The last time Kirstie Alley did press she was promoting that Organic Liaison diet scheme she had going, which she is in no way an effective spokesperson for. She then pretty much went batsh*t when anyone noticed that her “diet” supplements bore a striking resemblance to the vitamins recommended in the Scientology cult’s rituals, and accused anyone who pointed that out of “bigotry” and “intolerance.”

Well now that Kirstie is promoting her upcoming appearance on Dancing with The Stars, and maybe now that the backlash against Scientology has reached critical levels, she’s not so eager to associate with them. In an interview with TV Guide recently, she claimed to have no idea if Scientology has a newsletter, which is ripe considering that she was interviewed in one of their magazines just three years ago and has personally donated at least $5 million to her “church.”

From 2008, more here:

Here’s what Kirstie said. (Note this was in the issue of TVGuide from March 14-20, but since my local CVS always has out of date magazines I just noticed it yesterday.)

You’re an experienced DWTS viewer. What’s on your list of what contestants shouldn’t do?
I’d like to not have a psychotic break. I’d like to not pull sad stories out of my ass just to pull at the heartstrings of America. [laughs] Watch me do that the first week, crying my eyes out. I don’t want any injuries. I could be into a wardrobe malfunction – depending on what part of the wardrobe it was. [laughs] That could get me points or lose me votes.

Anything else?
I don’t want to do the finger telephone [holds outstretched thumb to her ear and pinky finger to her mouth] and go, “Call, call.” I don’t like the prayer hands [presses hands together and makes an exaggeratedly pleading face]. I’d rather be voted off than beg to be voted for.

Will you get the members of your church to vote for you?
How do I let my church now?

There’s no Scientology newsletter?
Hell, I don’t know. I’ve never done a show like this before.

Recently, so much of your press has focused on your weight. Do you feel like this will help turn the page?
No. I have a theory: When you’re a celebrity and you don’t do drugs or alcohol or bang your neighbor’s husband, what’s the story about you? I once talked to Elizabeth Taylor and she said that of all the things she did in her life, of all the men she was with, the most interesting thing to the tabloids was her weight. I feel like, is that ever not going to be there? I don’t know.

[From TV Guide, print edition, March 14-20, 2011]

Kirstie doesn’t want us to talk about her weight, only she’s made it an issue and talked about it personally time and time again. Only it’s the tabloids’ fault for pointing out that she announced to People Magazine back in February, 2008 that she was going to start her own weight loss brand, then proceeded to announce to People Magazine in May, 2009 that she’d gained 83 pounds. When the National Enquirer ran a cover story on her weight, she urged her Twitter followers to harass the writer and called her “Fair Game.” Kirstie makes her weight an issue and tries to capitalize on it, but when the tabloids point it out it has nothing to do with her, she’s innocent. She’s so innocent and unaware of what’s going on in that cult she belongs to that she uses their go-to method for threatening and harassing detractors in order to go after the tabloids who point out what a hypocrite she is.

Also, how Photoshopped is this bitch on the cover of TV Guide? Here she is on 2/28, 3/8 and 3/10. (In reverse order from newest to oldest. Credit: WENN.com)

Star Magazine and The National Enquirer both have stories this week about how Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ relationship is on the rocks. There’s not a lot of insider information in either tabloid, and the story in Star seems to be based on the very damning report in the New Yorker on Scientology that was published last week, along with some tell-all interviews with former cult members. There was also a dinner that Tom and Kate had at a restaurant in Vancouver on February 7 in which they sat far apart and seemed to interact more with Suri than with each other. (Those pictures are here.)

I think it’s safe to assume they’re having issues, but whether or not they’re affected by the shakedown of their cult remains to be seen. There’s so much brainwashing and groupthink that goes on with those type of organizations that both of them may simply think that Scientology is under attack by Subversive Persons or Squirrels (see Mark Rathbun) or whatever the f’ck they call them, which could just cause them to circle their wagons. That might not necessarily drive them apart. I love that the tabloids are really paying attention to the Scientology drama, though, and Star reports it in detail. I’ll just do a quick overview here:

FBI Probe: Tearing Tom & Katie Apart!
A shocking expose has turned the microscope on Scientology – and it’s most famous members, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Now the FBI is involved. Will their marriage survive the stress?

