Tom Cruise's looney Scientology video hits the web

London, Jan 16 : Tom Cruise flashed his looney side by promoting the benefits of Scientology in a video that is spreading online, despite furious efforts to remove it from the Internet.

The video shows the actor laughing maniacally and slapping his leg several times to the tune of Mission Impossible theme music.

"If you're a Scientologist, you see things they way they are, in all its glory, in all its complexity," Cruise says in the video.

The clip has been appearing and then disappearing in various places online all week, with reports indicating that the Church of Scientology is sending copyright infringement notices to all sites running the video.

"I have to tell you something," Cruise says at one point, adding, "it's rough and tumble and it's wild and woolly and it's a blast, it's a blast, it really is ... fun."

"Because, damn it, there's nothing better than going out there and fighting the fight and then you see things are better," he adds.

Though the origin of the clip is not yet known, some reports suggest that it is a church promotional video taped in 2004 while others claim it came from a 2006 Scientology awards ceremony, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The emergence of the video clashes with the appearance of a controversial unauthorised biography penned by British journalist and writer Andrew Morton.

Morton, who lifted the lid on Princess Diana's marriage in 'Diana: Her True Story', paints an unfavourable portrait of Cruise as a calculating control freak.

The Church of Scientology, which appears to be the real subject of the book, issued an extensive statement dismissing some of the book's most sensational allegations.

It snubbed the contents of the book as "vicious sensationalism of the lowest order" filled with "false and scandalous allegations".

"Insinuations that Mr Cruise is second-in-command of the Church are not only false, they are ludicrous," the statement added.

The church has not commented on the issue of the video as yet.

ANI