Leah Remini sues Church of Scientology and David Miscavige for alleged harassment, stalking and defamation

Actress Leah Remini, a former Scientologist turned outspoken critic, alleges in a lawsuit the Church of Scientology has 'subjected' her to 'psychological torture'

Ashley Hume
Fox News
August 3, 2023



Leah Remini announced she has filed a lawsuit against the Church of Scientology and its leader David Miscavige for harassment, stalking, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress in addition to other unlawful conduct.

The 53-year-old actress revealed in a Twitter post she had filed the lawsuit and linked to her Substack, where she shared a press release accusing the defendants of "mob-style operations and attacks" on her and other alleged victims.

The "King of Queens" star became a Scientologist at 9 years old but left the church in 2013 and has since become an outspoken critic.

"For 17 years, Scientology and David Miscavige have subjected me to what I believe to be psychological torture, defamation, surveillance, harassment, and intimidation, significantly impacting my life and career. I believe I am not the first person targeted by Scientology and its operations, but I intend to be the last," Remini said in the press release.

LEAH REMINI DISAGREES WITH HOW LAURA PREPON LEFT SCIENTOLOGY: ‘NOT EVERYBODY WHO HAS A VOICE USES IT’



Remini also attached her complaint in her Substack post. The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Wednesday and names the defendants as the Church of Scientology, Miscavige and Religious Technology Center, Inc. In the press release, Remini alleged the Religious Technology Center "manages policing operations and principally enforces Scientology’s punishment orders."

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Church of Scientology for comment.

The press release stated that the lawsuit "seeks to require Scientology, and any entity it controls and funds, to cease and desist its alleged practice of harassment, defamation, and other unlawful conduct against anyone who Scientology has labeled as an 'enemy.'"

According to the complaint, Remini is also seeking punitive and compensatory damages for the "enormous economic and psychological harm" she alleges the Church of Scientology, Miscavige and the Religious Technology Center inflicted on her personal life and career.

The press release stated that the lawsuit concerns the actions of Scientology's Office of Special Affairs (OSA), which it alleges engages in monitoring both Scientologists and those outside the religion and takes retaliatory actions against individuals deemed an "enemy" of Scientology. The retaliatory actions are allegedly a "series of directives" known as OSA Network Orders issued by the late founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard.

"Under the organizations’ rules, directives originating from Hubbard cannot be changed," the lawsuit states. The complaint alleges Remini and her family, friends and professional associates became the target of "coordinated campaigns" that were "financed and ordered" by Scientology leaders starting in 2006 while she was still a member of the church.

According to the release, the "attacks" carried out by "OSA and its operatives" were intended to "totally restrain and muzzle," "obliterate," and "ruin utterly" Remini.

"With this lawsuit, I hope to protect my rights as afforded by the Constitution of the United States to speak the truth and report the facts about Scientology. I feel strongly that the banner of religious freedom does not give anyone license to intimidate, harass, and abuse those who exercise their First Amendment rights," Remini stated in the release.

In her Twitter post, Remini wrote, "While advocating for victims of Scientology has significantly impacted my life and career, Scientology’s final objective of silencing me has not been achieved.

"While this lawsuit is about what Scientology has done to me, I am one of thousands of targets of Scientology over the past seven decades.

"People who share what they’ve experienced in Scientology, and those who tell their stories and advocate for them, should be free to do so without fearing retaliation from a cult with tax exemption and billions in assets.

"The press has a right to report about Scientology without facing a sophisticated intelligence operation from Scientology to destroy their personal lives and their careers. Law enforcement authorities have a right to investigate crimes in Scientology without fear that they will lose their jobs," she added.

"Children, mothers, fathers, aunts, and uncles have a right to request welfare checks on their family members without fear of an operation activated against them by Scientology for doing so. Those in the entertainment business should have a right to tell jokes and stories without facing an operation from Scientology which uses its resources in Hollywood to destroy their lives and careers.

"With this lawsuit, I hope to protect the rights afforded to them and me by the Constitution of the United States to speak the truth and report the facts about Scientology without fear of vicious and vindictive retribution, of which most have no way to fight back."

Since her departure from Scientology, Remini has spoken out against the religion in her 2015 memoir, "Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology." The following year, she served as host and co-producer of the A&E documentary series "Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath," which ran for three seasons and won two Primetime Emmy Awards.

Miscavige, 62, was nowhere to be found in December when multiple attempts were made to serve him with a child trafficking lawsuit filed by three former Scientology members that names him as a defendant. According to court documents filed at the time, process servers attempted to serve papers to Miscavige 27 different times over the past few months.

In February, U.S. Magistrate Judge Julie S. Sneed ruled Miscavige was "actively concealing his whereabouts or evading service" and declared that he had been officially served, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Ashley Hume is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to ashley.hume@fox.com and on Twitter: @ashleyhume



https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/leah-remini-sues-church-scientology-david-miscavige-alleged-harassment-stalking-defamation

 

Leah Remini Returns In Season Three Trailer For ‘Scientology And The Aftermath

SHAKIEL MAHJOURI
ET Canada
November 8, 2018

Leah Remini’s crusade against Scientology continues.

The Emmy-winning series “Leah Remini: Scientology and The Aftermath” is deeply personal to Remini and has rejuvenated her career.

“In season one, we basically dealt with the effects of disconnection. In season two, we wanted to show you the wide range of abusive policies in hope that it would be enough for the authorities to step in,” Remini said in the new trailer. “That didn’t happen. So in season three, we thought, ‘okay, let’s just follow the money.”

Two specials will be released in advance of the new season premiere. On Tuesday, Nov. 13, “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath: The Jehovah’s Witnesses” follows Remini and Mike Rinder as they meet with former members of a different organization.

On Sunday, Nov. 18, “Leah Remini: Scientology and The Aftermath: Emotional Aftermath” depicts the emotional toll leaving Scientology has taken on the hosts and their families.

Season three of “Leah Remini: Scientology and The Aftermath” premieres Tuesday, Nov. 27.

https://etcanada.com/news/384996/leah-remini-returns-in-season-three-trailer-for-scientology-and-the-aftermath/

'It's not an easy job': Leah Remini fights back tears to praise the brave ones exposing Scientology

Leah Remini

Former Scientologist bagged her first Emmy for A&E docu-series, Scientology and the Aftermath.

Sutrishna Ghosh
International Business Times UK
September 11, 2017

From taking shots at Tom Cruise to speaking out against the controversial Church of Scientology, Leah Remini has left no stones unturned on her brazen docu-series, Scientology and the Aftermath.