With her head in her hands, staring glumly out at the crowded restaurant, Katie Holmes looked like she had a lot on her mind during a Feb. 7 dinner with hubby Tom Cruise. While he played and chatted with daughter Suri, Katie was left alone with her thoughts – and it didn’t appear that they were happy ones. Indeed, sources say that a blockbuster new Scientology expose has sent Katie reeling and driven a wedge between her and Tom.

[From Star Magazine, print edition, February 28, 2011]

They go into the charges of human trafficking and the FBI probe as was discussed in the New Yorker article. (That claim has been denied by Scientology of course.) They also cover the cult slave labor that built multiple vehicles for cruise, including custom motorcycles, an SUV, an airport hanger, and a bus that was tricked out so that Katie Holmes should get her daily brainwashing sessions wherever they went.

As far as how this latest cult scandal affects Tom and Katie, Star reports that “Tom has told Katie over and over that the church hasn’t done anything wrong and they shouldn’t be worried, but she’s not totally convinced. This is really testing their marriage.”

The Enquirer’s story is similar but more general about the issues they have, with the title “Katie Holmes breaks down” followed by these bullet points “She’s in tears over:
- Faltering Career
- Scientology Scandal
- Fights with Tom over baby
- Problems with stepdaughter”

They quote an insider who claims that “Katie’s world is threatening to cave in, and she’s on the bring of a major breakdown.” Given all I’ve heard about Scientology, that’s often true when people start questioning the cult. Katie may have countless more resources at her disposal than a typical cult member if she ever decides to leave, but it’s not going to be easy for her at all.

Katie Holmes is shown on 1/20/11 below on the LA set of Jack N Jill. She’s shown out with Tom and Suri on 12/20/11. In most of those photos she looks happy honestly, but the tabloids are of course using one where she looks pissed off. Credit: Fame.

Several former Scientologists have come forward, both in an epic report in the New Yorker that Kaiser mentioned yesterday and individually, to confirm that low-level employees of the church of Scientology did free work for cult member Tom Cruise. These workers were essentially slaves considering that they were paid just $50 a week (often less) and were regularly coerced, threatened, pursued and even physically detained when they tried to leave the cult. It’s common practice in Scientology to track down members trying to leave and to put them in forced work camps where their every move is controlled and monitored. It sounds unbelievable, but several former Scientologists spoke on the record to the New Yorker about their experiences with the cult and others are suing the organization for the abuses they suffered, usually for years. (The article is very long and may seem daunting to read. To get to the part about the forced labor camps, go to this page and start reading at the big “A” a few paragraphs down.)

The New Yorker story, by Pulitzer prize winning journalist Lawrence Wright, claims that the FBI is investigating Scientology for human trafficking. They even gave details of their investigation including the names of the agents on the case and the people they’d interviewed. Scientology of course denies this, just as they deny everything.

Here are the relevant parts about how Cruise received free slave labor. You may have already heard about this, but there are some new details we’ll add in a moment:

In 2005, [cult leader] Miscavige showed Cruise a Harley-Davidson motorcycle he owned. At Miscavige’s request, [former cult member] Brousseau had had the vehicle’s parts plated with brushed nickel and painted candy-apple red. Brousseau recalls, “Cruise asked me, ‘God, could you paint my bike like that?’ I looked at Miscavige, and Miscavige agreed.” Cruise brought in two motorcycles to be painted, a Triumph and a Honda Rune; the Honda had been given to him by Spielberg after the filming of “War of the Worlds.” “The Honda already had a custom paint job by the set designer,” Brousseau recalls. Each motorcycle had to be taken apart completely, and all the parts nickel-plated, before it was painted. (The church denies Brousseau’s account.)

