Archive for the 'Scientology' Category

30
Apr

Scientology Buys Its Own YouTube Channel

By Holly Won't 13 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Scientology

Scientology was pretty pissed off about all those leaked Tom Cruise videos, followed by the awesome Anonymous onslaught.

So now they’ve gone and bought themselves a fancy channel on YouTube.

However, as Gawker dissects, what they’re doing is not really in the spirit of YouTube. Or, well, America.

First of all, we can’t embed the videos on Deceiver.com because the church has paid to disallow other sites to disseminate the propaganda. So we can’t discuss it.

Secondly, they’ve disabled commenting. So we can’t discuss it.

Let’s piss them off and discuss it anyway. Do y’all think this is a move in the “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” direction, or just another way to target impressionable youths who will see ads for the church cult while they’re browsing Playboy videos on YouTube?

15
Apr

Hey! It’s That Guy! (Who Used to Be a Scientologist)

By Simon Scowl 7 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Scientology and Television Actors

Here at Deceiver we bash celebrities who say one thing and do another, but every once in a while they get it right and should be recognized for it. Such is the case with character actor Jason Beghe, who’s appeared on Numb3rs, Criminal Minds, Veronica Mars, JAG, and dozens of other TV shows and movies over the last 20 years.

He’s hardly a household name, but he’s the biggest celebrity so far who’s stood up and spoken out against Scientology. According to Roger Friedman:

In 2005, Beghe appeared in promotional spots for the Church of Scientology. But now, Beghe has escaped the church after taking courses since 1994. He’s made a video that’s up on YouTube.

This is what he has to say: “Scientology is destructive and a rip-off.”

He also says: “It’s very, very dangerous for your spiritual, psychological, mental, emotional health and evolution. I think it stunts your evolution. If Scientology is real, then something’s f—ed up… It ain’t deliverin’ what it’s promised. It sure has not.”

Here’s the video (NSFW language):

“Let me meet a motherf***ing Clear! I’m Clear, right? I’m declared Clear as a f***ing bell. …From my own experience and from what I’ve seen, I think the further you go up The Bridge, the worse you get.”

Apparently this is just a brief excerpt of a longer interview to come about his experiences with the cult. Good for him. Scientology has not been kind to people who’ve spoken out against it (just ask Paulette Cooper), so it’s not an exaggeration to say Beghe is a brave man. Let’s just hope this inspires some of the other disgruntled Scientologists in Hollywood who’ve been afraid to speak up.

(Headline submitted with apologies to the late, sometimes-great Fametracker)

08
Apr

Tom Cruise to Be Godfather to J.Lo.’s Twins

By Holly Won't 5 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Movie Stars, Scientology and The Religious

jlo_twins.jpgJennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have decided to annoint Tom Cruise as the godfather of their newborn twins, Max and Emme, despite the fact that the twice-divorced, Scientology-preaching Cruise is definitely not Catholic.

Maybe they mean the horse-head-under-the-sheets definition of Godfather?

Scientology in fact is extremely anti-Catholic. One early follower of L. Ron Hubbard once revealed:

Hubbard ironically dismissed Catholicism as a “very successful operation to control the spirit, minds, and bodies of those who fell under its thrall before they attained an age where they could reason and discriminate and choose for themselves.”

And it’s also relevant that both Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes were raised Catholic, only to have Cruise attempt (once successfully, once not) to convert recruit his wives to Scientology. Lopez and Anthony are still practicing Catholics, so they may want to reconsider. Does this seem like a bad idea to anyone else?

18
Mar

Quick Will Smith/Scientology Followup

By Simon Scowl 1 Comment Digg! Digg this
Categories: Scientology

Radar Magazine has put the April cover story on Co$ we told you about online. It turns out that Will Smith and Jada Pinkett are only mentioned in one sentence (which was enough to elicit a strong denial from Smith). The rest of the story is about Scientology’s current battle with the group calling itself Anonymous, which has been responsible for various pranks and protests against the cult, as well as this instant Youtube classic:

The story also details how the “church” has bought up most of downtown Clearwater, FL and turned it into L. Ronopolis, and how, even before the ongoing Tom Cruise freakapalooza, some of Scientology’s inner circle were beginning to turn their backs on it. And no wonder. It’s kind of tough to convince people to pay thousands of dollars to learn stuff they can get from one episode of South Park. There’ll always be suckers out there, but the more people who know about this cult’s thug tactics and insane rhetoric, the better.

17
Mar

Will Smith Scientology Watch Continues

By Simon Scowl 6 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Movie Stars and Scientology

According to The Scoop, next month’s Radar Magazine cover story is all about how Will Smith and Jada Pinkett are becoming the new faces of Scientology:

In the piece, the magazine said, “The Church has also set its sights on African Americans, opening up a center in Harlem in 2003 and making a strong play for Hollywood supercouple Will Smith and Jada Pinkett.”

