National Post writer Nathalie Atkinson mentioned the Maisonneuve cover and I sent the paper and Ms. Atkinson the letter that follows. I don’t think they did anything more with it. The artist Bryan McMillin (Payallin) also saw the Nat Post mention and commented on his blog. http://payallin.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/too-cool/
Nathalie Atkinson wrote in a May 1 article on magazine cover design, “Cover pages of the ages:” http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=483708
“Singling out a feature on persecuted former Scientologist Gerry Armstrong, the current issue of Montreal-based
magazine Maisonneuve has a grainy cover image of a young man resembling Armstrong, kneeling in prayer and illuminated from above by an unidentified flying object. It takes a page from Lois and is witty, clever and austere in its simplicity. I was waiting in the express lane and, dear reader, I bought it.”
I’m the persecuted ex-Scientologist in writer Bruce Livesey’s Maisonneuve story, but the guy kneeling in prayer on the cover resembles, or is supposed to resemble, Tom Cruise. Miss Atkinson’s comment almost even influenced the artist Payallin, who blogged: “Ok, the person on the cover is supposed to look like Tom Cruise but if it looks like Gerry Armstrong that works too.”
Tom’s resembling me has certainly been good for his career, although I’ve never exploited it, until now. There are clear differences, however, and I’ve uploaded as evidence a photo just taken of me in prayer in my office in Chilliwack.
[My anonymous friends should get a lol or two from this]
Notice that praying man Tom has his eyes wide open, as if it’s because he just knows, whereas for all I know I might not even know if I was off somewhere in samadhi.