# Paul Haggis Renounces $cientology in Blistering Letter **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2009, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-haggis-renounces-cientology-in-blistering-letter/515151 "2009-10-26T07:58:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-haggis-renounces-cientology-in-blistering-letter/515151/21 "2009-10-27T03:21:20Z")
Crash had some good acting in it. Dogshit has some protein in it, too, and probably some vitamins. But it’s still dogshit. That movie is the most ridiculously trite piece of film-trash ever to win an Academy Award, and the fact that it stole the award away from Brokeback Mountain, which was truly a great film, makes it even more galling to me. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-haggis-renounces-cientology-in-blistering-letter/515151/22 "2009-10-27T03:29:07Z")
Well sure, I don’t think I’ll ever get over that either. But it’s not Paul Haggis’s fault the voters chickened out. It was a decent movie with the same name as a far far better movie that never got any awards attention, and would have been forgotten fairly quickly. Then it became the most hated movie ever to win the Academy Award through no fault of its own, really. If it had lost, it’d still be a decent, not great, movie that most people wouldn’t remember. But it’d still have the wrong name. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-haggis-renounces-cientology-in-blistering-letter/515151/23 "2009-10-27T03:42:31Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > It was a decent movie with the same name as a far far better movie that never got any awards attention, and would have been forgotten fairly quickly. That, I can agree with you on. And it annoys me to no end that when discussing movies that I like, I always have to specify that I’m talking about the 1996 Crash and not the 2005 one; as well as the 1970s Heartbreak Kid with Charles Grodin and not the piece of hogshit with Ben Stiller. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-haggis-renounces-cientology-in-blistering-letter/515151/24 "2009-10-27T03:47:23Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > You’re dreaming. They live in a closeted world. Most won’t even here of this, and the church will poison the well by blackening this guy’s name so that those that do hear what he has said won’t believe him. [Unperson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Newspeak_words#Unperson), anyone? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-haggis-renounces-cientology-in-blistering-letter/515151/25 "2009-10-27T07:57:44Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > … Xenu … Where has he been all these years? [del]Zed’s dead[/del] [Xenu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu)’s locked away in “an electronic mountain trap”, baby, [del]Zed’s dead[/del] Xenu’s locked away in “an electronic mountain trap”. (From which, he still has not escaped. Though there are those of us looking for a way to free him … if only for the pleasure of watching Tom Cruise’s head asplode!) CMC fnord! I’m soo happy Firefox’s spell-checker doesn’t recognize “Xenu”. ---
**Author:** ![cantara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@cantara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cantara)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-haggis-renounces-cientology-in-blistering-letter/515151/26 "2009-10-27T17:28:19Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > I watched all nine minutes of that video. Unfortunately, it does not show him walking out. I’m sure he did, but not on the video. Found on the next nights report. [Nightline](http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/scientology/scientology-attracts-celebrities/story?id=8871475) He didn’t like questions about Xenu. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-haggis-renounces-cientology-in-blistering-letter/515151/27 "2009-10-27T17:37:21Z")
Who is Paul Haggis? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-haggis-renounces-cientology-in-blistering-letter/515151/28 "2009-10-27T17:40:54Z")
> [@cantara](#): > > Found on the next nights report. [Nightline](http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/scientology/scientology-attracts-celebrities/story?id=8871475) He didn’t like questions about Xenu. Thanks. [QUOTE=mswas] Who is Paul Haggis? [/QUOTE] [Haggis.](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0353673/) ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-haggis-renounces-cientology-in-blistering-letter/515151/29 "2009-10-27T18:36:07Z")
[A Paris court found $cientology guilty of fraud](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33490266/ns/world_news-europe/) ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-haggis-renounces-cientology-in-blistering-letter/515151/30 "2009-10-27T20:53:29Z")
Yay! ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-haggis-renounces-cientology-in-blistering-letter/515151/31 "2009-11-03T16:36:00Z")
[Huge Irish bookmaker Paddy Power wants bets on next star to ditch Scientology](http://www.irishcentral.com/ent/Paddy-Power-welcomes-bets-on-next-celeb-to-ditch-Scientology-68651887.html) > [@](#): > > According to the site, the star that’s most likely to quit the church is John Travolta, with odds set at 9/4. > > Least likely is Mr. Scientology himself, Tom Cruise, with 50/1 odds. > > Here are the other Scientologist celebs included in the list: > > ``` > * Tom Cruise’s wife Katie Holmes, 3/1 > * Elvis’ daughter Lisa Marie Presley, 4/1 > * Actor Jason Lee, 6/1 > * Elvis’ ex-wife Priscilla Presley, 8/1 > * Singer-songwriter Chaka Khan, 10/1 > * Voice of Bart Simpson Nancy Cartwright, 12/1 > * R&B star Brandy, 14/1 > * Musician Beck, 18/1 > * Actress Kirstie Alley, 25/1 > > ``` [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-haggis-renounces-cientology-in-blistering-letter/515151.md?page=1)