And this weekend, her outspoken criticism won the Hollywood actress her first Emmy for Outstanding Informational Series. Fighting back tears, however, an emotional Remini dedicated her big win to the "brave" contributors, who spoke out against Scientology, despite the "ongoing risk and repercussions."

"It's not an easy job," the 47-year-old actress said on-stage, adding, "but they were the ones putting their stories out there for everyone to hear. And we are honored to be the vessel to tell these stories. It's about doing the right thing. This doesn't belong to me, it belongs to our contributors."

On a lighter note, though, the former Scientologist went on to thank and forgive her mother, who was in audience. "Mom, thank you. You are officially forgiven for getting us into a cult," she jokingly added.

Remini's docu-series has generated quite the buzz, especially with the shocking stories and experiences narrated by the guests, who were previously a part of the controversial faith. And while the actress continues with her show, unfailingly, she has had to face the brunt of the criticism.

Slamming the Kevin Can't Wait star's claims, a spokesperson for the church said, "Her whole anti-Scientology shtick was scripted and choreographed by her, casting herself in her drama as the 'victim' so she could cash in on her false narrative while savaging her friends and those who helped her most of her life."

Despite all this, Remini remains hell-bent on voicing the experiences of the former members.

"To be able for them to tell their stories through us is a humbling experience," said Remini to ET Online, as her co-presenter Mike Rinder added, "We hope that by doing that, it's going to prevent the suffering that some of these people have been through from other people having to experience the same thing."

Season 2 of Scientology and the Aftermath premiered on 15 August and can be watched here.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/its-not-easy-job-leah-remini-fights-back-tears-praise-brave-ones-exposing-scientology-1638840

A 'Troublemaker' Leaves Her Life In Scientology

NPR
NOVEMBER 03, 2015 

In 2013, the actor Leah Remini left the Church of Scientology after more than 30 years. Her new memoir,Troublemaker, might make her the most famous former Scientologist to publicly criticize the religion. (The Church calls the book "revisionist history.")

The story starts when Remini was nine, growing up in Brooklyn. Her dad had just left, and her mom got a new boyfriend. He was a Scientologist. Her mom joined the church, too.

When Remini and her sister got into fights, her mother suggested they go to Scientology classes and learn how to communicate. Remini says she liked being treated like an adult at the Scientology center. "As a kid, I think, it offered structure, I think we loved that there was structure to these courses. And then the second part of that was, we were told that you're a spiritual being, and you're very powerful, and you're not a child."

Then in the early 1980s, Remini, her sister, and her mother moved to Florida, where Remini worked to join an order within Scientology known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org.

"We were living in a run-down motel off of a freeway in Clearwater, Fla.," Remini tells NPR's Kelly McEvers. "We lived in dorms with other children. It was roach-infested; oftentimes we didn't eat if we didn't wake up when meals were being served. But again, you're a child that all of a sudden has this independence, so in one way, it was scary ... but it was also, we felt independent, and we were in charge of ourselves. We didn't have an education other than Scientology education, so we were kids living on our own."

At first it was a struggle. But she eventually landed a lead role on a big sitcom, The King of Queens, which ran for nine years. As a celebrity, Remini was able to ascend to the upper levels of the church; in a 2002 interview she said it had helped with her confidence and career. She took hours of classes every day, and continued to do auditing, or counseling sessions, which both cost money. "During my thirty-plus years in Scientology," Remini writes in the book, "I spent close to $2 million for services and training, and donated roughly $3 million to church causes."

But Remini started doubting whether those donations were going toward a good cause, as the Church of Scientology told her. She wanted to see what critics of the church were saying. But, she tells McEvers, she knew could be questioned for that.

Interview Highlights

On her fear of punishment and why she stayed in Scientology

You don't really look on the internet, you don't watch Nightlines or Datelines and 20/20s critical of the church. And if you do, you have to go in and you have to deal with why you were looking at those things ... Now from there, you would be taken off of what you were doing in the Church, and then you would be put into a security checking ... it's sort of like a lie-detector test, and you're hooked up to that and you're asked a series of questions: Do you have evil intentions towards your church? Are you talking to certain enemies to our church? And you're just interrogated.

This is an extremist organization — there's no half-in, half-out. You have to 100% be on board, or you're considered an enemy to your group. I wasn't ready to walk out the door and say goodbye to my mother, my sister, my brother-in-law, all my friends — most of my friends were Scientologists. Everybody.

On attending the wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, and asking about the whereabouts of Shelley Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige

People were scattering any time I asked about Shelly Miscavige, who I considered a friend. And when I say, "Where's Shelly?" at a very public event, I was basically told I didn't have the rank to ask such a question. And that is not something that sits right with me. And then it just kind of went downhill from there.

On her final decision to leave the church

It was six years until I actually left, six to seven years. I was trying to work within the system. I knew that my questioning would lead to my family being investigated, which was what started to happen. I'm a person who has to be right — this is one place that I was hoping to be wrong. I spent my whole life in it. My mother spent her whole life in it. I got my husband into it. So I did not want to be right, here.

Honestly, I didn't want to be right ... I spent my whole life in it. My mother spent her whole life in it. My stepfather, my sister. I got my husband into it. So I did not want to be right, here.

At the end, they had us all in different rooms, interrogating us all, and asking us not to talk to each other about what we were doing in those rooms. And we got together, and we said, we need to stick together as a family, and we need to stop. And we all decided as a family, that was enough.

On how hard it was to leave Scientology

You know, I'm looking at my phone, to invite my friends to my daughter's birthday party, and I'm like, oh, can't. Oh, can't. Oh, oh, she can't talk to me. She can't talk to me. And, you know, I saw my goddaughter at my local coffee shop and I couldn't go and embrace her because her mother can't really talk to me. So it was part of our everyday life, it gave a sense of purpose. And that is taken away. That part was hard.

But then I started going to therapy, which is, you know, taboo to that church. And I started reading books, and going, oh my god, there's other things in the world, things that actually do help people. There's good people in the world, it's not that us-against-them mentality. There's good in the world. And that's what's been amazing. So yes, there was a short-term heartbreak, and finding your new everyday normal, but filling it with family and friends who are not judging you on your religious beliefs, or how much money you donated, or how much time you spent — it's so much more fulfilling.

A representative for Tom Cruise did not respond to our request for comment, but the Church of Scientology directed us to a response online and sent us a statement, excerpted below, in which a spokesperson disputed much of Remini's account of events.

On Remini's comments regarding conditions at Scientology facilities in Clearwater, Fla.