Brousseau also says that he helped customize a Ford Excursion S.U.V. that Cruise owned, installing features such as handmade eucalyptus panelling. The customization job was presented to Tom Cruise as a gift from David Miscavige, he said. “I was getting paid fifty dollars a week,” he recalls. “And I’m supposed to be working for the betterment of mankind.” Several years ago, Brousseau says, he worked on the renovation of an airport hangar that Cruise maintains in Burbank. Sea Org members installed faux scaffolding, giant banners bearing the emblems of aircraft manufacturers, and a luxurious office that was fabricated at church facilities, then reassembled inside the hangar. Brousseau showed me dozens of photographs documenting his work for Cruise.

Both Cruise’s attorney and the church deny Brousseau’s account. Cruise’s attorney says that “the Church of Scientology has never expended any funds to the personal benefit of Mr. Cruise or provided him with free services.”

[From The New Yorker]

In a new story in Radar, former high ranking church member Mark Rathbun, who personally “audited” Tom Cruise, states that he has internal emails showing that a whopping 9,000 man hours of slave labor were provided to Cruise to customize yet another vehicle, a bus.

This begs the question – how much of Cruise’s help is made up of Scientologists, and what are they getting paid for their servitude? How much of the Cruise empire does he owe to the poor grunts of Scientology? Cruise has donated millions to the organization but the people who do all the work are essentially slaves. This quote from former Scientologist Amy Scobee pretty much sums it up: “You don’t have any money. You don’t have job experience. You don’t have anything. And he [cult head David Miscavige] could put you on the streets and ruin you.” Compared to that, doing unpaid labor for a multimillionaire seems like a decent alternative.

After I wrote all that, Radar put up another story about how that custom bus that church slaves built for Tom Cruise, which was completed in July, 2005, was used “as a base for lover Katie Holmes to begin her ‘Purification Rundown Program‘.” Holmes is neck deep in this cult and she stands to lose much more than her generous clothing allowance if she tries to leave.

*Note that in this article on Radar they state that the pay for Sea Org slave laborers can be “as low as $50 a week.” According to the article in the New Yorker, $50 is the base pay and can be cut for very minor infractions.

Tom Cruise is shown filming Mission Impossible IV in Prague this October. Credit: WENN.com

Cruise with fans:

One of the first news stories I saw Monday morning was the breaking story about the Church of Scientology. The New Yorker has just published an exhaustive article on the Church/cult which is the culmination of ten months of research, including talking to high-profile people who were once involved with CoS. The 26-page article is here, at The New Yorker. I haven’t got the chance to read the whole thing, or even skim most of it. I’ve only managed to read the excerpts, like this one, where Josh Brolin talks about his brief flirtation with Xenu:

There are many celebrity adherents to Scientology — Josh Brolin isn’t one of them.

In a long feature about ‘Crash’ director and screenwriter Paul Haggis’ rejection of his longtime religion, The New Yorker spoke to star Josh Brolin about his brief and unsuccessful run-in with the group.

Running to the religion “in a time of desperation,” Brolin says he saw some… interesting things. One of them involved John Travolta “practicing Scientology” on Marlon Brando.

“I watched this process going on–it was very physical,” Brolin said. “I was thinking, ‘This is really f**ing bizarre! Then, after ten minutes, Brando opens his eyes and says, ‘That really helped. I actually feel different!’”

For the record, Travolta denies that it ever happened.

Haggis opens about how, as a troublemaking young man, he felt saved by Scientology, something that stars such as Kirstie Alley attested to, saying that it saved her from cocaine. Haggis, though, says that the Church had a fierce anti-gay slant, something that especially troubled him given both his belief in social justice and the members of the Church that are rumored to be gay.

