Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath

[Howl]

13 hours ago, PennySycamore said:

Discovery ID is airing a great special on Scientology at 8 (EST) tonight. (1/13/17)  It repeats at 11:00.  

Damn, I step away from the computer for a few hours and miss something important!  I'll check their viewer's guide and find a replay, I hope.  Thanks for posting this!  I'd slacked off from watching ID for awhile, but I need to get back at it. 

[PennySycamore]

@Howl, Discovery ID is airing a show on Warren Jeffs soon.  It might be a segment of their series Evil Lives Here, but I'm not 100% sure.  Im also not sure about the date.  They're also showing Is OJ Innocent? this Sunday (the 15th) at 10 EST which examines some new evidence.

If the show on Nancy's experience with the C0$ is like other ID Shows, it should be available on the website and on the ID Go app. It's called Scientology: A Student's Descent.  

[StepMonsterInLA]

On 1/12/2017 at 4:19 PM, IreneIssh said:

Yeah, I was very surprised to learn she was Catholic. Is that totally true though? I always assumed she had a reason for working with the church for so long and attacking their defectors so vehemently. I want to know more about this woman. 

Even murderers and child molesters have legal counsel. It's a job for which I'm sure she makes a great deal of money. 

[K'Z'K]

The Discovery ID thing was crap. I've always found Nancy Many's story to be a bit "off", for lack of a better word, but maybe it's just that she's no Marc Headley (i.e., she's not good at telling it). The re-enactments were so poorly acted/directed and cheesy and generally terrible that they removed any power the story could have had. Turned it from "holy shit, truth is stranger than fiction!" to "yeah, there's no way this is anything but fiction, and they need way better writers." IMO, it wasn't exactly flattering to Scn, but it also made Nancy look like a kook and a liar. If it was my intro to the horrors of Scn, I'd shrug it off and assume she really was just a bitter ex who was wildly exaggerating and flat-out making shit up.

[SilverBeach]

I believed Nancy Many, her experience corresponds to other descriptions of the RPF. I found it interesting that she was able to carry her baby to term.

What puzzled me is that there was no stated reason for her and her husband being sent to the RPF either time. 

Nancy was clearly vulnerable, suffering a psychotic break like she did. Maybe that's why there were no disclaimers, Scientology is not afraid of her. She supposedly speaks out against CO$ now, but seemed to equivocate right at the end about whether or not the CO$ was totally to blame for her horrible experiences.

Definitely not a Leah Remini episode. The Paulette Cooper remarks were good.

[lilwriter85]

I read Nancy's book My Billion Year Contract and it was a painful read, but very informative on the dark side of Scientology.

[acheronbeach]

8 hours ago, StepMonsterInLA said:

Even murderers and child molesters have legal counsel. It's a job for which I'm sure she makes a great deal of money. 

Monique Yingling is selling her beach house for 2.4 mill.

http://tonyortega.org/2017/01/05/scientology-cash-in-top-church-attorney-puts-her-beach-bungalow-on-the-market-for-2-4-million/

She is very well compensated for her work.

[PennySycamore]

@SilverBeach, do you think that the fact that Nancy  was allowed to carry to term was due in any way to L Ron still being at the helm of the Co$?

[EmiGirl]

1 hour ago, PennySycamore said:

@SilverBeach, do you think that the fact that Nancy  was allowed to carry to term was due in any way to L Ron still being at the helm of the Co$?

I think so. It seems the forced aborations got more frequent woth miscavige. 

[EmiGirl]

10 minutes ago, EmiGirl said:

I think so. It seems the forced aborations got more frequent woth miscavige. 

Try abortions. I hate my autocorrect sometimes. 

[SilverBeach]

2 hours ago, PennySycamore said:

@SilverBeach, do you think that the fact that Nancy  was allowed to carry to term was due in any way to L Ron still being at the helm of the Co$?

