# Allison Mack: actress, sex cult leader, felon. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 20, 2018, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820 "2018-04-20T20:29:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2018, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/41 "2018-04-24T15:24:20Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I think part of it is that you don’t expect someone who has worked hard to have success in a notoriously difficult profession to be so unhinged. I think the assumption is that an actor who is able to land roles on a TV series must have her life together in order to succeed. I think it’s part of the halo that actors and sports stars have. I’ve known excellent engineers in my field that are absolute basket cases outside the office. Yes, it usually catches up with their work at some point but they can hide problems for extended periods of time. With actors and athletes we only see them at their best and assume it carries over to the rest of their lives. ---
**Author:** ![Crazy\_Canuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazy_canuck/32/5282_2.png) [@Crazy\_Canuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazy_Canuck)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2018, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/42 "2018-04-24T18:52:39Z")
It appears that Mack is negotiating a plea deal. > **[Smallville Actress Allison Mack Is Negotiating a Possible Plea After Sex...](https://people.com/crime/allison-mack-plea-deal-sex-cult-nxivm-arrest/)** > > Mack, 35, and federal prosecutors disclosed their pending plea negotiations in a joint petition filed Friday ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2018, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/43 "2018-04-24T19:17:42Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > You don’t need to think less of them, so much as to realize they were probably naive and thought this was all just part of his motivational techniques. But I can still think less of them, right? It seems the assumption that they’re brainwashed is less probable than the assumption that they knew what they were doing. And any motivational techniques that include branding someone in their pelvic area and referring to someone else as “master” are pretty clearly BS. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2018, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/44 "2018-04-24T23:28:55Z")
She’s out on bail. $5 million. I think this is horseshit. I’m not even going to link to them here, but if you have a really strong stomach, look up the names Cindy Hendy, Claralyn Balazs, and Karla Homolka. Fully willing and enthusiastic accomplices to male serial torturers and rapists, they are now all free. Read about what they did. Read about the sentences their male counterparts got. Horseshit. PURE horseshit. This is an outrage. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/45 "2018-04-25T02:18:11Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Your halo effect assumption isn’t wrong. It looks like he was targeting “good girls”. Whereas a lot of these types will enslave girls with drugs, or target girls with low self esteem, he was targeting powerful, competent, clean living women, because he had that much charisma and brainwashing ability and those are obviously the most desirable women if you can get them. You don’t need to think less of them, so much as to realize they were probably naive and thought this was all just part of his motivational techniques. Although Kreuk insists she was gone before the really weird shit started. Branding sex slaves and trafficking people doesn’t seem clean living. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/46 "2018-04-25T07:33:44Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It is a Scientology spinoff. It’s the same tactics. People who just start Scientology don’t wind up in the Sea Org. They bring you in deeper, and then blackmail you. To be clear, do you mean NXIVM _ **is** _ Scientology spinoff, i.e. actually originated within or from it, or just that it shares its cult-like aspects? Not to defend Scientology, but a sex cult wouldn’t seem to be their thing. If anything, by all I’ve heard from investigative reporters and former members, Scientology tends towards prudishness. Leah Remini recounted how, as a teen member she was once reprimanded because of her “sexy” underwear, which in fact was something like Hanes Her Way and really not at all risque by average cultural standards. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/47 "2018-04-25T09:13:45Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I don’t know if it’s that we assume celebrities have some sort of immunity to this sort of thing. It’s rare for someone to become a famous actor, and rare for someone to be involved in an involuntary sex cult. When they happen to the same person it’s like some weird collision of improbabilities, like finding out that **Hedy Lamarr invented cell phones.** Agree 100%. Nitpick: Lamar co-invented frequency-hopping spread spectrum. Spread spectrum is a communications protocol used in many cell phone systems. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/48 "2018-04-25T11:45:56Z")
> [@Jacquernagy](#): > > She’s out on bail. $5 million. I think this is horseshit. You think she’s a flight risk? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/49 "2018-04-25T11:46:41Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Yeah, the cult wouldn’t work if it were sex only. They have to have an outer cult that seems at least respectable on the surface to draw people in, and then prey on the most vulnerable. > > It is a Scientology spinoff. It’s the same tactics. People who just start Scientology don’t wind up in the Sea Org. They bring you in deeper, and then blackmail you. > > That, Mack’s physical condition, and her cries for help on Twitter are the reason I suspect she was a victim brought to the top. She said she’d done terrible things and hated it. That sounds not like a true believer, but someone being blackmailed to stick around by the horrible things. You mentioned a couple of times how sickly she looked. Where did you see that? When she was released she looked pretty healthy to me. ---
