Leah Remini v Scientology on A&E

[hollywood]

Watched the first episode of 8 last night. I think the Church of Scientology pissed off the wrong person. Seems like she's going after them hammer and tong and doesn't seem the least bit intimidated by them.

She's even hinting that she will be taking on Tom Cruise and that should come as no surprise as she's already set her sights on Tom Miscavage on last nights episode and the previews showed many former members talking about Miscavage actually assaulting people. Maybe we will finally get some answers as to where Miscavage's wife is and what he has done with her. (IF you don't know, Miscavage is referred to as the "Pope" of Scientology.)

They believe she is at the actual headquarters near Hemet, CA. Aerial photos of the place show razor wire, guard towers and all the footprints of a prison in one section of their compound. From people who once worked there, that's where they keep the "suppressive" members - those who no longer believe in the "church" but who know secrets the "church" is afraid they will reveal. So instead, they've basically imprisoned them.

I hope she can bring that whole sheet-show down with this series. My understanding is that membership has been taking a nosedive the last decade and ironically a lot of it has to do with Tom Cruise's bizarre behavior. Which of course is the opposite of what they thought they were going to get by making Cruise their worldwide "ambassador" and the "face of scientology."

 

[SMemmett]

Scientology is one of the only times in my life that I didn't understand something, tried to read more about it and educate myself and only ended up being more confused.

 

[JonnyVito]

I just read an article on this. She said Tom Cruise is like the messiah to them. I have heard the the Miscavage guy offered him basically 50% of the leadership of the organization. That guy is evil and they way they trick and then blackmail the people to stay is awful.

 

[hollywood]

Miscavige, perhaps the only guy in the entire organization who's actually shorter than Cruise. (And by all reports has a serious case of "little man syndrome.)

I read an article about how Miscavige basically pulled off a coup that Niccolò Machiavelli would have been proud of, while seizing power in the aftermath of the death of L. Ron Hubbard. There were a number of people in the top leadership levels of Scientology who were viewed as potential successors, including Mary Sue Hubbard, his wife from 1952 until his death in 1986.

Hubbard had a massive stroke about a week before his death, but Miscavige had him sign a new will and directives for the church, the day before he died. Given the mind altering medications Hubbard was receiving for the stroke and his mental capacity at the time, it is highly questionable that the guy came close to having the mental capacity to sign valid legal documents.

Upon getting Hubbard to sign a new will and setting up Miscavige as his successor, Miscavige and the Scientologist doctor who was treating Hubbard, drove off to Vegas for gambling, boozing and carousing. Considering that the Church of Scientology and Hubbard were worth hundreds of millions of dollars, where did they place Hubbard for treatment while they headed out on vacation? Quiz: (A) at the Mayo Clinic; (B) at Cedars Sinai; or (C) at UCLA Medical Center? Trick question, they took him and put him in his Bluebird Motor home and left him all alone, without notifying anyone else in the organization apparently.

He had assigned someone to check on him daily, but that person found him dead the very next day. Miscavige and the doctor did not notify authorities and told the person who found him not to do so until the got back into town. When they returned, instead of notifying the medical examiner/coroner they simply sent his body to the mortuary to prepare him for cremation. It was actually the people at the mortuary who contacted the sheriff/coroner's office about his death.

In a complete coincidence (snicker) as part of a slew of documents that Miscavige had Hubbard sign in the days following his stroke, was a legal document saying that Hubbard specifically objected to an autopsy due to "religious beliefs."

So basically, Miscavige and the doctor dumped the guy off at his mobile home to die, headed to Vegas to celebrate, and took steps to avoid notifying any legal authority of his death and already had arranged to avoid there being any autopsy. It doesn't take Columbo to figure out what really went down. Hubbard might well have died regardless of what they did, but it sure appears that Miscavige did nothing to see he got proper medical attention as a means of hastening his departure from this mortal realm.

I have visions of Mrs. Miscavige locked up in a cell at Scientology headquarters and either completely driven mad or in poor physical health having not seen the light of day for years. If he's capable of basically killing his mentor, what would stop him from throwing his wife "in the hole" and keeping her out of sight, when she started to stray from Scientology?

 

[NeekReevers]

I saw a documentary called "Going Clear" about Scientology a year or two ago that was pretty good. It just seems like they learn all your secrets in their "sessions" then blackmail you with it. It was pretty clear that's what they did to Travolta. It wouldn't surprise me if initially that was the case with Cruise. I think they're both closet cases.

 

[hollywood]

When I lived in L.A., I belonged to the Hollywood YMCA, which was literally "across the street" from the "Psychiatry, an Industry of Death Museum" which is purportedly run by the "Citizens Commission on Human Rights" but which is simply a thinly disguised "front" for Scientology. I always tried to avoid parking on the south side of the street so I would get accosted by the touts and barkers trying to get tourists and passersby to see the "museum" or go next door for a free personality and intelligence analysis.

They actually own several "fronts" on Sunset Blvd (where the museum is located) and on Hollywood Blvd as well, all staffed by Scientologist trying to give you literature or come inside to see whatever it is they're offering.

