We spoke to actor Jim Carrey’s attorney Marty Singer today, who told us he was very interested in our morning story about Mark Burton, the man who is suing his client over Cathriona White’s 2015 suicide.
Burton filed his lawsuit yesterday, claiming that Carrey obtained prescription medicines under a fake name so he could give them to White, his on-again-off-again girlfriend who had moved to Los Angeles from Ireland in 2009. She and Carrey began dating around March 2012 and broke up for the first time several months later. They had resumed dating in 2015, before breaking up again that September. On September 28, 2015, Cat White was found dead, having apparently killed herself with medications that Carrey procured under the name “Arthur King.” Carrey maintains that she took the medicines without his knowledge, and he didn’t notice they were missing until it was too late.
After White’s death, L.A. Coroner Ed Winter shocked even Cat’s close friends by revealing that she was married to a man named Mark Burton. This morning, we reported that Cat told a few close personal friends that the January 2013 marriage to Burton was a sham that was intended to fool immigration officials so she could stay in the country. Her friends say that Cat, who had met a family of Scientologists in Ireland before emigrating and had become involved in Scientology in Los Angeles, had asked several of her male Scientology friends if they would be willing to enter a fake marriage with her. She had even, in 2010, held a fake wedding with a fellow Scientologist in order to get photos to throw off immigration officials, but had changed her mind about that match. After her break-up with Carrey in 2012, she approached Burton, also a Scientologist, and they went to Las Vegas to get married and told very few of their friends.
Now, Marty Singer had a new surprise for us.
“I’ll let you know something that hasn’t broken yet. She asked Jim to marry her, right after they first started dating. He said no. That’s not public information yet, but it was going to come out in the lawsuit,” he said.
We checked in with our two sources from this morning’s story, both women who knew Cat White well. Our first source tells us that she was aware that Cat had proposed to Carrey, and that he had turned her down. Our second source was not aware of it, but she didn’t doubt it.
“She was a beautiful, sweet little Irish flower, and she was obviously really in love with Jim Carrey. So she was really bummed out about it,” says our first source.
“She was such a sweet and open person, and she would have been very upfront with Jim about wanting to marry him so she could stay,” she says, explaining that Cat’s immigration status would have complicated a real relationship that might eventually have included marriage and children.
“You have to keep in mind, her father was very ill and she was trying to get back to Ireland,” says our second source. Cat’s father, Pat White, died in 2012. Cat would be unable to fly to Ireland and then return to the U.S. until her visa situation was sorted out. “That’s why she was desperate to get married. I told her, you’re a winner and a beautiful girl. Get a real marriage. And I think that’s what she wanted to do. With Jim it was real, she really wanted to marry him. But with a high-level celebrity, that’s a whole other deal.”
Both of our sources say that the situation was tough for both of them — Cat, because her real feelings for Jim were mixed with her desperation to get home, and Carrey because he wouldn’t have wanted to rush into something simply to help someone get a green card.
“I didn’t know that she asked him, but it rings true. She wanted a real marriage. She didn’t want a fake one. She wanted to find her partner in America,” says our second source.
Both of our sources, who helped us understand Cat’s attempts to get sham marriages with fellow Scientologists, emphasized that they saw Cat as a victim, not as a schemer. She was pushed into a desperate situation, and was doing what she could to pursue her new life in Los Angeles.
“When she lost that, her chance to marry Jim, and she was still stuck in this manipulative group of Scientology, she lost it. She probably didn’t even know who to trust anymore. All she had were Scientologists in her life,” says our first source. “Cat would be so disappointed with this lawsuit. A good friend of hers suing the man she loved? This is the last thing she would want.”
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Posted by Tony Ortega on September 20, 2016 at 17:10
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Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts
Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield
