Well, I didn’t expect to write a series of daily Leah Remini updates this week, but her book excerpts are just so compelling. Here’s a photo of Leah at Barnes & Noble to officially launch Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology. Paul Haggis was there too! Leah’s earned her troublemaking claim by dropping all sorts of bombs about her life in the cult. She has forgiven “ballsy” Katie Holmes and exposed Tom Cruise’s hide-and-seek and cookie dough weirdness along with disturbing stories of child neglect within the CO$.

Leah’s latest bombshell excerpt won’t surprise anyone who’s read about L. Ron Hubbard’s early practices in the Going Clear book. Back when the Sea Org labor force actually worked on boats, there was a disciplinary practice called “offboarding,” which was exactly what it sounds like. Scientologists got thrown off boats in the middle of the ocean. Leah says she was subject to the practice too, only a few decades ago:

Leah Remini rips into Scientology in a revenge-filled memoir — and discloses how a punishment ordered by a cult official almost killed her in a twisted drowning incident!

In addition to recounting tales of child abuse, stalking and sexual harassment at the hands of the secretive cult, Remini claims she was thrown from a boat when she was a teen.

Remini, now 45, once led a crew of Sea Org members cleaning the rooms at the Scientology – run Sandcastle Hotel in Florida, and headed to the hotel pool to relax once the job was done, according to the book.

When a Scientology bigwig saw her sunning by the pool, he ordered her to the nearby marina and took her out to sea. Then he threw her overboard into the ocean!

Remini desperately treaded water, a victim of a church practice known as “overboarding” – “which entails throwing a crew member overboard as a form of reprimand,” according to the actress.

“Soaking wet and humiliated,” the nearly drowned teen was finally allowed back into the boat.

In a response to Remini’s claims, the church said, “It comes as no surprise that someone as self-absorbed as Leah Remini with an insatiable craving for attention would exploit her former religion… She is rewriting history.”

But Remini said she blew $5 million of her fortune on Scientology before severing ties with the church in 2013, ending a 37-year nightmare.

[From Radar Online]

This is such a terrifying tale, and completely believable because the CO$ is nuts. Leah could have drowned simply because she decided to go sunbathing after she finished working for the day. It’s total insanity, but that’s the way L. Ron Hubbard rolled. Under David Miscavige, the old practices became even more exaggerated and dangerous. But hey, I think Leah’s book is making almost as many waves as Going Clear as an HBO documentary. She’s no longer afraid, and since she leads such a public existence, Scientology won’t dare touch her. They still trash talk her, but if anything happens to Leah, we’d be looking straight at the cult who has already played a huge role in many deaths of its members.

P.S. Leah told People that she’s still worried about Shelley Miscavige. Where’s Shelley?

Photos courtesy of WENN