This is a false, mischaracterization of her time in the religious order. In the first place, she was not there for long and the conditions were not as she claims. The Church follows all laws and the facilities she stayed in received regular inspections by the Pinellas County Health Department. All licenses were maintained in good standing during the entire period that Ms. Remini was in Clearwater.

On the church's policy of "Disconnection"

Ms. Remini knows that the Church's practice of disconnection is a voluntary practice (spelled out at www.scientology.org) designed to help members remove themselves from abusive and hostile relationships. The Church's disconnection policy is similar to that of the Jewish faith of shunning. There is no policy in Scientology that requires Church members to disconnect from anyone, let alone family and friends who simply have different beliefs.

On Remini's concern about the cost of church courses

As with most religions, donations by parishioners are the primary source of financial support for Churches of Scientology. As with all religions, donations vary depending on each member's means.

On Remini's concern about the church's handling of funds for charitable work

All funds donated for the purposes of humanitarian and relief endeavors are used to support those efforts. ...They are well documented and a matter of public record.

On Remini's concern about the whereabouts of Shelly Miscavige

This claim is false, thoroughly debunked by the Los Angeles Police Department. Ms. Remini has been harassing the Church about this matter for some years. Mrs. Miscavige is not now and has never been "missing."

http://www.npr.org/2015/11/03/454308222/a-troublemaker-leaves-her-life-in-scientology

Leah Remini Opens up to PEOPLE About Leaving Scientology: 'It's Like a Rebirth'

PATRICK GOMEZ AND JOHNNY DODD
People
November 3, 2015

When Leah Remini made the momentous decision to leave the Church of Scientology in 2013, she knew it wasn’t going to be easy. 

The former King of Queens actress, 45, had been introduced to the religion by her mother at the age of 8, and had been a member for 35 years. As a teen, she even spent a year living – and doing manual labor, including cleaning hotel rooms – at the church’s Sea Org headquarters in Clearwater, Florida, which is reserved for Scientology’s most dedicated members. 

"I've been given a second chance at life and so has my family," Remini says. "It's like a rebirth." 

For much more from Remini, including what she says about Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Nicole Kidman, and more, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

Cracks in her devotion to the church formed in 2006 after Remini attended the wedding of fellow Scientologist Tom Cruise and Katie Homles. Remini says she was punished after questioning what she considered eyebrow-raising behaviors by church officials and the absence of her friend Shelly Miscavige, the wife of church leader David Miscavige, at the festivities. 

(Remini filed a missing persons report for Shelley in 2013. The Los Angeles Police Department called her claim "unfounded" and a statement from the Church at the time characterized the inquisition into Shelley’s whereabouts as “ill-advised, ludicrous self-promotion.") 

Remini also began educating herself about the criticisms faced by the church (all of which are refuted by church officials) and made the difficult decision to leave despite the fear she could lose any relationship with her family, including her mom, Vicki Marshall, and her husband, Angelo Pagan. 

But that didn't happen. Her family followed her lead and left with her. 

"They simply put family ahead of the Church, which is oftentimes not the case with Scientology families," Remini says. "I am lucky and blessed." 

Remini chronicles her experience with the religion – and her disillusionment with Cruise, the Church’s most famous member – in her new book, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology. 

"It wasn’t an easy thing to do," she says of telling her story in the book. "It's about me being flawed." 

The Church of Scientology denies nearly all of Remini's claims, saying in a statement, "It comes as no surprise that someone as self-absorbed as Leah Remini with an insatiable craving for attention would exploit her former faith as a publicity stunt. " 

Remini isn't much bothered. "I understand what they’re doing and why they're doing it," she says of the denunciations by her former church. "It's what they do. I was just hoping they’d be a little more imaginative."

http://www.people.com/article/leah-remini-people-interview-scientology

Tom Cruise’s nightmare Scientology wedding: Leah Remini opens up about her “reprogramming” after the Cruise-Holmes nuptials

ANNA SILMAN
Salon
November 2, 2015

 

Leah Remini 

In a revealing interview with “20/20,” “King of Queens” star Leah Remini opened up about her break with Scientology in 2013, explaining that part of her decision to leave the church grew out of her discomfort with the attention that the organization lavished on its star member Tom Cruise, who she felt was embarrassing the Church with his frequent public antics.

“I was saying that I didn’t think he was becoming of Scientologists, jumping on couches, and attacking Matt Lauer, to attacking Brooke Shields,” she explained. “What the hell is this guy doing? We need to rein it in. We need to stop all this. And he just needs to be an actor.”

Remini details a story of church officials inviting her Tom Cruise’s home one night to teach him salsa dancing. When she got there, Cruise and his new girlfriend Katie Holmes were making out, and Remini joked that they ought to “get a fricking room.” Church officials then filed a “knowledge report” (basically an official complaint) about Remini, which the actress was forced to deal with in auditing sessions.

As she explains, she was “immediately dealt with” after the “incident,” with the Church implying that “the only reason you’re saying these things is because you have your own transgressions.”

“You immediately become guilty,” she added. “Being critical of Tom Ccuise is being critical of Scientology itself. You are a person who is anti the aims and goals of scientology, you are evil.”

Remini says that she became increasingly dismayed by attention heaped on Cruise. Her discomfort reached its peak during Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ wedding, in which the Church repeatedly tried to separate her from her close friend Jennifer Lopez.

“They were trying to extract me,” says Remini. “I could only assume because they wanted to make Jennifer a Scientologist, maybe I was barring that road for them.”

Remini also expressed concern that Church leader David Miscavige was there without his wife Shelly (who has all but disappeared from the public eye since 2007), which led Remini to file a wide-ranging knowledge report about various wedding guests. She did so, the report explains, because she was still hoping to save Scientology from those who were bringing it down: In her view, Tom Cruise and Scientology head honcho David Miscavige.

A Scientology spokesperson, unsurprisingly, dismissed all Remini’s 20/20 claims as “ridiculous and stupid.”

Remini explained that Katie Holmes and a number of other guests also filed “knowledge reports” about her behavior at the wedding, which lead Remini to be sent to the Scientology headquarters at Clearwater to undergo “reprogramming” for “three or four months, from nine in the morning until ten at night.” In a statement to “20/20,” Holmes apologized, saying “I regret having upset Leah in the past and wish her only the best in the future.”

Fighting off tears, Remini expressed her gratitude towards Holmes.

“It makes me emotional because at that time that Katie and this particular crew were writing reports it caused me a lot of time and pain and my family being reprogrammed,” she explains. “At the time I was fighting with her for lack of a better word within the Church and now I know really what she was going through. At the time I was thinking of myself and my family and what we were going through and although painful I had no idea she was going through probably a lot more.”