[From Huffington Post]

Um, I totally believe that John Travolta was coming on to Marlon Brando. Did that strike anyone else? Like Travolta wanted to tag that ass. Anyway, Paul Haggis left CoS after the head of CoS’s San Diego office signed the Proposition 8 petition in 2008. Haggis spent months trying to get CoS to clarify their position on gay rights, to no avail, so he ended up “resigning” from the Church. Haggis also details his issues with certain policies and practices of CoS, including “disconnection” and the rumors of the organization’s civil rights violations on members. Speaking of, the FBI opened an investigation into CoS (or “Sea Org” as “the religious order” are called). The investigation was for human trafficking. Human trafficking cases are usually meant for prostitution, and specifically the enslavement of women for sexual or slave labor purposes. More from The New Yorker piece:

The laws regarding trafficking were built largely around forced prostitution, but they also pertain to slave labor. Under federal law, slavery is defined, in part, by the use of coercion, torture, starvation, imprisonment, threats, and psychological abuse. The California penal code lists several indicators that someone may be a victim of human trafficking: signs of trauma or fatigue; being afraid or unable to talk, because of censorship by others or security measures that prevent communication with others; working in one place without the freedom to move about; owing a debt to one’s employer; and not having control over identification documents. Those conditions echo the testimony of many former Sea Org members…

[From The New Yorker via Gawker]

So… Tom Cruise and John Travolta could be slaves, people. Well… I believe that they are brainwashed, and that there is probably a significant amount of “groupthink” going on, but is that a good enough excuse? At some point, doesn’t personal responsibility have to come into play? I have always believed that many actors join up with Scientology because they think it will help their careers, not because they believe in the “tenants” of CoS, whatever they may be (spa dong, high heels for men, contractually enforced marriages). Whatever.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

If you’re being sarcastic and the person whose leg you’re pulling doesn’t get it, don’t you let them know that you didn’t mean it that way? I do at least, but apparently Ashton Kutcher doesn’t. In a recent interview with Men’s Fitness, Kutcher went on at length with the claim that he’s doing some Israeli army martial arts training, Krav Maga, in order to be fit enough to save his family in the event of Armageddon. The journalist was earnest about the fact that Kutcher seemed serious, and Kutcher provided enough background and detail to make it seem like he had put a lot of thought into it and wasn’t just putting her on with a ridiculous story. Only Kutcher later sort-of claimed on Twitter that he was joking and that his words were taken out of context:

“Sometimes u have to do interviews just to amuse yourself. This is what a conversation looks like out of context.

“They are my words for sure. I was trying to give some kind of response to the question what motivates you to work out.”

Now he’s saying that the whole thing was a joke that the journalist didn’t get.

“Here’s the thing: you do these interviews for like a Men’s Fitness or something, and they’re always asking you like, why do you work out, what’s your motivation to stay in shape?” he said.

“And you really don’t want to say I want to look good, I want to be healthy, it doesn’t really sound fun. So I kind of got going on this roll of the apocalypse and I thought she was getting the joke, and I read the article and she really didn’t get the joke.”

[From Showbiz Spy]

So do you buy it – was Ashton just going off on a tangent? He had a whole backstory and everything about how the power went out once and he witnessed people looting and ended up holed up at home with a bunch of guns. It wasn’t just a spur of the moment thing that he pulled out to make the interview interesting. I think the dude really believes in this stuff and doesn’t want to be known as a wingnut. He’s already a cult member, so it’s not that much of a stretch to think he buys into this 2012 stuff. He wouldn’t be the only famous person.

Ashton is shown at the No Strings Attached premiere on 1/11/11. Credit: WENN.com

The cover of this week’s Star may not seem as scandalous as they make it out to be: “Katie Holmes Drug Shocker!” but the reality is probably worse for Katie than a drug addiction. The story is all about how Katie is “addicted” Scientology auditing with those e-meter devices that are basically crude lie detectors. Former Scientologists say the auditing sessions with the e-meter, which lets off a low-level electrical charge, can be addicting and mind-altering. I wouldn’t find this story so ominous if I hadn’t just seen that interview with Kelly Preston spouting off about how L. Ron Hubbard claimed that the reactive mind is affected by someone’s birth experience. There’s some serious brainwashing going on with that cult.

