I really appreciate how brave Leah Remini was to leave Scientology and speak out about the cult. She turned the conversation around on Scientology, and that was truly brave. However I tried to watch her VH1 reality show focusing on her family life, which she executive produced, and it was… not good. Maybe I have little patience for reality shows, which is true, but that’s why I’m not 100% sold on this new documentary Leah Remini is making, which will focus on the ways Scientology breaks up families when one member wants out of the cult. The practice is called called disconnection, Scientology denies they do it just like they deny all the other human rights abuses they commit, but there’s plenty of evidence for it and Leah is currently making a documentary about it. There’s also another documentary about the same Scientology disconnection process in the works, and it will feature different families. Scientology expert, journalist Tony Ortega, has the news.
We figure it’s about time that we revealed what we’ve known for some time about upcoming television projects that feature Scientology, because it’s getting really interesting.
We’ve known for more than a year that a television series about Scientology’s disconnection policy has been in production, and that it has run into pushback by the church. (You may remember an earlier story about Karen de la Carriere receiving a threat letter from Scientology, even though she’s not involved in the production of the series.) We actually know quite a bit about this series, but we’ve done a little consulting work for the company producing it, and we’re not at liberty to tell you much about it.
But what’s especially exciting for Scientology watchers is that the same network is also developing another series, also about the way Scientology rips apart families, and this one is being produced by former Scientology celebrity Leah Remini. We broke the news in 2013 that Leah ditched Scientology, which she had grown up in. The King of Queens actress came out with a bestselling memoir last November, Troublemaker, with juicy anecdotes about what it was like to be a celebrity in a celebrity-obsessed church.
These are two completely separate projects, and as far as we know they are tackling similar subjects but with different sets of people. We’ve confirmed that Leah’s series is currently shooting footage, and appears to be on a fast track. Could we see both series this coming fall? We really don’t know if that’s going to be the case or not. They’ve already lost a lot of power and influence thanks to activists and ex members like Leah.
We’re really looking forward to seeing both of these shows.
[From Tony Ortega’s Underground Bunker]
I will watch the first episode of Leah’s new show and give it a chance. She deserves so much credit for putting everything on the line to speak out against Scientology, and she must have some incredible and heartbreaking stories of ex-members to share. Leah is somewhat insulated by her celebrity and her wealth, and I’m sure it’s so much worse for people who work countless hours for little to no pay who try to leave the cult with no money and no connections. Maybe, by sharing their stories, Leah can help. The pressure needs to continue on Scientology so that this criminal organization can ultimately be disbanded.
Leah Remini is shown on the set of The Clapper, that movie with Amanda Seyfried, Ed Helms, and Tracy Morgan, on 6-13-16. She’s also shown at events on 1-21-16 and 11-4-15. Credit: Pacific Coast News, WENN and Fame
great!
And the $ciloons will launch another “poor, deluded Leah looking for publicity” smear campaign.
Hey guys, NO ONE believes your BS, so just spare us.
I love her! I think she is really funny and relatable. I will watch!!
Brave. Get that security.
You in danger, girl.
I thought that header pic was Scary Spice.
Me too.
Me too. I thought it was Mel B.
She looks like the grey alien emoji.
But orange. So, so orange.
lucy2, that’s actually her skin tone. She lives in LA (where it is bright out most of the time) and is of Italian and Jewish heritage.
Her skin tone in every other photo is much lighter. Either the lighting in that one is horrible, or she was out in direct sun for a LONG time before that red carpet.
I love Leah! She is a bad ass! I wouldn’t want her on my bad side!!!! I just hope she keeps one eye open when sleeping. I wouldn’t put anything past these thug, criminal Scientologists.
I don’t think this is going to change anything regarding Scientology. There have been families coming out to speak against it. Not to mention books and that HBO show. Tom Cruise is the face of COS in Hollywood and honestly other than people talking about this online I never hear it talked about when I’m not online. Most people don’t care about this. Sad but that is the truth.
I wish her luck. But I just don’t see Hollywood coming out to support her in this..
They need to lose their tax exempt status. That would finish them off.
I do think all the bad publicity since Tom Cruise went nuts has changed public perception about it somewhat – which has to have hurt their recruiting numbers. I can’t imagine they’re able to draw that many people in now, and you don’t see any new celebrities publicly flocking towards it anymore.
It may not be enough to take them down completely, but it has to hurt their bank accounts, which is all they care about anyway.
They literally are using slave labour and wringing money out of their members like a feudal lord indenturing serfs.
More needs to be done. Trusting them to atrophy away isn’t enough, because feudalism and slavery didn’t atrophy away; they had to be stopped.
