Nicole Kidman Sees the Light and Is Steering Clear of Scientology

Seattle Post Intelligencer ^ | April 20, 2003 SGT | D. Parvaz

[ewing]

People in the News:

Kidman Steering Clear of Scientology

Well, well. It seems that along with divorcing Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman also divorced the Church of Scientology. MSN.com reports that church members haven't seen the Oscar winning mama in quite some time.

'Actually, when I knew Nicole she seemed to think that there was nothing better than Scientology,' said Kelly Preston wife of John Travolta. The couple is among the higher profile Hollywood Scientologists.

But since her 2001 split from Cruise, who is still rather active in the church, Nicole doesn't even hang out with other Scientolgists, much less participate.

[ewing]

[Weimdog]

Tinfoil Hat Religion?

When I was a kid, a friend of mine and I always talked jokingly about starting a religion if we weren't millionaires by the time we were 40.

I never would have thought somebody could actually do it.

[discostu]

I think the investors always hope it's the next Pulp Fiction, not realizing that of all the reasons Pulp Fiction worked Travolta is at best a footnote. I do have to respect him for his ability to reconstruct his career from scratch.

[Cedric]

Amen! And they aren't even coy about it. On LA talk radio I heard an official representative of Scientology say, in effect, "You leave our 'church', we will destroy you"! It was chilling.

[ewing]

Travolta must have an incredible agent, because eventually the money is going to dry up from these flops.

He hasn't been in a hit since John Woo's 'Face Off'

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Travolta, that guy who was made famous by a lousy disco movie, by luck?

No, that was after his critically acclaimed stint as Vinnie Barbarino.

[Xenalyte]

When given the choice between banging Kidman and meditation the sane choice is picking up some more massage oil on the way home.

Believe you me, Choice #1 didn't even appear on Big Tom's radar. He does not bat for that team.

[discostu]

I think Swordfish would have done better release 4 months later, at the time people weren't willing to accept a good guy that was obessed with stoping terrorists at all costs.

[daviddennis]

I don't remember the exact words, but L Ron Hubbard was famously quoted as saying that the way to become rich is to start your own religion.

And so he did it.

I have to admire his chutzpah, if it weren't for the fact that he seriously abused his members. There are some hair-raising stories going on about Scientology. It's very far from being a harmless joke.

I did an anti-scientology web page many years ago and I still get the occasional strange email from them.

D

[uvular]

Scientologists bought a big downtown hotel last year in my birthplace, Battle Creek, Michigan. Bought it from the city, cheap and are in the process of remodeling for their Great Lakes annex. Most of followers are in Ann Arbor area; funny they couldn't find anything to purchase in that area.

A guy wrote a letter to the local paper (Battle Creek Enquirer) complaining about the purchase, and a few days later, he recieved a phone call from Scientology muckety-mucks. Odd, as his phone number was unlisted...

[js1138]

I kinda like Grease.

[uvular]

Also at SPI site, story on Paula Zahn and her new 7-9 pm show on CNN. Story claims CNN's ratings went up 200% in past few weeks when she was reporting war news. Ratings went up 100% when she took over morning show, they claim-hmm.

[Ignatz]

I think Swordfish would have done better release 4 months later, at the time people weren't willing to accept a good guy that was obessed with stoping terrorists at all costs

Ah! Swordfish........
mmmmmm...Halle Berry!

'scuse me, I have to leave the room now......

[ewing]

After Aaron Brown anything would be an improvement!

[GOPrincess]

Just a tidbit I can add, I've seen paparazzi photos of Kidman taking her children into Mass at St. Monica's in Santa Monica...no idea how often, of course, but she's at least an occasional churchgoer.

[Snerfling]

Any entertainment executive can tell you that Scientology is a set-up to protect their 'client's ie actors from having their true alternative lifestyles exposed. It would surprise many here on this board how matter-of-fact it is within the industry.

[xm177e2]

This is great news, the Church of Scientology is an evil cult.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Martin Gardner (formerly Mathematical Games columnist for Scientific American) did a book called Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science in 1957. It's still available from Dover. Scientology's precursor, Dianetics, was one of the subjects. Gardner did take Dianetics apart.

Gardner Link

[AdA$tra]

Travolta, that guy who was made famous by a lousy disco movie, by luck?

How could you forget "Welcome Back Kotter?"

[blake6900]

Also at SPI site, story on Paula Zahn and her new 7-9 pm show on CNN. Story claims CNN's ratings went up 200% in past few weeks when she was reporting war news. Ratings went up 100% when she took over morning show, they claim-hmm.

Whenever ya wanna prove a point but don't really have the total numbers to do it, ya use percentages. As we all know, they look and sound impressive but aren't necessarily all they appear to be. For instance...

When she was on FOX, Zahn claimed that her program was the fastest growing show on cable. Oh, really...if her ratings were truly that good FOX would have done whatever they could to keep her. Instead, FOX showed her the door the minute she gave them the ammo to do so, in this case she had her agent negotiate with CNN while she was still working for FOX, which was expressly forbidden in her contract.

BTW, MSNBC is currently claiming that they are "the fastest growing cable news network". Percentage-wise, they're right. But if a network has two people watching and, a week later four people are watching it's grown alot...but has it really? And we mustn't forget CNN is now claiming that they are the most trusted cable news network. If they got five out of five people to say that does it really mean the public thinks they're the most trusted?

Methinks not...