Four years into Katie Holmes’ marriage to Tom Cruise, 48, her involvement with the controversial Church of Scientology still raises eyebrows. Now, in a world exclusive, several former Scientologists and experts have stepped forward to make a shocking claim to Star: Katie’s battery of Scientology treatments have an affect similar to heroin.

Although the FDA has taken the position that the “e-meter” device used in Scientology’s “auditing” or counseling sessions, serves no medical purpose, former Scientologists tell Star that it gives subjects a temporary feeling of euphoria, followed by a crash and a craving for more.

As subjects being audited hold metal cans connected to the device, “The e-meter emits a low-level electric charge that goes to the brain,” explains former Scientologist… Arnaldo Lerma. “In response to that stressful stimulation, the body releases endorphins, hormones that cause a pain-killing, mood-elevating effect.”

David Touretzky, a research at Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, says that auditing may also spark an endorphin release in another way. “One hypothesis is that there is an endorphin bump caused by the focused attention of the auditor,” Touretzky tells Star. “It’s socially rewarding.”

Either way, for Katie and thousands of other Scientologists, those endorphins can be a natural drug, Dr. Gregory A. Smith, a California addiction expert… tells Star

“Endorphins are natural painkillers in the brain that block pain receptors from within the body exactly the same way drugs like morphine kill pain from an external source,” Dr. Smith explains.

“So when you stimulate endorphin activity within the brain, you are doing the exact same thing as taking morphine or other opiates, such as heroin on opium. That feeling of a natural high can become addictive.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, January 31, 2010]

Here’s the thing, I doubt that this e-meter crap is more effective at helping people release endorphins than exercise or listening to music is. On its own the e-meter is just a mild current. The process of going through auditing and getting reprogrammed is probably addictive, though, because it’s designed to change a person’s entire world view and make them dependent on the auditor for validation. From what I can gather, auditing is similar to regression therapy in that people are encouraged to resolve negative experiences from their past. Only in Scientology they believe that a person has lived for millions of years and they coax them to come up with “memories” that stem back past their current lifetime. Here’s a description from a former Scientologist on what auditing did to her:

Now you have had hundreds of hours of Dianetics and Grade auditing. Your idea of what is real has completely changed. You know you are different from other people, because now you know that you have lived for millions of years. You know it is true because you’ve relived so many experiences in your auditing. You feel set apart from other people who have not yet discovered the truth. You want your family to experience the truth too, but you can’t tell them. They wouldn’t believe you. They have to experience it for themselves. You’re spending your time with other Scientologists now, because it’s uncomfortable to be around non-Scientologists. They don’t understand. Scientologists are the only ones who know what reality really is.

Now when your auditor asks you for an earlier similar incident, you don’t have to be coaxed into finding a picture. You know what to do. Now, as soon as the auditor asks the question, a picture appears. There is no longer any difference in your mind between something that happened yesterday, and something that happened 300 years ago, or 25,000 years ago, or a million years ago.

All Scientologists believe that these incidents they find in their auditing really happened to them. They believe that they have memories going back thousands of years, millions of years, even billions of years. This is encouraged by the auditing process, in which the preclear is repeatedly told, “What is true for you is true for you.” In practice, this means that the auditor validates as real anything the preclear comes up with in session, no matter how far-fetched it may be.

Moreover, the preclear is not allowed to discuss all of this with anyone but his auditor. Husbands and wives are not permitted to talk about what happens
in their auditing sessions. Friends are required to report on each other if someone talks about an incident from their auditing. So the preclear is left without any way of keeping himself anchored in the real world. There is no way to verify whether or not something is true or imaginary.