“Seeing her and Suri out there in the world and her being able to be with her daughter and live her life, I’m touched by it,” continues Remini, who says she left the Church in part to free her own 11-year-old daughter from it’s clutches. “I’m touched by it because I now know she did what she did, leaving in the way she did because she had to protect her daughter which in a way connects us.”



Remini’s tell-all memoir “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology” comes out on Tuesday.

 http://flip.it/DNqH8

What we learned about Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Scientology from Leah Remini’s ’20/20′ interview

Soraya Nadia McDonald

November 1, 2015

Before she felt forced to leave the church of Scientology, Leah Remini wanted to save it.

Of all the revelations that surfaced from Remini’s “20/20” interview with Dan Harris about her experiences with Scientology, it’s this simple one that may be the most striking.

There’s a certain lurid fascination that fuels our curiosity about Scientology due in no small part to the celebrities within its ranks. It’s easy to write off the organization as another one of the things that makes Hollywood “Hollyweird,” like sending one’s eggs back to the kitchen four times when they’re not cooked to your liking, or believing that the Tracy Anderson method is based in credible exercise science.

(Richard Shotwell/AP; Theo Wargo/NBC/Getty; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty)

Of course we want to know whatever juicy gossip Remini has to offer about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, but the most powerful effects of Remini’s interviews about her former religion may be that they help us understand why she was wedded to it for so long in the first place.

Remini, 45, had been a member of Scientology since childhood. She began to have significant trouble with it not when she learned of the church’s notorious teachings about an intergalactic overlord named Xenu or the existence of invisible aliens that were embedded in your body — the things that make it easy for outsiders to point and laugh — but rather, when she felt Cruise was damaging the church’s reputation. Later, after learning about Xenu and leaving the church, Remini said, “When I read it I thought, this is some crazy s—.”

Remini left the church in 2013, and she has said previously that she did so because she didn’t want her daughter Sofia to have to make a choice between her family and Scientology. When a person leaves Scientology and their family members stay, the family is often encouraged to “disconnect” from the offending nonbeliever. When Remini left, her mother, sister and husband left with her.

But before she left, Remini told ABC’s Dan Harris, she was worried that Cruise’s televised antics — jumping on Oprah Winfrey’s couch to proclaim his love for Katie Holmes, and publicly insulting Brooke Shields and Matt Lauer — were bad for Scientology. Remini had invested in Scientology as an institution (she estimated that she gave between $2 million and $3 million to Scientology charities), and the church — especially chairman David Miscavige — had invested heavily in Cruise as an ambassador for it.

“Being critical of Tom Cruise is being critical of Scientology itself,” Remini said.

She thought she could fix the church if she could do something about its fixation on Cruise. Given that Remini had been a member of the church from a young age, this made sense. She’s perhaps the only person to speak publicly about her experiences both as a civilian and as a celebrity, and the two were very different. Remini’s mother Vicki became involved with the church after she and Leah’s father divorced. Vicki told ABC she believed Scientology’s purpose was “to free mankind, to make a sane world.” The family moved from New York to Scientology’s headquarters in Clearwater, Fla., and joined the Sea Organization, Scientology’s religious order.

Remini, whose memoir “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology” comes out Tuesday, told Harris the dormitories where they lived were “roach-infested.” By eighth grade, Remini was no longer attending regular school, but was studying Scientology full time in addition to doing hard labor prescribed by the Sea Org.

But after her family moved to California and Remini’s acting career began to take off, her experiences were different. She was one of the people privy to the inner workings of Scientology’s glitzy Celebrity Centre, which is how she became friends with Cruise. One night, two church officials summoned Remini to Cruise’s house to give him salsa-dancing lessons, and Remini was written up for making a joke when Cruise was “forcibly kissing” Holmes, who was his girlfriend at the time. She made an offhand remark that the two should “get a friggin’ room,” she said.

Eventually, she told ABC, she was invited to Cruise’s wedding to Holmes in 2006. The church wanted Remini to bring her friends, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, with her. Remini presumed it was because the church wanted to recruit them. Remini was written up and accused of ruining the wedding, mainly because she wanted to sit with her friends, Lopez and Anthony, and because she kept asking about the whereabouts of Shelly Miscavige, David’s wife, who wasn’t present at the wedding, and who hasn’t been seen in public since 2007.

In response to ABC’s request for comment regarding Remini’s assertion that Holmes had complained about Remini’s behavior at the wedding, Holmes released a one-sentence statement through her publicist: “I regret having upset Leah in the past, and wish her only the best in the future.”

Holmes and Cruise divorced in 2012 after close to six years of marriage. Cruise filed libel suits against Life and Style and In Touch magazines for claiming that he had abandoned his daughter with Holmes, Suri Cruise. In a September 2013 videotaped deposition in connection with those suits, Cruise admitted that Holmes left to protect Suri from Scientology.

Why does Scientology seem to be the religion of choice for so many in Hollywood? Because it recruits celebrities and it needs them in order to spread the word and proselytize. They’re a marketing tool. Remini herself appeared in videos for the church.

“It has tools that are very, very helpful to you in your life, to you as an actor,” Remini said of the religion.

“You’re referring to clear communication, doggedness, persistence — that’s what you draw upon?” Harris asked.

“Correct,” Remini replied.

The thing that may have ultimately given Remini the ability to leave Scientology was the fact that she’d been questioning things about it from childhood, despite signing a billion-year contract (Scientologists believe in reincarnation) dedicating herself to the Sea Org. She maintained some level of autonomy even from a young age — whether it was protesting the food provided by the Sea Org and finding a way to get a hamburger when it disallowed outside food, or getting an epidural when Scientology doctrine states that women should endure childbirth drug-free and silent. When she was brought up on ethics charges as a teenager for allowing her first boyfriend to graze her breast over her shirt, her mother resisted the church’s threat that Remini be punished with placement in Scientology’s Rehabilitation Project Force.

We know from the documentary “Going Clear” and the book that it’s based on, “Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” that the church keeps detailed, extensive files on its members comprised of “knowledge reports” (write-ups members file against each other when they think an individual is engaging in behavior that’s harmful to the church) and audits (counseling sessions in which members are encouraged to reveal their deepest problems and secrets and discuss knowledge reports about them).

“Going Clear” alleges that Scientology uses those files as a cudgel to keep famous members who might want to leave, and thereby damage the church’s reputation, in check.

Remini’s willingness to be honest about her own flaws, and her understanding of how the church would attempt to discredit her, took some of the bite out of their responses to ABC. Scientology has a pattern of trashing defectors, such as former church spokesman Mike Rinder and Remini, with ad hominem attacks.