It would appear to be working: Not only are Smith and Tom Cruise joined at the hip, but Smith handed out cards for “free” Scientology “personality tests” as a wrap gift to the crew of his new movie Hancock, and he’s been babbling about Scientology in the press for over a year now. He even wielded one of Scientology’s favorite weapons, the lawsuit, against the World Entertainment News Network for misquoting him on the impact of the “religion.” (Smith told a Scottish newspaper that Hitler was just misguided, and implied Der Fuehrer could have been turned around with some help from Scientology, and those silly geese tried to make it sound like Smith was a big Hitler fan. Which he’s not. He’s an L. Ron fan!)

Remember, Will:

“I was raised in a Baptist household and my grandmother would get up out of her casket (if I became a Scientologist).”

[CRRRRRRRRREEEEEAK]

07
Mar

Scientology Fails Again

By Holly Won't 2 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Bad Boys & Girls, Scientology and Television Actors

jeff_conaway2.jpgJust days after actor Jeff Conaway claimed that Scientology helped him overcome his addictions to drugs, he says he plans to sign on for the second season of Celebrity Rehab:

“It’s not over, I’m gonna go back in.”

Conaway says he left the show before completing the program because last time the treatment facility ran out of pain medication he claims he needed. But this time around, he will focus on his reliance on painkillers.

I’m sure Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher is happy that his life will no longer be in peril.

One the one hand, good for him. Addiction isn’t an easy thing to overcome, so if he needs to do this on a public stage to cement his commitment to sobriety, fine.

But c’mon Kenickie, don’t claim that Scientology is the cure, it just perpetuates the sham.

03
Mar

Look at Me, I’m Kenickie

By Holly Won't 3 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Bad Boys & Girls, Movie Stars and Scientology

jeff_conaway.jpgActor Jeff Conaway, who had roles in Taxi and Grease, says Scientology has helped him kick his drug habit:

“I’ve been doing Scientology…my doctor was like, Holy cow, he says whatever you’ve been doing keep doing it because it’s really working.”

Funny, I thought it was the actual rehab that he agreed to undergo. On Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew — a reality show on VH1 that chronicles eight Z-list performers who are trying to overcome drug addiction — Conaway is a convulsive mess who hogs all the screentime.

Dr. Drew Pinsky, a mental-health veteran who has hosted the radio call-in program Loveline since 1984, has been giving Conaway the lion’s share of the attention on the show, in part because of an enabling girlfriend who’s been a bit unclear on the concept.

22
Feb

I Am Litigious

By Simon Scowl 3 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Movie Stars and Scientology

Remember that whole flap we told you about a couple of months ago, where budding Scientologist Will Smith was accused of being a big fan of Hitler? (He’s not, of course. He just thinks Hitler could have cleaned up his act with a little help from L. Ron.) Quick follow-up: Smith sued the World Entertainment News Network in London’s High Court for misrepresenting his words, and today he won “an undisclosed sum of damages,” which he says he’s donating to charity. Yeah, there are all sorts of organizations that could use the money, Will: Narconon, Criminon, Applied Scholastics, the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project…

21
Feb

Look Who’s Talking (Back)

By Holly Won't 0 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Businesses, Legal Messes, Movie Stars and Scientology

kirstie_alley_enquirer.jpgKirstie Alley is slamming reports that she’s regained any of the weight she lost on the Jenny Craig diet plan, claiming that she put on 10 pounds in January when she decided not to renew her contract but has since lost it again.

Alley says she stopped working with Jenny Craig, which she considers the “best weight-loss program, bar none,” because the company wanted to go in a “different direction” with advertising. It’s using a more serious, health-conscious approach in ads featuring Queen Latifah, she says.

“I wasn’t the right person to do that. For the past three years, I’ve written most of the commercials. All the commercials I did were based on comedy and self-deprecation. That’s my forte,” says the former star of Cheers and Fat Actress.

Because taking excessive doses of niacin is not healthy, perhaps?

Furthermore, she insists that recent photos of her have been doctored to make her look fatter, and says she may sue the National Enquirer over them. Although maybe she needs to come out of hiding first to show that they were wrong?

Alley also confirmed that she plans to create her own weight-loss program in 2009 and drop another 10-15 pounds on it. Expect saunas and vitamins to feature prominently.

15
Feb

Jenny Craig Fires Kirstie Alley for Getting Fat Again

By Holly Won't 77 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Businesses, Movie Stars and Scientology

kristie_alley_fat.jpgThe National Enquirer is reporting that weight loss juggernaut Jenny Craig has fired actress Kirstie Alley as their spokeswoman because she hasn’t been able to keep thin.

At one point she claimed she lost 75 pounds on the diet plan, but recent photos indicate that she may have put much of that back on — making her, I don’t know, maybe not the best example of how well Jenny Craig works.

It’s also possible that the Fat Actress star was dropped because she has sort of credited Scientology’s detoxification plan to help her get slim.

But that would be surprising because it is totally bogus science and wouldn’t work unless you just wanted to lose weight in your liver.

They’ve replaced her with Queen Latifah, who, if you’ll recall, also shills for Pizza Hut.

UPDATE: Jenny Craig has confirmed that Kirstie Alley is out as the spokesmodel.

SHOUTOUT: Welcome newbies to Deceiver! Hope you stick around. 

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