[From Lermanet.com]

I found that woman’s story fascinating and if you’re interested in Scientology I would recommend you read more at the source. The process of “auditing” is way scarier than being addicted to the good feeling that the little lie detector device might give you. It’s aimed to have people question their entire sense of reality and to change their worldview. It’s mind control and a mental trap. No wonder Katie looks so tired and drawn all the time.

Photos below of e-meters via Dr. Dave Touretzky’s site. Other photos are from 12/19/10 and credit: Fame Pictures

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Kelly Preston was interviewed as part of a segment that aired on The Today Show yesterday. She talked about her newborn son, Benjamin, with her husband John Travolta, and revealed that she had a “silent birth” as is typical for members of the Scientology cult. The first thing that struck me about Kelly was her demeanor. She seemed very affected and phony to me, albeit superficially “nice.” It was clear a few minutes into the interview that she’s a total whackjob.

On what silent birth is
Silent birth is basically just no words as much as possible. If you need to moan, if you need to cry out … of course that’s normal. But, it’s just bringing them in, in as peaceful and gentle a way as possible.

On how L. Ron came up with this silent birth theory
Because L. Ron Hubbard found that the single source of abberation of psychosomatic illnesses, stress, fears, worry, things like that have to do with the reactive mind, and in that part of the mind is different words and commands that can come back to affect you later in your life.

On how silent birth benefited her kids their whole life
My kids have always been amazing. Just very calm, very peaceful, happy and I absolutely know it’s very much because of that.

On how baby Benjamin helped them heal from losing 16 year-old Jett
It’s been wonderfully healing. Of course, you know, we still — it’s still every day. But it’s been, I think, a really nice gift for a lot of people throughout the world. We’ve gotten the most beautiful letters. And the most beautiful notes of happiness

[From Today Show interview, aired 1-19-11, and via Popeater]

The “silent birth” stuff doesn’t sound that abnormal until she gets to the L. Ron part. When I had my son I asked everyone in the room to shut the hell up until the pushing stage because they were bugging me. (This is true, and I was pretty serious about it so they complied.) The thing that Kelly doesn’t address is that her cult also recommends that parents not even talk to a new baby for a full week after it’s born. That’s borderline abusive and is also idiotic considering that babies are used to hearing their parents voices from when they’re in the womb. L. Ron pulled this stuff out of his ass and Kelly talks about him as if he’s God. (That’s at 3:30 in the video above.)

I believe that Kelly really had that baby, and I’m guessing that she may have used an egg donor due to her age. I don’t really care much for Kelly or John, but I wish them the best with their new baby, especially after all they went through with the loss of their son, Jett. Kelly is clearly brainwashed, though, and the way she goes on about L. Ron, the reactive mind, and her kids being more peaceful due to their birth experience (as if that imprints on them more than anything else in their lives) is pretty disturbing. This is absolutely a woman who could easily be in denial about her husband’s sexual preference.

Here are John and Kelly out at Mr. Chow last night, 1/19/11. Credit: WENN.com

Star Magazine has a story that injects some more controversy into the new face of polygamy, the “Sister Wives” Brown family of Lehi, Utah. Star’s source is a former polygamist wife who escaped from the fundamentalist Mormon sect to which the Brown’s belong. She is sort-of Kody’s former sister-in-law (see the story below, she was a sister wife along with Kody’s sister) and tells Star that if any of the four wives want to leave Kody they’ll probably be permanently separated from their kids and excommunicated, as is common among followers of their religion/cult. It’s a sobering look into what really goes on in typical polygamist families, and shows that the reality for The Brown wives isn’t what we’re seeing on TV. I think Star just added the stuff about Janelle and Christine wanting out based on what this woman told them, but it could be true. Here’s part of Star’s story:

What would you do if you had to choose between staying in a bad marriage or losing your children? That’s the heartbreaking dilemma behind the scenes of Sister Wives for Janelle and Christine Brown, the second and third wives of Utah polygamist Kody Brown. Sources say the duo have grown increasingly unhappy about their lives with Kody, to the point that they’ve considered leaving him.