Totally agree, not saying deterring new members is enough, but just that I do think shows, books, movies, etc about the cult does have an effect.
If it stops even one person from joining, or makes even one current member question their loyalty, it’s worth it. One small step at a time.
Scientology is not the kind of thing you can just destroy in one fell swoop. You have to chip away at it, expose the little things first, and then go into detail. This stuff hurts them way more than you know, or else they wouldn’t act like a kid whose candy just got taken every time someone calls them out on their nons.
I was in LA last month and our hotel was a few blocks away from the Scientology building-that thing is frigging HUGE. And a weird bluey-purple color.
And creepy AF. I told friends it was like looking out your window and seeing a creepy old abandoned mental hospital.
Did you see the disconnection billboard while you were there? Tony Ortega has been covering it on his site. Some ex-COS are planning another like billboard in Clearwater, FL.
I live near Clearwater and their buildings are just as tacky here too. But they are redoing all the sidewalks in downtown Clearwater for free, so local gov’t is happy for now. Too bad they own almost all the property there so decent growth is impossible. They have quieted down a lot in recent years though. I can’t wait until they are finally done.
I don’t think I saw a billboard-but I may have been blocking it mentally. 🙂
It IS an old abandoned hospital –it used to be Cedars of Lebanon hospital. Agree it is creepy AF.
That makes so much sense.
How can you abuse the human rights of someone who is free? They can literally just leave.
When they have been brainwashed and have little to no money nor any connections outside COS? It’s not so simple as that. You should read some of the memoirs and bios of people who have managed to leave.
Free people have their human rights abused all the time.
I guess…..
I have seen that documentary and read a book about it. Both times I thought how ridiculous these people are for being voluntary prisoners. Just seems so absurdly preventable.
It does seem absurd. But, that is how powerful brainwashing can be.
I liken it to an abusive relationship and the struggles to leave. It’s not exactly the same thing, but it is similiar. It is hard to leave something you are so invested in and when you’ve been isolated so that your world revolves around this toxic relationship. Plus, abuse can be as insidious as it is also sometimes obvious. You are in it sometimes before you’ve realised that it began. I ask myself all the time why I didn’t leave my first husband sooner or why I didn’t see the signs sooner. But, it takes an enormous strength and courage to get out of these situations. It is not as easy as “just leaving” or characterising them as “voluntary prisoners.” It’s not voluntary to them. They don’t “feel” that is voluntary and that is the key part. They have to recognise that they have the ability to break free and it is a hard road to get to that point. If you are alone (and like Scientologists) risk losing your entire family or network of friends? It’s even harder.
And when they leave, they’re faced with threats, people going through their garbage, calling their places of employment and telling lies, following them around to intimidate them…
Also, if someone told you to just pick up and leave behind every member of your family and your friends, knowing they’d most likely never speak to you again, would you be able to do it? That is the reality for many Co$ members.
Yes! The harrassment against former COS members is terrifying. They are like a Mafia.
Not all of them. Google “the hole” and “scientology” for more. Or “scientology escape” for some great/hair raising stories. David Miscavige’s own father, Ron, had to escape.
You’re lucky you don’t have the kind of mentality that allows you to be imprisoned by a cult. Clearly not everybody is like that, or there would be no cults and people wouldn’t be brain-washable, but here we are.
I just finished Leah’s book yesterday, and it is excellent. It describes how hard it is to leave the cult. You are indoctrinated, and your whole life revolves around the “church”. Leah describes working 14 hours on her TV show, King of Queens, and then heading to “church” to do more auditing, whatever she had to do for another 3 hours. You can’t “just leave” as if you are not a celebrity, or one of the ‘higher ups’, you work for a pittance per week, maybe $15.00. You are required to purchase more courses, mortgage your home, extend lines of credit, or threatened with more discipline. And if you do manage to leave, they harrass you until the end. I used to care for an ex-scientologist older lady and her dog. She had been out for years, and into her 80s, got phone calls, every day, …nobody on the other end.
I live in Portland, Oregon. There was an ad on network television (pretty sure I was watching abc – we don’t have cable, just the digital receiver antenna deal to get whatever channels are broadcast locally) that scared me.
Last night I had the tv on, and saw a Scientology ad. From the church itself. It was a commercial that said Scientology brings good to many globally – it showed people with ‘educational materials’ and noted numbers of how many folks that Scientology ‘helps’ worldwide. I was shocked that it was on regular tv and in Portland, nonetheless.
Worldwide propaganda is terrifying. I hope folks can see through this cult and it’s deplorable actions.