Yeah, she was one of the original hosts of The Talk (daytime The View knockoff) but got axed after the first season, and then she had a supporting role on a truly awful sitcom that debuted (and was promptly cancelled) this past fall, so she’s still working a fair amount but not having a ton of luck. And unfortunately she’s hitting that age where parts dry up for actresses.
But we can compare her career with Kirstie Alley’s - another actress who’s trying to keep her career afloat after her successful sitcom ended. We can track to see who’s more successful - scientologist or ex-scientologist. Maybe throw in a non-scientologist like Lisa Kudrow as a control.
The Paul Haggis interview in the New Yorker was very interesting. One thing that I picked up from that article is that there must be some sort of tangible benefit that people get when they first start auditing to become clear. From the New Yorker article - Paul Haggis seems to feel he benefited early on but as time went by he became more and more disullusioned. The same seems to be true from other celebrities who leave - including what I’ve read from Leah Remini. Digging a little further I found that there are a series of “self help” techniques that Scientologists teach - including one that helps the student learn to focus. I suspect a technique like that would be invaluable to an artist. With a little mental discipline i imagine they’d see immediate results and to me it explains why so many artistic types are drawn to the church.
I’m not surprised that Leah Remini mentions David Miscavage as the reason she’s leaving. Paul Haggis and other celebrities who have left the church don’t portray him in a very positive light at all. He seems to be a bit of a megalomaniac. It saddens me a little that her main issue with Scientology is with the leader and not with the beliefs, but as mentioned above she may have seen some tangible benefits which is still binding her to her Scientology beliefs. Besides, leaving the church means leaving your friends since they practice shunning - never an easy thing to do.
At the very lowest level, Dianetics, many people report some benefit - probably about the same as any other “self-help” system. But Hubbard made extravagant claims of the benefits, and when his first graduate (or “clear”) was tested on those claims, she failed miserably. But like any fanatic, he redoubled his efforts. As each new “clear” failed, he invented new levels each with more extravagant claims.
Each new level makes less and less sense, fueled either by the corrupting influence of power or drugs on Hubbard’s mind. And each level re-defines the language used to describe the activities and presumed benefits - it seems like half the books a Scientologist is required to purchase are dictionaries. And a lot of these higher levels are actively harmful (see Purification Rundown).
So by the time you’ve been in it for a few years, you have a significant investment in it, both financial and emotional. You’re speaking their language. And you’re constantly pressured to move “up the bridge” or to “Go O.T.!” - i.e. to take more courses, all of which keep increasing in price.
Helpfully, the current head of Scientology is a psychopath, and is driving off even his most loyal henchmen like Marty Rathbun.
The guy comes off as a complete psycho in the interviews I’ve read - literally beating up his subordinates for minor infractions, forcing SeaOrg members to play musical chairs to Queen in order to avoid getting shipped off to some farflung locale, using what’s essentially slave labor from the church to build cool toys for Tom Cruise and himself.
Lawrence Wright, who wrote the above-mentioned article in the New Yorker, also just published a book on the church. I’m listening to it on CD right now. Scary stuff. And he leaves no doubt as to what an awful dude Miscavige is.
Lawrence Wright’s book is on my list of must reads. It was when they were promoting his book that I found that original New Yorker article. Since then I’ve found the topic of what makes the CoS stay together fascinating. Most cults with charismatic leaders are short lived: Jim Jones; David Koresh; Heaven’s Gate. Any time a celebrity leaves CoS we can get a little more insight into the tickings and machinations that makes them a little different.
The Self Help techniques I mentioned above seem to be the initial draw, but as gaffa mentioned they’re short term. Hagis talked about how he felt like the teachings were empty, and yet people kept promising that when he’d get to OT3 it would all make sense, that that’s where the real revelations kick in. I love his response to reading the “secret documents” to become OT3 which is where the church reveals their belief in Xenu. He stated “this has to be a joke” to his guide. In fact, many of the people who have left the church draw a distinction between believing in the stories vs believing in the techniques. Hagis admits that he still uses some of the techniques to this day, that they are still helpful. I’ve never heard anybody who has been a supporter of the actual beliefs though - not one.
I think this is what sets Cos apart from other cults - Hubbard recognized that image is what matters. By getting celebrities on board early, and making them publicly visible, it gave his church an air of authenticity. Once the celebrities are in they become a sort of club, and with enough influence in Hollywood they can make it very painful professionally for one to leave. In most cases, the celebrities career is effectively over. There’s universal statements from those who have left who state that Miscavage has a vindictive streak that he uses to threaten those who he has influence over.
