As we noted on Friday, Leah Remini has a new book out called Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology. In the book, Leah confirms how she was prompted to leave the cult after David Miscavige reprimanded her for asking about the whereabouts of his wife, Shelly. We also talked about Leah’s revelations over the rampant child neglect and poor work conditions within the Scientology bases.
Leah appeared on 20/20 on Friday evening. It was rumored that Katie Holmes would make an appearance, but Holmes’ publicist later clarified, saying that Katie simply said, “I regret having upset Leah in the past, and wish her only the best in the future.” Sadly, Katie’s lack of a concrete response does not surprise me. The fact that she will not speak out against Scientology? Also not a shock. This is the same woman who wasted a People cover by revealing nothing, when people want to know everything about her messy split with Tom Cruise. Does Holmes have an agreement with Tom not to talk? Perhaps. I know she was terrified of him, which is why they divorced by the power vested in burner phones.
When Leah spoke with 20/20, she revealed a lot but not as much as expected She talked about Tom Cruise a bit and how the Sea Org was dreadful:
During her time at Sea Org, Remini admitted in the interview that “you live in roach-infested dorms with other children” and “could go from working in a laundry room to working industrial sanders.” Though she was “learning how to learn Scientology” and the food “didn’t taste like food and you had to get it at a certain time,” she considered the church her home.
But during her one-year involvement at Sea Org, Remini and her then-boyfriend partook in physical actions the church deemed inappropriate. “I allowed my boyfriend at the time … to go like this over my shirt,” she said while lighting touching her breast over her shirt. Remini remarked the action was a church violation and she was threatened to be put in the rehabilitation project force. “When you have screwed up royally in the Sea Org, it’s basically to reform you. You have to wear black, you have to run everywhere you go, you have to call everyone sir. It’s pretty severe punishment for an adult, not to mention a child.”
Leah also said that Scientology pressured her into recruiting Jennifer Lopez, and that did not turn out well because JLo was not interested. At all. Leah also dropped some really weird details about the TomKat courtship:
“At first it’s very effusive, it’s very very loving. You get the laser in on you and you’re the most important thing that ever happened,” she said of her first impressions of Cruise. She recalled a memory she had of meeting both Cruise and Katie Holmes at the actor’s home one evening. Remini received a call from a church official that said Cruise wanted her to come over and teach him salsa dancing. Two high-ranking Scientology officials were there with the actor at his home and so was his new girlfriend, Holmes, when Remini arrived. “He was forcibly kissing Katie. I said, ‘hey, get a freaking’ room.’ I was written up for that and I had to go into session for it.”
New York Daily News has the unbelievable excerpts of what came next. Leah was forced to pay over $300,000 in auditing fees after speaking publicly on the TomKat PDA. That right there makes Holmes’ apology above ^^^ seem willfully blind or worse.
That’s not even the most disturbing revelation about the TomKat relationship. In Leah’s book, she describes a dinner party during which Suri wailed throughout dinner, and no one made a move to check on the child:
The wails of a 7-month-old infant echoed through the celebrity-studded dinner preceding the marriage of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. It was their daughter, Suri — but neither the baby’s mom nor the other guests showed concern. And then, writes actress Leah Remini in her new Scientology tell-all, things turned weird.
Remini, after five long minutes, followed the sound of the crying baby to a bathroom where three women stood staring at the infant left lying on the floor. The enraptured trio, including Cruise’s sister and his assistant, were gaping at the hungry child as if she was “L. Ron Hubbard incarnate” — Version 2.0 of the late Scientology founder.
[From New York Daily News]
Good god. I can’t even muster up a proper Xenu joke right now. We’ve heard a million times how Scientologists consider children to be reincarnated adults in tiny bodies, but this is ridiculous. At the above link, Leah also claims that she overheard Bella Cruise calling Nicole Kidman “a f***ing SP” (after Kidman was declared a suppressive person). Leah then drops a bomb about how Holmes left Cruise standing at the wedding altar for 20 minutes. Remember how panicked Holmes looked on her wedding day? This whole Scientology situation is too messed up for words.
Photos courtesy of WENN
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