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HBO blows lid off of Scientology; Cruise, Travolta should stay off Twitter for a while!
BizPac Review ^ | 3/30/15 | Steve Berman

Posted on 03/30/2015 8:38:19 AM PDT by Impala64ssa

HBO caused a major stir on social media with Sunday night’s broadcast of “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” a blistering documentary about the Church of Scientology and its celebrity devotees. People Magazine published a teaser for the film Sunday, which was first screened in January at the Sundance Film Festival. Sensational in content but not in tone, Going Clear has been making headlines since its first screening at Sundance in January. It has also upset that secretive, combative and often embattled Church, which in a lengthy statement attacked the film as “insidious religious persecution by bullies toting cameras” and the ex-Scientologists who participated as “the usual collection of obsessive, disgruntled former Church members.” Such invective from the Scientology crowd, which includes such luminaries as John Travolta and Tom Cruise, almost guaranteed a huge audience tuning in. In a story published just minutes before the HBO debut, Director Alex Gibney told TheWrap that some of the Hollywood people interviewed in the film received physical and legal threats. Spanky Taylor, a publicist for stars such as Johnny Depp and Edward Norton, told her story of having to escape a church building in Los Angeles after being physically restrained from leaving. “I will tell you that the threats that have been visited on her have been particularly brutal,” Gibney said. “A major thing the church got by on for many years was intimidating people into silence, based on their threats of litigation and brutish psychological games.” The hashtag #goingclear generated an online buzz, becoming one of the top trends on Twitter. Most Twitter users reacted predictably to the exposé.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: alexgibney; california; churchofscientology; cult; cults; edwardnorton; goingclear; hbo; hboscientology; hollywood; homosexualagenda; johnnydepp; johntravolta; losangeles; scientology; spankytaylor; tomcruise; twitter
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To: Chad_the_Impaler

Since they’re high mucky-mucks, possibly helping run it.


61 posted on 03/30/2015 10:51:14 AM PDT by Patriot777 (Imagine....that we could see Obama being hauled out of the White House kicking and screaming?)
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To: Bubba Ho-Tep

They still get converts that are interested in “unloading their emotional baggage”. Supposedly, Scientology “opens doors” for people. They attract a lot of people who ride around on their Drama Llama, constantly talking about “triggers” and “safe places”.
That’s why it is so popular in California and Florida. It’s like Amway for narcissistic crazies.


62 posted on 03/30/2015 10:51:36 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you are not part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

I remember their son, who I think was either autistic or trisomy 21, reportedly had a seizure (was found on the bathroom floor), and was rushed to the United States as the family was vacationing in either The Bahamas or Jamaica.


63 posted on 03/30/2015 10:57:57 AM PDT by Patriot777 (Imagine....that we could see Obama being hauled out of the White House kicking and screaming?)
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To: Patriot777

“releasing balloons”

What we call “littering”.


64 posted on 03/30/2015 10:58:31 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you are not part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: nutmeg
Wow. Is that a cross on the top of that tower?

Yep. It's a Scientology cross:

The cult adopted the cross, along with other religious symbols such as clerical garb, when they were trying to gain legitimacy as a religion in the 1950s.

65 posted on 03/30/2015 11:00:11 AM PDT by RansomOttawa (tm)
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To: Patriot777

Yes. Was the young man getting the proper medical treatment that might’ve averted the seizure he had ? He might very well not have because of the Scientologists dictating his “treatment.”


66 posted on 03/30/2015 11:11:57 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: Impala64ssa

Bill Clinton gave the cult the religious destination for a price.


67 posted on 03/30/2015 11:41:53 AM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: fieldmarshaldj

You know what after seeing documtary which for HBO subscriber it on Demand now

I think so with medical treatment

There one lady who told leader that she have pregnancy problems at first they didn’t want go to doctor then she insist

Also what up with up that Nicole Kidman daddy being shrink or something they have problem with that


68 posted on 03/30/2015 12:14:59 PM PDT by SevenofNine (We are Freepers, all your media bases belong to us ,resistance is futile)
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To: Impala64ssa

It’s a cult, but probably not as much of a cult as, say, Islam in Pakinstan—where approximately 2/3rds of residents advocate the Koran-justified death to apostates.


69 posted on 03/30/2015 12:20:42 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Impala64ssa

Many years ago I picked up a copy of “Dianetics”, and found it to be an absolute waste of my time and money.


70 posted on 03/30/2015 12:29:31 PM PDT by windsorknot
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To: Impala64ssa
It's almost as if HBO made a feature film out of the old rotten.com/library entries...

http://www.rotten.com/library/religion/scientology/

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/religion/cult/l-ron-hubbard/

LOL! (Note the similar storylines.)

71 posted on 03/30/2015 2:00:08 PM PDT by Moltke ("The Press, Watson, is a most valuable institution if you only know how to use it.")
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To: detective
Here is a self-described incomplete list of scientologists.

Okay, of that list, only 18 of them are under 45 years old, and only 6 are under 35. And a number of those are second-generation. There are as many over 70 as there are under 35.

It had its day, and it's dying now. The church doesn't release member numbers, and when they do, they're inflated by including everyone who got suckered into sitting through one class, but the best estimates are 50,000 worldwide.

72 posted on 03/30/2015 3:25:59 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: ResponseAbility
I wouldn’t doubt that this was all started as a Ponzi scheme to bring in more money to Hollywood with the early spokesman actors getting a cut of the profits.

There was definitely a concerted effort to attract people in the entertainment business as a way of promoting the church. But nobody ever got a cut. Such a concept would seem absurd to the true believers.

73 posted on 03/30/2015 3:48:37 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: AppyPappy
They still get converts that are interested in “unloading their emotional baggage”. Supposedly, Scientology “opens doors” for people.

They get the same people that any cult gets: lost souls looking for someone to provide all the answers and give them a sense of direction and belonging.

74 posted on 03/30/2015 3:51:51 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: Moltke
One of the first big takedowns of Scientology was by Mark Ebner in Spy Magazine back in the 90s. Ebner also wrote a piece about the allegations against Bill Cosby back for People Magazine back in 2007, but the magazine spiked it.
75 posted on 03/30/2015 4:00:18 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: Bubba Ho-Tep
They get the same people that any cult gets: lost souls looking for someone to provide all the answers and give them a sense of direction and belonging.

Kinda like democRATs.

76 posted on 03/30/2015 4:19:05 PM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate "Republicans Freed the Slaves Month")
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To: Chad_the_Impaler
Do we know if Cruise and Travolta are being conned, or are they among the group running the con?

More likely blackmailed, which is what the documentary hints at. The E-Meter "Auditors" keep detailed files of every life detail given by the "Auditee". Literally file cabinets full of information gathered over the years. When someone starts to drift away from the "Church", as both Travolta and Cruise have done in the past, they are threatened with that very personal info being released to the public. No more drifting.

77 posted on 03/31/2015 7:54:51 AM PDT by Wolfie
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