“I know my former church and how they deal with people who tell their story, and so I wanted to be the one to say it,” Remini told Harris.

Indeed, the church responded to ABC by calling Remini a “liar,” “self-absorbed, rude and embarrassing,” and that Rinder was a “liar, bitter apostate and a professional anti-Scientologist.”

Soraya Nadia McDonald covers arts, entertainment and culture for the Washington Post with a focus on issues surrounding race, gender and sexuality.

http://flip.it/Zm70u

Leah Remini doesn't regret her time in Scientology, 'it did teach me a lot '

TVGuide
November 01, 2015

Despite her criticism of the Church of Scientology, Leah Remini says she doesn't regret the time she spent as a member.

"I don't regret what I've been through. I don't regret spending my life there, because it really did teach me a lot," Remini told 20/20 in an interview that aired Friday, adding that it has also given her the perspective to have a "second chance" at life.

In the interview, Remini also recalls being sent to Scientology's headquarters in Clearwater, Fla., for "reprogramming" after she allegedly disrupted Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' wedding in 2006.

Leah Remini slams Scientology, Tom Cruise in new memoir

"I was in an auditing room," she said. "Basically they were just trying to get me to recant what I said, to apologize for ruining the wedding of the century."

Though she had begun to doubt the church at that point, Remini didn't officially leave until 2013 (inspired in part, she says, by Holmes' divorcing Cruise). She says her reluctance to leave the church was because she couldn't bear the thought of not being able to communicate with her family, many of whom were also members.

"I'm ready to walk away from everybody that I've ever known and cut ties with my own husband, my own mother, because you don't know what they're going to decide," Remini said. "Very often, my experience is people choose the Church."

When she finally did leave, the rest of her family went with her.

Watch excerpts from Remini's "20/20" interview here.


http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2015/10/31/leah-remini-dont-regret-my-time-in-scientology164445/

Leah Remini Talks Scientology Split On '20/20': What We Didn't Learn

Ellen Killoran
Forbes
October 31, 2015

Available Now

The actress Leah Remini appeared on 20/20 Friday night to discuss her 2013 split from the Church of Scientology, of which was she had been a nearly lifelong member. Critics of the church welcomed the defection, hoping perhaps that Remini might be able to expose some of the church’s controversial practices. While there have been ongoing accusations about abuse inside the church for decades, the leadership has remained largely unaccountable.

But the 20/20 interview, conducted in advance of the Tuesday release of Remini’s memoir Troublemaker: Surviving Scientology and Hollywood, only skimmed over the questionable living conditions and labor practices of Scientology’s Sea Org Institute (which expelled Remini when she was a teenager) and didn’t provide much in the way of new information about the church’s most notorious mystery: Where is Shelly Miscavige?

Shelly, the wife of the Church of Scientology’s leader David Miscavige, has not been seen in public in a decade. She is widely believed to have been banished to a Scientology compound in Lake Arrowhead, California, but the conditions of her residence there remain unknown.

Tony Ortega, a critic and scholar of the the church, published a blog post in September with his most up-to-date information from sources inside the Church:

We believe that she’s still at the [Church of Spiritual Technology] headquarters [in California], and she may or may not be resigned to her fate. We’ve been assured by former Scientology executives that David Miscavige put her there after making her a non-person, and that he will never let her leave.

Remini’s relationship with the church began to unravel in 2006 at the wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, where the questioned the absence of Miscavige’s wife, who she said in the 20/20 interview had always been present at major events. Remini later pressed the Los Angeles Police Department to investigate Shelly’s apparent disappearance. The LAPD reported that they visited Shelly and said she was alive but did not want to make any public statements. And that was the end of it.

In the 20/20 interview and in excerpts of the book published by the New York Daily News, Remini discussed other aspects of the Cruise-Holmes wedding that she found problematic. She said on 20/20 that she was pressured by Cruise to invite her friends Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, believing that he wanted to recruit them into the church, and that the wedding organizers attempted to keep Remini and Lopez separated throughout the festivities. In the book, she wrote of finding Cruise and Holmes’ infant daughter, Suri, crying on the bathroom floor in the presence of three unnamed women, while Holmes was nowhere to be seen.

This is all very bizarre indeed, but also suggests that Remini’s break from the church had more to do than just her interrogation of Miscavige’s whereabouts. Still, Remini said that she was inquiring into the presumed disappearance right up until the break with the church, and it appears to have been the straw the broke the camel’s back on both sides.* 20/20 also mentioned, briefly, that the church claimed Remini did not leave Scientology entirely of her own accord, something Remini denies.

Perhaps it was naive to expect that a single Scientology defector would have the resources and influence to push for more of an investigation into Miscavige’s well-being, especially as Remini’s family also abandoned the church when she did. (But I, for one, was hoping Remini’s 20/20 appearance might provide more insight than the little we already have.) Nonetheless, it feels like a discouraging development that one of Miscagive’s presumed advocates might be giving up. Perhaps once the book is published, we’ll have more information. Or maybe we’ll just have to wait for another powerful Scientologist, one who had been on better terms with the church, to defect. Here’s hoping.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenkilloran/2015/10/31/leah-remini-talks-scientology-split-on-2020-what-we-didnt-learn/

Actress Leah Remini blasts Scientology in exclusive '20/20' interview

Ben Brumfield
CNN
October 31, 2015

Leah Remini

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(CNN) After 30 years as a Scientologist, actor Leah Remini turned her back on the church in anger. She's written a book, in which she harshly criticizes her former faith, in part over incidents related to one of its most high-profile figures -- Tom Cruise.

On Friday, she appeared in an exclusive interview on the ABC news magazine "20/20," ahead of the release of her memoir, "Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology," to voice her sentiments.

The Church of Scientology said in a statement to the media that Remini's criticism had more to do with her than with it.

Remini is best known for her role as Carrie Heffernan in the TV sitcom "The King of Queens," which ran from 1998 -- 2007.

Remini: Rigidly strict

Scientology's mission is to save the planet, Remini, whose mother introduced her to the religion as a child, told "20/20."

That may sound good but has very negative consequences, "because Scientologists view children as spiritual beings, you're not treated as a kid, so you're given a lot of responsibility," she said. "Your ego becomes extremely inflated."

Her mother enlisted her in the Sea Org, a highly disciplined part of Scientology, and she signed a billion year contract with them, she said. Scientologists believe in reincarnation, and Sea Org members are expected to rejoin when they are reborn.

Remini felt she was exploited as youth labor while living in rundown conditions, "20/20" reported. She said she got into unreasonably severe trouble when her boyfriend then touched her in an enticing but not really salacious way.