**Author:** ![EarlGrayHot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e480ec/32.png) [@EarlGrayHot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EarlGrayHot)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/50 "2018-04-25T13:34:10Z")
Loved that show! But I won’t admit to being so old that my first tablet was made of stone. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/51 "2018-04-25T13:47:54Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > You mentioned a couple of times how sickly she looked. Where did you see that? When she was released she looked pretty healthy to me. My first thought when [I saw this photo](https://peopledotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/allison-mack-3.jpg) was that her face looked a little drawn and hollow and and maybe a little sallow overall but then I realized that it was probably just unflattering lighting and seeing a “normal” photo of an actress instead of a publicity-ready touched up shot. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/52 "2018-04-25T14:20:05Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > My first thought when [I saw this photo](https://peopledotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/allison-mack-3.jpg) was that her face looked a little drawn and hollow and and maybe a little sallow overall but then I realized that it was probably just unflattering lighting and seeing a “normal” photo of an actress instead of a publicity-ready touched up shot. In [these](http://people.com/crime/allison-mack-released-jail/) photos she is a bit more thin than from \*Smallville \*days, but nothing that really leaps out as unhealthily so. I’d go further to say that I wouldn’t disturb her repose as a reaction to her consumption of crispy baked goods. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/53 "2018-04-26T03:01:59Z")
I saw her in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reBBev0Xcqo),which is, admittedly, a year old. But she looks horribly thin. She looks a little better in DG’s photos, but I think she’s wearing baggier clothes and makeup that disguise a lot. That other photo with the wrong hair she looks fine, but I suspect it’s quite old given the hair color and length. She seems to be back to blonde and with longer hair now, and her body is thinner than that. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/54 "2018-04-26T03:05:58Z")
OK, so she’s thin. That doesn’t excuse anything! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/55 "2018-04-26T03:24:37Z")
> [@Jacquernagy](#): > > OK, so she’s thin. That doesn’t excuse anything! It’s not the thinness at issue. It’s whether or not she is actually in charge. If she’s required to be just as thin as all the other sex slaves, then she may just be head slave rather than actually having a position of power. I think it’s important to figure out how much she is a victim, and how much she is a perpetrator. I apologize if I come off as overcompensating. I’ve just seen so much that seems to ignore this angle, and that bothers me. I’m not saying she’s entirely innocent, either. What I do know is that this is a cult, and those are usually set up around a single strong personality who uses various forms of psychological warfare to get vulnerable people to do what they want. I know that they often use blackmail where that fails. If it turns out she’s some evil mastermind herself, then fine. But, from what I see right now, she doesn’t seem to be. She seems to at least be as much victim as perpetrator. I also don’t think that punishing someone who is a victim of a cult the same as the leader is a useful deterrent. In fact, it would make the blackmail much stronger. You can’t be the whistleblower, because not only will bad things you’ve done be leaked, but the law will punish you. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/56 "2018-04-26T08:09:14Z")
So you’re saying she was just following orders? ---
**Author:** ![Crazy\_Canuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazy_canuck/32/5282_2.png) [@Crazy\_Canuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazy_Canuck)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/57 "2018-04-26T15:34:29Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > If it turns out she’s some evil mastermind herself, then fine. But, from what I see right now, she doesn’t seem to be. She seems to at least be as much victim as perpetrator. This attitude is exactly why women on average serve half the sentence that men do when convicted of a crime. If the perpetrator is a woman, society bends over to assume that she must be a victim, because heaven forbid we hold a woman responsible for her crimes. Apparently, even if she recruits women into a sex cult, gathers future blackmail materials from them to help control them, and holds them down while they get branded, there will still be someone who insists that somehow she’s a victim too. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/58 "2018-04-26T15:41:06Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I’m not saying she’s entirely innocent, either. What I do know is that this is a cult, and those are usually set up around a single strong personality who uses various forms of psychological warfare to get vulnerable people to do what they want. I know that they often use blackmail where that fails. I know what you’re saying, but the mastermind of the cult is often aided and abetted by other high-up people. If it came out that Tom Cruise personally participated in shit like this, I’m pretty sure nobody would be raising the possibility that he was an abused and manipulated victim. He may indeed be one, but because he’s a man, it’s unlikely he’d garner a level of sympathy comparable to Mack. I don’t mean to sound like an MRA guy, but I do think there’s some gender bias at work here. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/59 "2018-04-26T18:07:56Z")
I don’t know what Ms. Mack is or isn’t guilty of and neither does anybody else here. I do know that prosecutors tend to overcharge, especially when dealing with a witness they’d like to flip. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820/60 "2019-04-08T20:45:40Z")
> **[Allison Mack pleads guilty in Nxivm sex cult case: 'I was wrong'](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/allison-mack-pleads-guilty-nxivm-sex-cult-case-171731640.html)** > > The "Smallville" star suddenly appeared on the judge's schedule for "criminal cause for pleading" ahead of Monday's jury selection. She plead guilty to a variety of charges, facing 20 to 40 years in prison. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allison-mack-actress-sex-cult-leader-felon/812820.md?page=4)