• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, January 16, 2008

This week, just as an unauthorized new biography of Tom Cruise debuted, so did a video of the actor proclaiming the virtues of the Church of Scientology.

The nine-minute clip shows Cruise speaking four years ago at a Scientology ceremony where he received an award, according to The New York Daily News. "When you're a Scientologist, and you drive by an accident, you know you have to do something about it... you're the only one who can really help," he says at one point in the clip.

After initially surfacing on Gawker's Defamer.com, YouTube and other sites, the video was briefly removed -- but then reappeared. Yesterday, Gawker publisher Nick Denton posted the clip again, along with the statement that he would not be taking it down. "Gawker is now hosting a copy of the video; it's newsworthy; and we will not be removing it," Denton wrote.

By this morning the clip was available on several news sites as well as YouTube -- which now also has at least one remix that includes footage of Cruise's movies.

It won't be surprising if the Church of Scientology threatens litigation over the clip, which is fast cementing Cruise's reputation as a crackpot.

The group, which copyrights and sells its religious documents, has been quick to sue when people have posted portions of its tracts. In one case, it unsuccessfully sought an injunction prohibiting The Washington Post from writing about Scientology materials obtained from court records.

But in the YouTube era, the Scientologists can't do much to permanently keep that video off the Web. Yes, the group can send takedown notices, or file lawsuits, but the clip now has a life of its own online. Even if YouTube were to use some sort of digital fingerprinting technology to keep users from re-posting the clip, it now exists on enough other sites that it will haunt Cruise for some time to come.