whoa, I didn’t see that one coming
Going with my gut: 0.
Taking a moment to think about it: a billion.
I’m so glad he’s out. His will is strong because he was in pretty deep (transcript of an interview he gave the BBC when he was 7!) and when your whole family is in you have to be very very careful and very very quiet to avoid Disconnection. He must know what a piece of shit his father was though.
Wait, I just found Ortega’s blog where there’s a LOT more information, including a video of the interview above with young master Gaiman, and information about why I say his father was a piece of shit. I do hate to say that since I love and respect Neil. I’m happy he’s out, admire his strength, fully understand the tightrope he has to walk, and would never blame the sins of the father on the son. He has know though, and what a terrible legacy.
Gaiman’s sister was in one of the recent Scientology Going Clear attack ads, this one targeting Mike Rinder. Rinder’s response is great.
Haven’t had a chance to see the movie yet, but I am reading the book.
Yikes. This book reminds me of the Manson biography that came out a few years ago, the one with the bright-yellow cover. 99% of people could see Charles Manson for what he was and avoided him like the plague, and the other 1% worshipped him. Same thing with Hubbard.
Now that I know how to do spoiler tags:
I mean, his son had to kill himself to get away from his father!
I don’t know that that has to be in spoiler tags. It’s not mentioned in the movie. Quentin was gay, and LRH, though by some accounts bisexual (or a self-loathing homosexual wanting to pass by marrying women), wrote bigotry into his “scriptures.” It must have been horrible for Quentin.
A lot has been going on but I haven’t posted because I assume everyone interested is reading Tony Ortega’s blog. The movie opens in Australian cinemas tomorrow (today, for them).
For those who haven’t kept up with the blog, Tony Ortega’s book is out now. It’s called The Unbreakable Miss Lovely and is about Paulette Cooper. “Miss Lovely” was Scientology’s code name for her. She had written a scathing book about Scn called The Scandal of Scientology (which, if you read it now, and you can because it’s online, shows not much has changed), which infuriated L. Ron Hubbard. He did his best to have her destroyed, which included getting her indicted for sending bomb threats to Scientology. (They got her fingerprints on a piece of paper with a bomb threat on it and sent it to themselves)
The charges were dropped when she took a “truth serum” test, then completely exonerated when the FBI raided COS during Operation Snow White (read the Wikipedia page about the largest infiltration of the US Government in history) and found the files about Paulette, including a failed plan called Operation Freakout (Wiki that too), which was another scheme to get her either incarcerated or sent to a mental institution.
Paulette had to endure 15+ years of horrific harassment by “the world’s most ethical people” (they love irony and hypocrisy in Scientology) which almost did drive her insane and on the brink of suicide, yet now, she’s appearing at several venues alongside Tony Ortega during his current book tour!
She’s an amazing woman, it’s an amazing story, and Ortega’s book is the first to take it on. He spent 2 years researching it and worked closely with Paulette. His sources also include FBI agents involved in the investigations at the time, and even former Scientologists who were part of the Operations.
I highly recommend the book to anyone with even the slightest interest in the cult. With the right participants (writer, director, actress), it would make a hell of a film! (Fingers crossed)
On a related note, here’s an article from Cracked about the “education” Scientologist kids receive.
I meant to put these various links in but forgot, and didn’t make the time limit.
The Wikipedia page about Operation Freakout and what came before.
Synopsis of her ordeal by Paulette Cooper herself.
The Unbreakable Miss Lovely at amazon.com
Tony Ortega’s blog, The Underground Bunker
Scans of the actual documents obtained by the FBI during their raid.
I’m excited. I’ll be meeting Tony Ortega Saturday as his book tour brings him to Chicago. All the tickets are gone now so I feel fortunate that we got ours. Unfortunately Paulette Cooper won’t be with him. The Scienos are getting a bit freaked out. Fair Game/Dead Agent tweets have begun showing up. They didn’t care when they thought it would be a quick release, a few hundred copies sold, if that, then forgotten. With this self-financed book tour getting more publicity the wheels have slowly begun to turn in their tiny minds that, maybe they ought to start shooting themselves in the foot again. Good idea! Tony needs all the publicity he can get.
The massive Scientology conference is next week in Toronto. I wish I were able to make it. It will be a Who’s Who of SPs all in one place. Scn has probably hired every private investigator for hundreds of miles around to try and keep track of everybody. Check out this lineup!
The official website: Getting Clear: A Conference on Scientology
They like to start 'em young.
UK! Going Clear is scheduled to play in 10-15 theaters starting next week. I don’t know which theaters but if you live in a major city, closely scan showtime listings next Thursday or Friday.
http://m.rte.ie/ten/news/2015/0619/709237-scientology-documentary-to-get-uk-release-despite/
Even if it will be broadcast, please support it by seeing it in a theater if that option is available to you. Tell all your friends. Same with Australia, where Going Clear is playing now.
Reminds me of those schools where kids memorize the Koran, and that’s pretty much it.
Here’s a UK theaters list:
http://goingclear.squarespace.com/
I hope people go see it, if only to thumb their nose at a cult that tried to prevent it from being shown in the UK at all.