I actually represented John Travolta Productions in regard to some of their Trademark issues worldwide, a matter of public record, so I am not violating any client confidentiality by revealing that. Let's just say it was very interesting going through his assistants (all of who I presume were Scientologists, as it is widely reported that both Travolta and Cruise have staff provided them by the church, in order to keep them on the straight and narrow.

I will say that by all reports I ever heard about Travolta by other Hollywood "insider" clients (non-scientologist), including folks at a number of studios that he is/was a really nice guy and very decent to those around him, stranger and friend alike. I don't recall anyone willing to give a similar opinion of Cruise, Kirstie Allie, or Catherine Bell (JAG) who were pretty active in L.A. Scientology circles while I was living in L.A. Interestingly, I never heard anything good about Leah Remini either during that time, but she appears to have done a 180 upon leaving the church, before that she was reportedly a bona fide beyotch.

 

[ThorOdinson13]

Back in the day

 

[Orange Jennyslipper]

I saw the documentary "Going Clear" and then read the book. It's astonishing that a person (Hubbard) could say something like 'the easiest way to make millions of dollars is to start a religion,' and then do exactly that -- especially when you consider how mind-boggling the tenets of this so-called religion are. But I guess that's the calling card of all religions.

Hubbard was devious, but Miscavage is absolutely evil.

fwiw, I think Leah is hotter now with the added pounds than she was "back in the day."

 

[PDT816]

I've tried to TiVo this twice now and A&E has aired something else both times

 

[Been Jammin]

I've tried to TiVo this twice now and A&E has aired something else both times

Conspiracy

 

[csh]

I ended up watching the series, and most of it was decent. A few things I thought were interesting

• Those guys had tax exempt status early on, but lost it when the IRS discovered Hubbard using it for personal gains. It took them a while to get it back.
• There's a lot of near empty buildings (little or no staff) they've built, due to IRS tax-exemption laws that force them to use some of the money for church like activities, like building churches, I guess.
• Some members on the inside got their first negative viewpoint on scientology by surfing the Internet using the crude web browser that comes installed on the Kindle e-readers. The upper mgmt obviously does a pretty good job keeping the worker bees isolated, but they didn't suspect that a Kindle had a web browser...
• I knew about their harassment skills from a book I'd read previously, but the series expounded on it a little more. They really got under the skin of a British journalist who did a story on them, almost drove him nuts. The journalist said he feared the scientologists more than any other party he'd investigated, including Putin's regime.
• In another show I caught on Discovery ID, a lot of members were weary of Miscavige, and started leaving when he took over. A new task force was stood up just to hunt down and bring back the defectors.

It'll be interesting to see if these books and tv shows are just a fad, or if they are an indication that the whole thing is starting to unravel.

 

[hollywood]

CSH,

I haven't got any clue what is in tomorrow nights episode, but at the end of the last one they were about to go into a meeting with a major law firm in NYC. Apparently, the attorneys had given them some encouragement about taking legal steps to put the squeeze on Scientology.

My guess? Something to do with Civil RICO proceedings.

BTW, if no one is aware of this story.... it's one of the first times that operatives for Scientology got caught doing some massive felonies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Snow_White

BTW, it's a big reason why Hubbard got on his Yacht and would not enter US territorial waters until a decade or two later, and only then when he was convinced he could hide out while being given cover by the "church." He was afraid he would be indicted, like his wife and other top church execs were. Despite what Scientology told its members about losing their tax exempt status, the break-ins were a big part of why it was so long in regaining them.

 

[cactusjackosu]

I got to OTVIII.....I was a thetan. It's all true. Ron Hubbard was a genius. I gave them all my money.


Leah is soooo hot there.

 

[hollywood]

Last episode of the season last night and some of it was very damning.

Particularly when a journalists from the NY Times, Lawrence Wright who wrote the book "Going Clear" calling Scientology out and exposing their BS in 2013. One of the most interesting stories from Wright, came when he got a meeting with Top-Level people in Scientology (and their lawyers) and discussed L. Ron Hubbard with them, in particular their claims about him being a war "Hero." They guy from Scientology told Wright that if Hubbard faked his military experience, then there was no validity to anything he ever wrote/said and that it would prove that Scientology was founded and a lie and would be a sham.

They then showed L. Ron Hubbards DD 214 (military discharge) document and a photograph of the medals the church has been putting out there for decades. Wright went to the US Navy's archive in St. Louis, after filing a FOIA request, with the DD 214 Scientology had provided and compared it with the actual record on file with the Navy. The Navy archivist said the Church's supposed record was a fake. Interestingly enough, when they researched all the medals shown on Scientology websites that were supposedly earned by Hubbard, most of them weren't even medals he could have earned? (Like the European and Philippines Campaign Ribbons, when he never served in either location and would have not been eligible to earn them.)

Likewise the real DD 214 retrieved from Navy Archives shows far fewer medals and actual service than the Church and Hubbard claimed. Hell, Hubbard claimed he had won a Purple Heart with a Palm Leaf device, while in the real world the Purple Heart has never been issued with such a device attached. Better perhaps, the officer who supposedly signed Hubbard's DD 214? .... There's no record of anyone by that name serving in the Navy during or after WWII.

Basically, among other things, L. Ron Hubbard - Stolen Valor!!!!