Remini on Tom Cruise comments

Remini also got written up for comments to and about Tom Cruise during her time as a Scientologist, she said.

Remini was teaching salsa dancing to Cruise and his then girlfriend Katie Holmes. "He was like, forcibly kissing Katie, and I said, 'Hey, get a freaking room.'" Remini got written up for that, she said.

She also disparaged Cruise's famed appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," in which he jumped up on a couch. She got written up again, she said.

Scientology: Remini blaming others

The Church of Scientology shot back at Remini's allegations with a statement criticizing her as blaming others for her own weaknesses and revising events to suit her own agenda.

"She needs to move on with her life instead of pathetically exploiting her former religion, her former friends and other celebrities for money and attention to appear relevant again," the church said in a statement.

Remini has dedicated part of her book to criticizing her own personal faults, saying she pushed people around and was a bad mother, she told "20/20." She said she made the revelations to preempt scathing personal criticism she expected from the church in retaliation to her criticism.

CNN's Jack Hannah and Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/31/entertainment/leah-remini-scientology-book-tom-cruise/index.html

Leah Remini reveals why she left the Church of Scientology

Tampa Bay Times
October 30, 2015

 

Leah Remini

Leah Remini is the latest actor to join the list of those willing to spill secrets about the Church of Scientology.

The King of Queens star has a tell-all memoir, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, coming out Tuesday. She also appears on ABC's 20/20 at 10 p.m. Friday.

Previews of her interview with ABC News' Dan Harris have already been released. In one, Remini, who was introduced to the church by her mother when she was 9, discusses how Scientology places a special importance on the role of children.

"Because Scientologists view children as spiritual beings, you're not treated as a kid," says Remini, 45. "You're given a lot of responsibility, your ego becomes extremely inflated."

She also explains how difficult it was for her to leave Scientology.

"The decision to leave is you are giving up everything you have ever known and everything you have worked for your whole life," she tells Harris. "I feel that people need to understand, this has been my whole life. I want them to understand how it happens."

Remini left Scientology in July 2013. She said her own daughter was also coming of age in the organization, and Remini said she didn't want that life for her.

Church spokeswoman Karin Pouw told People magazine in a statement earlier this week that Remini's claims are an effort to drum up attention for herself.

"It comes as no surprise that someone as self-absorbed as Leah Remini with an insatiable craving for attention would exploit her former faith as a publicity stunt by rewriting her history with it," Pouw said, "including omitting that she was participating in a program to remain a Scientologist by her own choice, as she was on the verge of being expelled for her ethical lapses."

http://www.tampabay.com/features/media/leah-remini-reveals-why-she-left-the-church-of-scientology/2251915

Leah Remini Speaks Out on Her Break From Scientology

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Transcript for Leah Remini Speaks Out on Her Break From Scientology

Leah remini taking on scientology in her new memoir, "Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and scientology". And she sat down with Dan Harris for a candid conversation about her break with the church after three decades. Good morning, Dan. Hey, George, good morning. In a church known for its celebrity members Leah remini is the most famous scientologist to defect and then go public. This morning we have an advanced look at her exclusive interview with ABC news. Long before she was TV royalty starring on the hit CBS sitcom "The king of queens." Do you need to build yourself up by tearing me down. 

Reporter: Leah remini was a child who joined scientology at the behest of her mother, who to use church terminology brought her daughter into the faith and put her on course. What does that mean go on course? You learn how to aply the techniques of scientology to yourself and others. Reporter: So for a kid who was always looking around comparing herself to other people, to be part of a faith where you had a mission to save -- The planet, save the planet. That must have been a big deal. Yes, and because scientologists view children as spiritual being you're not treated as a kid so you're given a lot of responsibility. Your ego becomes extremely inflated. Reporter: Leah would go on to be an active member for more than three decades. I love it. I love being involved with it because I feel like I'm a good person. Reporter: But as she describes in her new book, "Troublemaker," she would ultimately leave the faith and level some scathing and very public criticisms. The decision to leave is you're giving up everything you have ever known and everything you have worked for your whole life. I feel that people need to understand this is my whole life. I want them to understand how it happens. Reporter: It is quite a yarn she has a lot to say and we'll have. More of the story behind her decision to leave and publicly criticize the church in which she was raised tomorrow right here on "Gma" and you can see our full exclusive interview Friday night on "20/20." Her whole life. Wow. . Of it, yep. Thanks very much.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/leah-remini-speaks-break-scientology-34818433

The well-deserved decline of Scientology

Stephen Friedland
The Daily Campus

October 30, 2015
Opinion

Tonight, actress Leah Remini, known predominately for her lead role on the show “King of Queens,” will be featured on ABC’s “20/20,” where she will be discussing the acrimonious dissolution of her relationship with the Church of Scientology. She was a member for 30 years.

Concurrently, a court in The Hague, Netherlands recently revoked the church’s status as a tax-exempt organization, citing its auditing courses – which ostensibly rid the participant of body thetans (invisible spirits that travelled to Earth and were subsequently blown up in volcanoes in Hawaii 75 million years ago by an evil galactic overlord named Xenu) – as egregiously expensive, much more than secular courses which offer a similar therapeutic value (at least initially).

This comes as a bit of a shock, considering the fight the organization has been known to put up for tax-related predicaments. In the United States, the group fought the state of California and ultimately the IRS from 1967 to 1993 to claim its tax-exempt status today. Court documents revealed the church had grandiose plans to infiltrate and suppress government agencies in their investigations, leading to the incarcerations of several high-ranking members for wiretapping the office of the IRS.

Incidents like that in Holland are indicative of an organization in steep decline. In addition, the numbers of members are dwindling. While the church itself said in a 2012 ad that it courts 4.4 million new Scientologists worldwide each year, censuses and other testimony are a little more telling. Sea Org, essentially the church’s military-esque parish – touts only 6,500 members. 2011 censuses in Australia and the United Kingdom reveal 2,163 and 1,781 members, respectively. It is clear Scientology is not the behemoth it once was.

There isn’t just baseless defecting, though. Everyone that’s departed, from B-list actresses in ‘90s Kevin Smith films to B-list actresses married to Tom Cruise, has cited oppressive tactics designed to inspire devout obedience to the church at all costs.

In the former instance, Carmen Llwelyn was married to Jason Earl, of “My Name is Earl” fame, for about 10 years. A prerequisite of their marrying was that Carmen join the church at Jason’s behest. She took classes and went to audits for many years, and eventually she read a book by a former Scientologist, describing the more insidious facets of the religion. When she expressed concerns about it to her husband and friends at the church, she promptly received “disconnection letters,” one culminating a decade’s worth of marriage. It’s assumed Llwelyn was then deemed a “suppressive person,” or an enemy of the church.

