Wright reports that when Miscavige heard that Cruise had a fantasy of running with Kidman through a meadow full of wildflowers, he ordered Sea Org members to plant an area of the desert. It failed to meet expectations, so it was plowed up and laid with grass instead. However, torrential rain triggered a mudslide that washed away the "meadow". Miscavige was said to have held the entire base responsible for ruining the romantic idyll and ordered everyone to work sixteen-hour days to restore it to its former condition. The Church's chief spokesman, Mike Rinder, denied the story to the "Los Angeles Times", saying that "the wildflower planting never occurred and might be a confused version of repairs done after a 1990 mudslide." Rinder himself fled eighteen months later.