That very well may be the difference. Miscavige took the sea org from bad to worse.

[Grimalkin]

     The attack letters and smear websites are so insane and out there it is like an SNL skit. I think same with the silly disclaimers. I don't think anyone outside of Scientology takes them seriously. 

      Nobody cares about Tom Cruise anymore. All that catering is for nothing. He's a laughing stock.

       Those fake military uniforms remind me of Captain Brett.

[Cleopatra7]

8 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

     The attack letters and smear websites are so insane and out there it is like an SNL skit. I think same with the silly disclaimers. I don't think anyone outside of Scientology takes them seriously. 

      Nobody cares about Tom Cruise anymore. All that catering is for nothing. He's a laughing stock.

       Those fake military uniforms remind me of Captain Brett.

I have been wondering about Tom Cruise's popularity. I know he's still a laughingstock in many quarters of the internet for his couch jumping antics, but don't his movies still do pretty well at the box office (I honestly don't know; I haven't been to a movie theater since I saw Spotlight)? A lot of people may find Cruise personally unpleasant or weird, but will see him in an action movie if he delivers a solid performance.

[PennySycamore]

@Cleopatra7, speaking for myself, I won't go see Tom Cruise in a movie anymore.  I won't say I was ever a huge fan though. 

 

ETA:  The ID Discovery show Is OJ Innocent? comes on tonight at 9 Eastern and not 10 like I posted before.  (Sorry about the thread jack.)

[applejack]

On 12/8/2016 at 10:34 AM, Peas n carrots said:

One of the things I found hilarious was the NY Center is directly across the street from Hamilton. There was a matinee and it was PACKED in front of the theater while the only person I saw go into the $cientology Center was a FedEx delivery man.

 

When Lin-Manuel was still doing the outdoor Ham4Ham shows, and they started having to have people stand across the street, besides my fear that folks were gonna get hit by buses for trying to get closer to Lin/Renee/Jon Groff/Daveed/etc, I remember wondering and fearing if the Co$ would try stationing a "Personality Test" outside to catch some of these younger, more gulliable fans in their web. I never did find out if that happened, but I hope not. Some of those kids out there were so young and fresh, I just feared they were ripe pickings for the cult. 

Old post is old, sorry. I just binge-watched the whole series (A&E's app is awesome!) and it brought back memories the days of protesting with Anon, when I was young and unencumbered. None of what she's covering with this show is new information to me, I knew about the disconnection policy and fair game, but it never gets less horrifying or angering to me. The stores broke my heart everytime. 

[Peas n carrots]

When Lin-Manuel was still doing the outdoor Ham4Ham shows, and they started having to have people stand across the street, besides my fear that folks were gonna get hit by buses for trying to get closer to Lin/Renee/Jon Groff/Daveed/etc, I remember wondering and fearing if the Co$ would try stationing a "Personality Test" outside to catch some of these younger, more gulliable fans in their web. I never did find out if that happened, but I hope not. Some of those kids out there were so young and fresh, I just feared they were ripe pickings for the cult. 

Old post is old, sorry. I just binge-watched the whole series (A&E's app is awesome!) and it brought back memories the days of protesting with Anon, when I was young and unencumbered. None of what she's covering with this show is new information to me, I knew about the disconnection policy and fair game, but it never gets less horrifying or angering to me. The stores broke my heart everytime. 

I wonder if they still even try to do that? It seems like lately they are more focused on getting more money out of the whales than draw the public in.

[Inky]

13 hours ago, Cleopatra7 said:

I have been wondering about Tom Cruise's popularity. I know he's still a laughingstock in many quarters of the internet for his couch jumping antics, but don't his movies still do pretty well at the box office (I honestly don't know; I haven't been to a movie theater since I saw Spotlight)? A lot of people may find Cruise personally unpleasant or weird, but will see him in an action movie if he delivers a solid performance.