After receiving the moniker, a suppressive person (SP) becomes “fair game,” which entitles the congregation or any Scientology administrator to ruin the life of said SP. A 1967 publication from the Hubbard (L. Ron, founder of the religion and a science fiction writer) states a person labeled fair game “may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.”

Llwelyn was no exception to this rule. She was followed, people would publicly discuss private conversations she had minutes before and vicious, baseless rumors spread about her.

Even former officials are subject to “fair game” and the excommunicating of family from the church. Mike Rinder, who served as the executive director of the office of special affairs (cited by Llwelyn as the branch of the organization responsible for the post-membership terrorizing, ironically enough), was immediately divorced from his wife of 35 years upon departure and his two adult children don’t maintain contact with him. This coldness is commonplace and not bound by blood.

The biggest crux to Scientology has without a doubt been the Internet. Troves of articles and testimony are now a click away, and no matter how hard it tries, the church cannot suppress this seemingly infinite flow of information. For more information, I highly recommend the documentary “Going Clear” and the South Park episode “Trapped in the Closet.”

Stephen Friedland is a staff columnist for The Daily Campus opinion section. He can be reached via email at stephen.friedland@uconn.edu.

http://dailycampus.com/stories/2015/10/30/column-the-well-deserved-decline-of-scientology

Leah Remini Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop, Slamming Scientology (And We Love Her For It)

Maxine Page

The Popdust

October 30, 2015

Leah Remini refuses to shut the fuck up when it comes to the cult “Church” of Scientology—and, we love her for it.

Despite the organization’s whiny butt sore little bitch reaction to her revelations about life inside the notoriously covert and media hating “church”, Remini can’t stop, and just won’t stop, slamming it.

Laura Prepon’s Scientology Interview Is Suitably Batshit Fucking Crazy

As Popdust previously reported, the 45-year-old is currently bracing herself for the inevitable backlash she’s in line for, as she gears up to release her explosive Scientology expose, detailing the alleged corrupt inner workings of the organization.

Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, is set to be released November 3, and the candid tell-all promises to be a blistering take-down of the “church” and its hierarchy.

Scientology Acting Like Whiny Butt Sore Little Bitch Over Leah Remini

As part of her book promotional tour, Remini sat down for a talk with 20/20—ABC has released a teaser of the interview, which airs in full this Friday—you can watch it right here on Popdust.

In the clip, the actress talks about joining Scientology as a child—her teacher mother, Vicki Marshall, brought her daughter into the “church” when she was just 9-years old—and, Remini shares that her life was drastically affected by the decision.

Did Kirstie Alley Cut Off Maksim Chmerkovskiy Because Of Scientology?

“Because Scientologists view children as spiritual beings, you’re given a lot of responsibility and your ego becomes extremely inflated,” Remini says.

She goes on to talk about how, similar to mold on cheese, before you know it, Scientology manages to creep all over and into you, ultimately ending up consuming your entire life.

“I feel that people need to understand this has been my whole life,” Remini admits, “I want [people] to understand how it happens.”

“As time goes on, you start to lose touch with the real world,” she says later in the clip. “The mindset becomes ‘Us against them.’

“The decision to leave is you are giving up everything you have ever known and everything you have worked for your whole life.”

Juliette Lewis Defends Scientology, Says Tom Cruise Is Victim Of Big Pharma

Since defecting back in 2013, Remini has become a high profile thorn in Scientology’s side, bravely speaking out against the organization, and sharing secrets of the hideous day-to-day life within the “church.”

She previously opened up to Oprah, for an episode of Winfrey’s Where Are They Now?

I don’t think people know the amount of dedication it takes to be in this organization. I mean it was every day, three-and-a-half hours minimum, seven days a week usually. You know, I’m working most of my time, and then the other time was spent at the church, so minimal time is really spent with your family.

I was at one of these hotels in Florida, and I saw my daughter swimming for the first time while I’m reading this thing [Scientology coursework].

And a tear came down my face. And I was like, ‘What am I doing?’

Despite Scientology’s vehement claims to the contrary, the organization engages in many practices that are viewed as being the staple of modern day cults—including isolating members from “negative forces” outside of the “church”—or, in Scientology jargon, “suppressive persons” (SPs).

John Travolta Defends ‘Beautiful’ Church Of Scientology

Remini discussed how unhealthy that can be for those unfortunates still inside the organization.

I didn’t want to raise my daughter in the church because from what I experienced and what I saw, the church becomes everything, your mother, your father, your everything. You are dependent on the church.

In 10 years, if I didn’t want to be connected to the church anymore, my own [daughter Sofia] would be taught to disconnect from me. I didn’t want to create that. I didn’t think that would be healthy for her.

Sure enough, since leaving, Remini has become a pariah in social circles involving her former Scientology friends—pals like Kirstie Alley, whom she was close to for years, but is now shunned by.

Alley slammed her former friend during an interview with Howard Stern, branding her an anti-faith “bigot” who picks on Scientologists for no reason … and declaring that Remini is now her “enemy.”

Church Of Scientology Accused Of Bullying And Intimidating A Clearwater Cinema

For their part, Scientology has taken the usual tried and tested aggressive and nasty attack stance against their former member, releasing a bitchy little statement to the press:

It comes as no surprise that someone as self-absorbed as Leah Remini with an insatiable craving for attention would exploit her former religion as a publicity stunt in a pathetic attempt to get ratings for her cable show and seem relevant again.

She is rewriting history and omits that she was participating in a program to remain a Scientologist by her own choice, as she was on the verge of being expelled for her and her husband’s ethical lapses.

Wah! Wah! Wah

It’s impossible to imagine any other supposed religion acting this way—people leave the Catholic Church, and speak out against it, all the time, but we’ve yet to read a statement from the Pope tearing them to pieces for doing so.

Travolta And Gaga—Is There A Creepy Motive To Their Friendship?

But then, Scientology ain’t your regular, run-of-the-mill “religion” as much as they like to pretend they are when it suits them….and, Scientology’s creator, L Ron Hubbard definitely ain’t no Jesus figure—although, we have to give major props to the failed science fiction writer for his awesome imagination, which is on full display when it comes to the utterly fantastical and ludicrous tenets of Scientology.