But Remini is just one more in a long line of disgruntled celebrities. How much more influence does the church have in Hollywood? Are they still attracting young actors and actresses to make up for the numbers that leave?
Speaking of Leah Remini, I was reading this thread about her in Cafe Society and it reminded me of something about Jeffrey Tambor.
Doubtful. They’ve always lied about their numbers, but the “Celebrity Center” has been a very effective recruiting tool. By supplying young actors a place where they can potentially meet directors and producers (albeit Scientology-associated directors and producers) a lot of them are persuaded to take a few of the cheap, entry level courses.
Good for Leah!
I had a friend get caught up in this cult…wasn’t easy to get out and it pretty much ruined a few years of her life…and yes, they had her clean stairs with a toothbrush as a punishment for some minor infraction she had made while in the org.
So I most certainly do believe all of those horror stories, and she has a whole bunch of them first-hand.
For the celebrities (and others with unlimited funds), life can be sweet and they coddle and stroke egos and make it seem like they are living in Oz and getting secrets from the grand Wizard himself. For those who do not have trust funds and walk in off the street and get snatched up into this cult, life ain’t so sweet.
This makes Leah’s departure from the cult all the braver - someone who is in the upper elite level leaving? That hurts the org deeply and my guess is her “handlers” are shining some stairwell with a mascara brush as we speak.
The niece of David Miscavige has written a memoir which is on my summer reading list. Anyone read it yet?
The St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times) wrote a series of articles on Scientology that are very good.
Oh, sorry. Leah Remini left scientology. I guess we can close the thread now since there’s nothing left to say besides Leah Remini left scientology.
The bill for auditing can apparently get quite high - in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range. Since celebrities have money they need to pay for their auditing as they go along. So for them the churches main level of control is the connections to other influential Scientologists as a carrot, and intimidation to reveal very private information as a stick should they try to leave.
But if you aren’t famous, then you can get audits “for free” provided you join Sea Org or other Scientology groups. But then they can control you by giving you a very low skill job while paying you a very low monthly stipend. With no real skills or any money to live on it’s very very difficult to leave. And as a final little insult to those who do leave, the church will give them a bill for all of the auditing they had done plus interest. Fortunately courts have ruled that that bill is unenforceable but that’s only in this lifetime. Many of the members sign Billion year contracts so the church just has to wait a few lifetimes before they try to get their money!
In Wright’s book, Haggis even makes a point of saying that as he got richer and more famous, the punishments for his infractions got lighter.
Also, church members are strongly discouraged from reading any criticism of the church, and it wasn’t until after the church refused to repudiate Prop. 8 at Haggis’ insistence (his daughters are gay) that he began researching the allegations that had been lodged over the years.
So there’s a good chance that the Tom Cruises, Kirstie Alleys and John Travoltas don’t even know about some of the more atrocious doings of the church, and if they even hear inklings of what’s going on, they’re likely to just dismiss them as attempts by “SPs” to discredit the organization.
In our old apartment building, one of our neighbors had left the CoS, and had taken to throwing all the mail from them into the bin we kept by the mailboxes. It seemed like there was some entreaty to come back every day - to visit the Clearwater, FL “org” for advanced stuff, to do the “Purification Rundown”, etc. And one of the best was an actual price list for each set of “courses” with “mandatory donations” for each. And yeah, they got more and more expensive as you got deeper into the insanity.
Just picked it up on my IPad - thanks for recommending!
I was not aware that she was raised in the Church of Scientology. The name sounds Italian and I know a large number of Italians claim Catholicism even if they may not actively practice it; if that’s the case I have to wonder how her family got involved in it; for that matter I have to wonder if her family members are still a part of the Church of Scientology and if she will be shunned by them.
Just to continue Hottius’ point, every time I see someone that’s a Scientologist but they seem too normal and/or grounded, they’ve been raised in Scientology. Namely, Beck.
Hey, we’re all missing the most important observation here – she was Grace in the first Gabriel Knight game!
–Cliffy
I’ve been kinda wondering if Scientology is a business decision for acting/performing in California. Selling your soul to the devil so to speak. Religion binds people together, I can see it making sense if you want to be an actor to get involved in a group that has lots of other people in the industry. Scientology is by no means exclusive but I gather your ‘rank’ is, and that can mean much if someone that can help you is drinking the same kool aid.
I see what you did there.