I've been wondering the same thing. I was never a huge fan, be he did have a following. My kids said he was hilarious in Days of Thunder. 

Honestly though, knowing what he's involved in with $cientology, and what he must have put Nicole Kidman through, plus losing her two kids (sure they say they "talk" but you never see or hear of them together, and Nicole wasn't at the wedding of one). Then he has another child, Suri, and doesn't seem to be paying much attention to her! If he was, the paps would have a pic by now. He tried taking that magazine to court for calling him an absentee father and that didn't go very far, when they asked how much time he'd actually spent with Suri. I wouldn't want to go see one of his movies because I would not want to support him, even if he gave the performance of a lifetime. 

He needs to start thinking for himself and pay attention to who is cleaning his toilets and how much they are paid.

[quiversR4hunting]

On the Tom Cruise topic, I don't watch him much any more. I LOVED Top Gun but after the couch jumping and going after Brooke Shields and post-partum,  Kate Holmes and then me reading more, he makes me squeamish. I liked Mission Impossible but now I can barely watch any of it. I get similar icky feeling when I see John Travolta in his more recent stuff. In the back of my memory is see him talking about loosing Jett and to need what he was saying was so disjointed.

[DaisyD]

I'll watch his movies, but I won't pay to watch his movies. Luckily, he hasn't done anything I've been interested in watching in quite a while. If they show up on Netflix, I might...

I was (unbeknownst to me at the time) going through some post-partum depression when the whole Brooke Shields thing happened. That's what really turned me off to him. If you don't want to take medication, great. Don't give other people shit for their own life choices. That kind of attitude is how I ended up on fj in the first place.

Edit: I just looked it up. I was just realizing that I had had post-partum depression with my first when that went down. Those first few years a such a fog. Lol

[DaisyD]

I just watched the last AMA episode with Mr. D. He made a good point that I think may apply to all who were in a position of power that woke up. I'm thinking of both Mike Rider and Willie Jessop (FLDS) in this. Over the course of their time in the cult they hurt an innumerable amount of people in a way that a simple apology seems like mere platitudes. Instead, they spend their time trying to right what has been wrong for the future. In Rinder's case it's this show and whatever legal action he and Leah clearly have going. For Willie Jessop it's testifying and purchasing property in The Crick to better the community. Whether it's a function of personality or just the sheer emptiness of a simple apology, I think they're doing what they feel they can to make it better for everyone. 

[MamaJunebug]

On 1/15/2017 at 8:17 AM, Cleopatra7 said:

I have been wondering about Tom Cruise's popularity. I know he's still a laughingstock in many quarters of the internet for his couch jumping antics, but don't his movies still do pretty well at the box office (I honestly don't know; I haven't been to a movie theater since I saw Spotlight)? A lot of people may find Cruise personally unpleasant or weird, but will see him in an action movie if he delivers a solid performance.

He's still huge in Asia, which is itself a very big market and very wealthy. Ole boy isn't going to run out of money ever. 

[DaisyD]

Also, can I just say, the fake Sea Org ribbons are one thing, LRH being a veteran and stealing valor is so completely enraging that I can't fully explain it. Then saying that his records were altered for covert... whatever? If he really was involved in covert ops, he would have agreed not to receive/wear those medals (even if they had been around when he served). I seriously can't find the words to describe it. Miscavage isn't worse, he's just different. Fuck both of them.

[Penny]

Did anyone see Leah's program last night? It was another ask me anything.   She is so passionate in this project, I love her for doing this. It has to be so hard, I hope something will happen to bring down this cult. 

[bucherwurm]

I watched last night. I liked seeing the conversations she had with Mike Rinder, and the convos they got to have with the other guests on the show.

I also like how they have interviewed people that were directly effected by Rinder, like the journalists, and how he can admit to everything and talk to these people like they are actually people.

[Inky]

I really hope they delve into what happens to sea org members when they become very old, or very sick. There are someheartwrenching stories there.