But should that happen, Star has learned, they could automatically lose custody of their combined 12 children to Kody, by order of their mysterious religious sect. And there could be even more frightening consequences.

“Janelle and Christine can smile for the cameras all they want and say how everything is great, but Janelle has cried on my shoulder many times,” a family friend tells Star. “She told me she and Christine are so sick of how Kody’s desire to be a TV star is pulling the family apart, plus all the attention he lavishes on his new, young wife, Robyn, that they’ve talked about divorce.”

But to do that would mean leaving themselves at the mercy of the mysterious sect Kody, 42, and his wives belong to. Star has learned that the Apolistic United Brethren – also known as the Allred Group – is a sect that broke away from the traditional Mormom church long ago and is headquartered in the town of Bluffdale, Utah less than 10 miles from the Brown family home in the neighboring town of Lehi.

Trying to break away from a marriage within the sect can be a nightmare, says Janae Thorne-Bird – who did just that and founded Utah’s Heartstrong Living Center, a safe haven for women escaping polygamy. Incredibly, Janae tells Star that she formerly shared a husband in Montana with Kody’s younger sister, Christy, 39 – and she warns Janelle, 41, and Christine, 38, of the possible dangers ahead should they choose to leave Kody.

“I was forced by our sect to give my ex-husband full custody of our 10 children, and they were raised by Christy and his other wives,” claims Janae. “I was barred from even seeing my kids, and they were hidden away from me. I reunited with seven of them once they were no longer minors and could choose to walk away, but my three youngest are still trapped in the sect.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, October 18, 2010]

That’s heartbreaking and now I understand why there’s an investigation into the Brown family. The wives may have entered into this arrangement by choice, but do they also have the choice to get out of it?

This story sheds more light onto how this family makes polygamy seem like a valid choice when it often puts women and children in very difficult, inescapable conditions, even outside the compounds. This isn’t a story from someone involved in polygamy in general, it’s the story of a woman who shared a husband with Kody’s sister and was cut off from her kids for years. Her close connection to the Browns makes this all the more convincing.

TMZ has a blurb about how Kody sought approval from local church leaders before doing the show. They essentially told him that they didn’t agree, but that it was up to him. His moved forward with the show and now the polygamist families are said to be scared of the repercussions. There have to be some wives who are hopeful that things will change as a result.

There were some celebrities at the “Church” of Scientology’s 41st anniversary party in Hollywood over the weekend. Most notably a glowing and pregnant Kelly Preston was there along with her husband, John Travolta. Former DWTS contestant, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and his wife were in attendance, as were Jenna Elfman and Nancy Cartwright, best known as the voice of Bart Simpson. Parenthood star Erika Christensen was also at the event, which disappoints me because I love that show and really like her character. She’s a great actress. I remember seeing a photo of her at the 2002 Scientology anniversary with Tom Cruise and Jason Lee. I was hoping she was “out” of the cult now but I guess not.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were conspicuously absent, though. Tom has been doing promotion for Knight & Day overseas while Katie has been filming in Canada. Cruise owns a private jet (or three) and could easily have flown in. I wonder what kept him away and if there’s more than just busy schedules behind the fact that he didn’t attend. I’m hoping it has to do with a falling out he might have with the church, or maybe some kind of deliberate distancing. Scientology’s reputation has never been poorer. We’ve heard so much recently from defectors about the horrific conditions they suffered along with the abuses committed by head David Miscavige. The last time the Holmes-Cruises were spotted at a Scientology event was in October of last year. Are they going to make sure they’re no longer the defacto cult spokespeople?

I’ll say something nice – Kelly and John Travolta look really happy and I’m so happy for them that they’re expecting. Their daughter is a cutie, too. I hope she’s getting a secular education, but I doubt it.