This is not exactly related to Going Clear, but it’s an article written by Carmen Llywelyn, who was married to Jason Lee, and through him got involved with Scientology. She didn’t get out of Scientology completely by choice, but was labeled a Suppressive Person because she read a book, A Piece of Blue Sky, by former Scientologist Jon Atack. It’s an interesting and sad article.
Carmen’s so nice. I’ve been following her on Twitter for a long time. It’s been gratifying to see her story get pickup up and reported on all over the place. It was even on the front page of Yahoo!
Something else that’s being passed around online, from Vanity Fair to Huffington Post, The Hollywood Reporter and Slate, is a story that Tony Ortega broke. David Miscavige’s father, Ron Sr., has signed to release a book about his time in Scientology and about his son. Its delicious title will be “If He Dies, He Dies” (referring to when the PIs who were being paid $10,000 a week to shadow Ron Sr. until they got caught with an arsenal in the trunk of their car including an illegal silencer, thought R was having a heart attack and called their Scieno handler to ask what they should do. According to them, they immediately got a call back from David Miscavige himself and that’s what he told them. It’s gotta add insult to injury for DM that his own words are being used for the title). It’s supposedly being released early next year. DM must be having a fit!
Btw, Ron Sr. wasn’t having a heart attack, he was just fumbling with his phone. Let us all hope that Sr. stays nice and healthy through the release, the many media appearances and subsequent book tour to come. And beyond, of course.
Ron Jr., David Miscavige’s brother, has, just like his mom, dad, and daughter, been out of Scientology for several years. His daughter Jenna Miscavige Hill, also wrote a book. It’s about her awful time in the Sea Org as a kid, called Beyond Belief. Highly recommended.
By this, do you mean the leadership is generally well aware of the irony and hypocrisy you’re referring to and don’t care, or are you not meaning to indicate the irony and hypocrisy are intentional? I always wonder about cases like this–does the leadership know full well what it’s doing, or does it somehow fool itself?
Having never been in the cult and never in that mindset, I have no idea, really, but in general I believe most of them, maybe even all of them, are truly brainwashed and believe that what they’re doing is right, no matter what that might be. The end (humankind’s salvation and their own eternity) justifies whatever means. They believe in Hubbard and all the shit his addled mind vomited out.
They may even know that they’re being ironic & hypocritical according to society’s rules but don’t care because they’re “right” (because LRH was “right”) and everyone else is wrong. Most of the ones who realize how fucked up that is leave. Or sometimes they leave for other reasons and then once they’re out of the bubble they come to realize how fucked up it all is.
So to your last question, I’d say both.
Bumping to say how thrilled I am that Going Clear was nominated for 7 Emmy awards today! The nominations categories are:
- Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Special
- Outstanding Writing For Nonfiction Programming
- Outstanding Directing For Nonfiction Programming
- Outstanding Cinematography For Nonfiction Programming
- Outstanding Picture Editing For Nonfiction Programming
- Outstanding Sound Editing For Nonfiction Programming (Single Or Multi-Camera)
- Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera)
It probably won’t win the big ones because it’s up against Citizenfour, which has already won just about everything, including the Best Documentary Feature Oscar this year (I know, Oscars, Emmys, weird that a movie can be eligible for both). Going Clear will also be eligible for an upcoming Oscar nomination.
The Emmys are on September 20. Five days later, on September 25, Going Clear will be released (again) in theaters in the US. It’s not a huge wide release, but it’s a lot wider than the theater release in March. I know that it’ll be playing in Chicago, but I don’t know where yet. I’ve seen it 3 times on HBO, but I want the experience to see it in the theater. This release will keep it visible to critics and other groups who will soon after be voting on various awards. And it will, again, drive the Scienos nuts, which is always fun. Miscavige must be having a cow after today’s nominations!
I forgot to mention that Scieno Elizabeth Moss is nominated for Mad Men. I wonder if there will be any Scientology jokes during the broadcast and, if so, they’ll cut to her every time. I kinda feel sorry for her because she was born into the cult, lost from birth, and even if she wanted to leave, couldn’t/wouldn’t because she’d lose all her family and friends. She doesn’t have much of a choice, but she still belongs to a vicious, vile, loathsome cult, so I don’t feel THAT sorry for her.
Also in September is the Toronto Film Festival, and I think, maybe, that’s where Louis Theroux’s as-yet-untitled Scientology documentary will premiere. September will be a very bad month for Miscavige.
The US DVD release date has been announced. According to Variety, it’s October 6.It’s also going to be on Video On Demand on October 30,
Tony Ortega appeared onstage with John Sweeney in London earlier as part of his ongoing The Unbreakable Miss Lovely book tour. During the discussion it was revealed that Sky would air Going Clear on September 21! Previously it was said that Sky couldn’t show it because they couldn’t guarantee that it wouldn’t be seen in Northern Ireland, where the libel laws are different, and Scientology was threatening to pounce and sue if it aired.
Murdoch must have checked and double-checked with the Sky lawyers and just said fuck it, you want to sue? Bring it on!
Congrats Brits, you won!