rep for the church tells TMZ "The behavior exhibited in this photo and described in the letters is an anathema to David Miscavige and was what compelled him to try to find a way to keep his father in check." The rep says David has now disowned his dad.

Scientology honcho David Miscavige had reason to fear a guy who threatened to kill him, because we've learned the guy was armed with ammo and pretended to be a cop.

According to a search warrant obtained by TMZ, Andre Barkanov had been convicted twice for impersonating a cop and he was undeterred, because when his home was raided in the Miscavige case, police found live ammo, a holster, badge holder and a magazine ... and we're not talking People.

As we reported, Barkanov allegedly made numerous death threats by phone, threatening to "assassinate" Miscavige. In one call Barkanov allegedly said, "I forgot to mention that we are going after you! ... all your people ... including your jagoff, motherf*****, c***sucker, David Miscavige, OK?"

The man who allegedly threatened to kill Scientology leader David Miscavige in a series of phone calls just got hit with a slew of felonies, and his bail is set at $600k.

Andre Barkanov, a 47-year-old man from Illinois, pled not guilty to 12 felony counts of making criminal threats and one of stalking. Barkanov was arrested in November when police tracked him down in Wisconsin. He's been in custody since December.

A police investigation was launched after Barkanov allegedly phoned the church's Hollywood offices repeatedly, and at one point said he'd "assassinate Miscavige and every single one of you," among other threats.

Tony Dovolani says the Church of Scientology was hot on his tail during his stint with Leah Remini on "Dancing with the Stars" ... looking for any dirt they could find to discredit her ... even by association.

Dovolani was at LAX, toting around Leah's book, 'Troublemaker,' -- when our photog asked if the Church harassed him. Tony unloaded.

The tone of Leah Remini's feud with Scientology sounds a little different this morning ... as in, way less mention of Tom Cruise.

We got Leah outside the 'Howard Stern Show' in NYC, where she's been promoting her tell-all book "Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood & Scientology." In her "20/20" interview about the book ... Remini's run-ins with Cruise were a hot topic.

But watch what happened when our photog asked if she'd ever work with Cruise in the future.

It's pretty clear, Leah's backing down on all the Tom talk. His name only came up a couple of times during her Stern interview, and never in a negative way. She made one more stop in NYC today ... at "The View" and explained the shift in rhetoric.

Katie Holmes feels badly about some things that happened years ago when Leah Remini first started challenging Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology.

Holmes responded to Remini when ABC sought a comment about Remini's claims about meeting Tom when he was dating Katie. Apparently, Remini makes several comments about that incident and about Tom's place in the Church during her 20/20 special airing tonight.

In one clip 20/20 released, Leah says Tom and Katie engaged in some serious PDA during the visit ... prompting Leah to say, "Hey, get a friggin’ room.”

A rep for Katie says they gave 20/20 the following statement: “I regret having upset Leah in the past and wish her only the best in the future."

We're told Katie's statement was not specifically referring to the kissing, but to many things Leah says on 20/20.

By the way, Remini says her crack about Tom and Katie kissing got her "written up" by high ranking Scientology officials.

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Leah Remini isn't just taking on Scientology, she's going squarely after Tom Cruise in a new interview about her departure from the church.

Leah sat down with "20/20" and revealed her fears about taking on Scientology, saying ... "Being critical of Tom Cruise is being critical of Scientolgy itself. You are evil."

She also says it's "giving up everything you've worked for your whole life" -- if you decide to leave Scientology. Remini's been very vocal about her issues with the church since leaving in 2013. She's said she left because she didn't want to raise her daughter as a Scientologist.

Tom Cruise did not go to his daughter's wedding, but we found out he was nobody special, because none of the parents -- on either side -- were invited.

There are reports Tom snubbed 22-year-old Bella, who married Max Parker last month. Sources connected with Tom and Bella tell TMZ, she and Max wanted a super small wedding in London with a few friends and that was it ... no parents were invited.

We're told Tom was not only cool with the decision, he footed the bill for the wedding and party at the fancy schmancy Dorchester hotel.