Tom Cruise’s former auditor, high ranking former Scientologist Marty Rathbun, has come forward with claims that Scientology head David Miscavige not only didn’t hold Cruise’s confessions sacred, he regularly taped them and read out transcripts of the star’s auditing sessions at parties. Rathbun has previously said that Miscavige assigned him in 2001 “to coordinate Tom’s divorce from Nicole and to serve as his auditor,” something that Cruise’s lawyer confirmed with a harshly worded letter warning Rathbun not to disclose any personal information that Cruise revealed in his auditing sessions. (Auditing is a Scientology process of eliciting secrets from members. It serves the dual purpose of indoctrinating them into the cult and collecting personal information to use against them.) Rathbun has promised to hold Cruise’s confessions sacred, but Cruise’s buddy Miscavige hasn’t done the same. According to Rathbun, Miscavige would regularly get drunk at parties and reveal Cruise’s secrets. What’s more is that all of Cruise’s auditing sessions were videotaped by Miscavige’s orders:

I audited a number of intensives of confessionals on Tom Cruise from July through November 2001. By order of Miscavige many of those sessions were secretly recorded by a well-concealed video camera and voice recorder system built into the VIP auditing room at Celebrity Center International. I was r-factored that it was for the purpose of having the CS check up on the quality of my delivery. All I knew at that time was that I forwarded the videos to my CS at Int (RTC). I was also required by Miscavige to write reports on the content of every session I delivered during that period and send them directly to Miscavige. I was told by him that he needed to know because recovering Tom to Scientology was the most important mission possible. I never received a single suggestion from Miscavige during the recovery process. He quite apparently wanted to keep his distance until the messy divorce was over and there was no chance of Scientology becoming an issue.

The only C/S comments I received during that period, besides “VWD”, and during the subsequent 2 1/2 months of full time auditing I delivered in 2002, were out-tech suggestions to re-check things that were confirmed as FLAT by me. They were forwarded from COB Asst Shelly (who had virtually no tech training); all of which I refused to carry out in order to protect the pre-OT. Finally, I unilaterally decided to stop recording sessions in Feb 2002 – despite flak from Shelly for ceasing – on the basis that it was simply unethical to record him for no apparent purpose (the video was certainly of no importance for auditor correction purposes) and without his knowledge.

Well, my suspicions about DM’s real purposes for recording Tom’s confessions have been confirmed as warranted. I have recently learned from a very reliable witness that DM regularly held court with others in his personal lounge in the roadside Villas at the Int base, and while sipping scotch whiskey at the end of the night, Miscavige would read Tom’s overts and withholds from my reports to others, joking and laughing about the content of Tom’s confessions. My witness is unimpeachable in my eyes as his account contains too many accurate details from someone who had zero reason (or ability) for being anywhere near Tom’s folders, videos and reports direct to DM. I also know he was a regular, preferred guest at DM’s scotch night caps during that period.

[From Mark Rathbun's blog via Gawker]

Not all of that makes sense to non-Scientologists, but I guess Rathbun is saying that there was no reason to record Tom and that it served no purpose for what he was doing. He also was able to verify that Miscavige did reveal the content of Tom’s confessions by the fact that the stories contained details that only people who had seen or read the actual auditing sessions would know.

Of course I’m curious to hear what Cruise confessed to, but more than that I’d love to know how Miscavige is going to explain this to Cruise. Is he going to deny everything and blame it on some kind of anti-Scientology conspiracy? Will Tom buy that excuse or is he starting to get wise to what a criminal organization Scientology is?

We just heard details from ex Scientologist Amy Scobee’s new book about how Miscavige regularly had Tom’s all-Scientology staff spy on the star and his then-wife, Nicole Kidman. It sounds like Miscavige was collecting damning information to use against Tom in the event that he ever wanted to leave the cult. Maybe by using Tom’s personal stories for his own amusement Miscavige has so overstepped his bounds that Tom won’t be intimidated into keeping silent and supportive. This whole sordid plot reminds me of Cruise’s film The Firm. If only he’d get wise and start to fight back like one of the characters he plays.