In the wake of Leah Remini’s defection, Church of Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw has repeatedly claimed that there is no Scientology policy of forced “disconnection,” which compels a church member to cut off all ties from someone who has been excommunicated (“declared a suppressive person”) — even if it means cutting off ties with a close friend or family member. When Pouw’s predecessor, Tommy Davis, made the same claim on CNN in 2008, it was a disastrous move: many church members who had been affected by the policy were deeply offended. One of those was director Paul Haggis, and we’ve heard from many others who say Tommy’s denials helped convince them to leave the church.
Today, Pouw is stepping into that mess once more, and it’s angering current and former Scientologists all over again. Claire Headley responded by showing us the written — and therefore inviolable — church policy that lays out in black and white how families get ripped apart by rules that force church members to choose between Scientology and their reliationships with friends and relatives.
And now, Sindy Fagen has given us an even more devastating example that should be hard for Pouw to refute.
Friday afternoon, we shared with you the comedy stylings of The Good Liars, who handed out fliers in Times Square asking people please to stop searching for Shelly Miscavige, who is not missing.
In a similar spirit, we wanted to jump on that theme with both feet, and offer David Miscavige’s outfit even more succor. After all, not everyone is thrilled that the Church of Scientology perennially finds itself the subject of government investigations, complex lawsuits, denunciations by defectors, and constant pestering by nattering nabobs of negativism (i.e., reporters).
Jon Atack is the author of A Piece of Blue Sky, one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. He has a new edition of the book for sale, and on Saturdays he’s helping us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that tend to get hashed and rehashed in books, articles, and especially on the Internet.
Last week, we asked Jon to help us understand Gerry Armstrong’s past — which is one of the most complex in Scientology history. Jon explained that Gerry had been a young Sea Org member who discovered an amazing trove of original documents that L. Ron Hubbard had amassed over many years. He saved the collection of documents from the shredder, and then got permission to begin archiving it. But the contents of that archive shocked Armstrong: it tended to undercut every claim Hubbard had made about his history, and threatened to seriously harm the reputation of the man who had created Scientology.
The genius duo the Good Liars are back, this time with a hilarious send-up about the not missing status of Shelly Miscavige. And after their parody website, Help Will Smith, got torpedoed by the actual Church of Scientology, they’ve come roaring back with a hilarious replacement — Help Scientology!
In 1952, L. Ron Hubbard published What to Audit, a slim volume he later renamed A History of Man, to help guide the participants of Scientology through their explorations into the vast stretches of time experienced by their immortal souls. It’s a remarkable piece of work with a bold agenda and page after page of startling discoveries. Inexplicably, Hubbard’s biographer, Russell Miller, called it “possibly the most absurd book ever written.”
[Shelly Miscavige at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre gala, circa 2005]
UPDATE: LAPD CLOSES CASE WITHOUT BRIEFING LEAH REMINI ON HER MISSING-PERSON REPORT (See update below)
Leah Remini has taken a surprising new step, the Underground Bunker has learned.
After speaking with the Los Angeles Police Department, we have confirmed that on Wednesday Remini filed a missing-person report for Scientology leader David Miscavige’s wife, Shelly Miscavige, who has not been seen in public in six years.
Next month, Scientology’s petition to the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari will fight for survival during a conference with more than 850 other petitions being considered that day. The Church of Scientology is asking the Supremes to consider its assertion that California’s priest-penitent law is unconstitutional. Last month, Scientology was forced by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to turn over 18,000 pages of evidence to Laura DeCrescenzo in her lawsuit against the church alleging abuse, including being forced to have an abortion at only 17.
Scientology has argued time and again that those pages of evidence should be protected under priest-penitent privilege, even though DeCrescenzo is the “penitent” and has demanded the evidence so she can bolster her position in the lawsuit. Scientology has already lost appeals to the California’s appellate and supreme courts on the matter, and Justice Anthony Kennedy denied the church’s request for an emergency stay.
Claire Headley is taking us on our journey to train as Scientologists. She and her husband Marc were Sea Org workers who escaped from Scientology’s International Base in 2005. She spent years working with Scientology’s “tech,” and was trusted to oversee the auditing of Tom Cruise. Go here to see the first part in this series.
We’re excited about this next step on the bridge, Claire. It’s time for some auditing.
CLAIRE: The next stop on the processing side of the Bridge is the first of the “expanded grades” and is called “ARC Straightwire.”
We have a tale that our Los Angeles readers in particular are going to find fascinating. It involves Scientology, a weird final will, an extremely long-lived pooch, and expensive real estate!
[Previously unpublished photo of Shelly Miscavige circa 1990 courtesy of Claudio and Renata Lugli]
Our celebrity sources in the Church of Scientology tell us that church leader David Miscavige is planning a bold stunt later this month at the 44th annual Celebrity Centre gala in Hollywood, California.