For those of you out there who remain blissfully unaware of what Scientology preaches, here’s some of the best bits for you:

• Earth is over-run by evil dead alien souls (“Body Thetans” in Scientology lingo) who live and roam amongst us, posing as humans.
• Body Thetans are the result of a mass murder spree undertaken ions ago by the blood thirsty evil alien ruler Xenu—who killed millions of aliens (“Thetans” in Scientology lingo)
• The blood thirsty evil alien ruler Xenu killed the millions of Thetans by kidnapping them, transporting them to earth in shimmering DC-8 “space-planes”, stuffing them in volcanoes around the world and then blowing them to pieces with hydrogen bombs.\
• The poor murdered Thetans’ souls (the aforementioned Body Thetans that live and roam amongst us to this day) were then captured by Xenu and his peeps, brainwashed and released out into the world—where they immediately attached themselves to the human population
• The human population of old genetically passed on those pesky Body Thetans to their children, and their children passed them on to their children..and so on, up until present day—where, we, unenlightened non-Scientologists, remain riddled with pesky brainwashed Body Thetans, which are the cause of the vast majority of our mental and physical ailments.
• Luckily, we can rid ourselves (“clear” in Scientology lingo) of the pesky brainwashed dead alien souls clinging to us, by paying vast sums of money to specially trained potential blackmailers Scientology “auditors”
• The specially trained potential blackmailers Scientology “auditors” will then hook up the poor Body Thetan riddled human (“pre-clear” in Scientology lingo) to a Hubbard Electropsychometer (“E-Meter” in Scientology lingo) which consists of a plastic box type thing with some dials, wires, and a couple of empty soup can kind of things attached, which is purported to “measure changes in the electrical resistance of the pre-clear by passing a small electric current (typically in the range from 50µA to 120µA) through the pre-clear’s body” via the empty soup can kind of things.
• An average auditing session involves the pre-clear divulging all of their deepest darkest and most shameful secrets to the auditor, who tapes it all for future blackmail opportunities reference.
• After shelling out shit loads of money and divulging every single one of their deepest darkest and most shameful secrets, the aforementioned auditing will eventually rid the pre-clear of all of their attached Body Thetans, rendering the pre-clear all nice, clean and evil dead alien soul free.
• Scientologists who dare break any of the organization’s many rules, are forced to submit themselves to a regime of physical punishment, total isolation, intense ideological indoctrination, an ongoing series of forced self-confessions, and hard labor, in some weird prison camp type scenario (the “Rehabilitation Project Force” (RPF) in Scientology lingo).
• Scientologists are entitled to physically and emotionally injure any critics or enemies of the organization, in addition to seizing dissenters’ property.
• Contrary to both evolutionary and creationist belief, all humans actually evolved from clams

http://popdust.com/2015/10/29/leah-remini-slamming-scientology/#slide1

Leah Remini Bracing For Inevitable Backlash Over Explosive Scientology Expose

Maxine Page

PopDust

October 12, 2015

Leah Remini

Leah Remini’s life is very likely about to get a whole lot creepier.

The 45-year-old is about to release an explosive Scientology expose, detailing the corrupt inner workings of the notoriously covert organization—and, not surprisingly, she’s bracing herself for the inevitable backlash.

Laura Prepon’s Scientology Interview Is Suitably Batshit Fucking Crazy


According to the DailyMail, Remini’s book, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, is set to be released in November, and will be a blistering take-down of the “church” and its hierarchy.

Buy Now.

After spending 30 years as a Scientologist, Remini is only too aware of the bullying, heavy handed tactics the organization likes to employ whenever anybody dares question or criticize them, something she got a small and unpleasant taste of after she dared to leave and then speak out against them.

Church Of Scientology Accused Of Bullying And Intimidating A Clearwater Cinema

As Popdust previously reported, the “church” acted decidedly un-church like—more like a butt sore whiny little bitch in fact— after Remini chose to exercise her first amendment rights, and talk about the difficulties she experienced leaving Scientology during a conversation with friends, which aired on her reality show, Leah Remini: It’s All Relative.

“When you leave, you can leave quietly,” Remini shared. “But If you make a stink in the public world, they call you a Suppressive Person, which means the church has put a stamp on you that says you are bad. They then go to all your family and friends and say you have to disconnect from this Suppressive Person.”

John Travolta Defends ‘Beautiful’ Church Of Scientology

“I decided I didn’t want to raise my daughter in the church because from what I’ve experienced and what I saw, the church becomes your everything,” she continued. “It becomes your mother, your father, your everything. You are dependent on the church.”

Fair enough, right? Nah, not according to those Thetan loving cult leaders “church” elders.

“It comes as no surprise that someone as self-absorbed as Leah Remini with an insatiable craving for attention would exploit her former religion as a publicity stunt in a pathetic attempt to get ratings for her cable show and seem relevant again,” Scientology shot back via a statement to the press.

Leah Remini Slams Scientology, ‘Everything The Church Taught Me Was A Lie’

“She is rewriting history and omits that she was participating in a program to remain a Scientologist by her own choice, as she was on the verge of being expelled for her and her husband’s ethical lapses.”

Whatever losers.

So, shit is likely to GO DOWN after she releases her book—which, by all accounts, sounds like Going Clear, but on steroids.

The Daily Mail reports that in the book, Remini blows the lid on all the bullying tactics the “church” is so found of (allegedly) employing, including blackmail, slave labor, intimidation, good old fashioned abuse and control over high profile celeb members, such as Tom Cruise, Juliette Lewis, Beck, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley.

Juliette Lewis Defends Scientology, Says Tom Cruise Is Victim Of Big Pharma

Alley has already been walking the Scientology line, turning her back on her “suppressive person” former friend, calling her “repulsive” and branding her a “bigot” for daring to speak out about her own personal experience with Scientology.

Remini says she started questioning Scientology after she became disturbed by the mysterious disappearance of Shelly Miscavige—the wife of Scientology head, David Miscavige—who has not been seen in public since 2006.

She landed on the organization’s shit list sometime around Cruise’s high profile wedding to Nicole Kidman, when she made the mistake of publicly questioning Shelly Miscavige’s whereabouts.

Jim Carrey’s Girlfriend Was Taking Scientology Classes Prior To Suicide

According to Remini, shortly afterwards, she filed a “knowledge report” which included criticism of Miscavige, Cruise, and other high level Scientologists, detailing behavior by them that she believed to be inconsistent with the organization’s rules.

Remini claims she was subsequently blacklisted within the church, that Scientologist friends of hers wrote damning internal reports about her that lead to an investigation into her family by the church, and that she was “subjected to years of ‘interrogations’ and ‘thought modification.’”

Well, brace yourself Leah, we have a feeling the Thetans are going to be trying to get at you a whole lot more within the next few months.

http://popdust.com/2015/10/12/leah-remini-scientology-expose-backlash/#slide1