While Miscavige is busy telling scientologists to watch his 1993 IRS Event (see earlier post today When the Going Gets Tough...) in order to combat the new tidal wave of negative publicity flooding his dinghy, he is also rolling out a new external PR line. The cry from scientology has been that The Aftermath is just a means for Leah Remini to "make money" (they cleverly called it "Leah Remini; After Cash") -- but that line is kind of dead in the water as Leah is now filming Kevin Can Wait. Even Miscavige knows that a network sitcom is a far more lucrative gig than any form of "reality TV." … [Read more...]
Clearwater: The Aftermath
Leah and I wanted to clear the air about the planned episode of Aftermath focusing on Clearwater. We were very excited about shooting this as there is an amazing story to be told about the history of scientology in Clearwater, from the earliest days all the way to the present. Unfortunately, circumstances beyond our control conspired to make it impossible for Leah and me to put together the show in the way we had intended. If you know anything about us, you would know we do not like to compromise when it comes to trying to do justice to stories that need to be told. Though we were … [Read more...]
Season 2 Aftermath Special: Aftermath
As I did after each program in the first season, I am putting this here as a place for people to make comments about the show that has just aired. The outpouring of support has been amazing already, just as it was in Season 1. As always, I am interested in your views - including criticisms and things you think might be better explained or covered. For new readers here I thought you might find it instructive to be directed to some earlier postings that may help explain some things. You may have seen some of the over-the-top statements about Leah, me or anyone who has a differing opinion … [Read more...]
Aftermath Special Tonight
I am taking the day off. I will be watching the show and tweeting tonite. Tony Ortega never takes a day off and has written a piece about the show this morning. Watch tonight. … [Read more...]
Aftermath: Continued
I am cheating -- this is not really a "post," I am simply directing you to read this new article in Entertainment Weekly. I am traveling which has hindered my blogging abilities. And also, I saw a dozen fake twitter accounts sent out tweets about me this morning, so I figured they must be going nuts about something. I checked the news and this story is at the top of the Scientology newsfeed on Google. I figured this was the cause of their latest bout of ad hominem bleating, so it deserved wider coverage. It's my middle finger of the morning to the evil empire. Read the article … [Read more...]
Scientology’s Lame Response
The news that A&E has commissioned another 10 episodes of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath brought another lame response from scientology. Instead of responding to ANYTHING exposed in the first episodes, they did the scientology thing and sought to "attack the attacker." This is how they responded to The Hollywood Reporter: The organization, who continues to refute Remini’s claims and the information presented on her show, gave a statement to THR claiming A&E paid people to appear on-screen. “Real transparency would be for A&E to detail all forms of comp … [Read more...]
#ScientologyTheAftermath 2nd Reddit AMA
Tonight's 2nd Reddit AMA is the final show we have shot for this season of Leah Remini Scientology The Aftermath. A&E has another special coming about Leah, but it is a bonus, not considered part of this "series" of 7 episodes and 2 Reddit AMA specials. It has been a wild ride -- the response has been beyond anything we could have hoped for. What I said at the end of the show is absolutely correct. I am not stopping. This experience has only motivated me to push harder. Though it is on everyone's mind right now, I cannot tell you that there is a Season 2 yet, nothing has been … [Read more...]
Scientology and Psychosis – The Aftermath
Tonight's season finale of Leah Remini Scientology The Aftermath touches upon the subject of how scientologists address mental health issues. For many years, though Hubbard railed repeatedly against psychiatry, and called for psychiatrists to be shut down as a profession -- he had one caveat. The insane should be left to the institutions. They were barred from participating in scientology auditing. It was one of the many contradictions that can be found in Hubbard's writings - while he claimed all psychs were maiming people, he didn't want scientology to be involved in dealing with the i … [Read more...]
ABC 20/20
Some somewhat random observations about the 20/20 show last night. First, I am sure that scientology and David Miscavige HATED the show. They hate anything that is not presenting total puff PR for scientology. If it is not just glamour shots of scientology buildings, glowing statements by glazed-eyed "winning" scientologists or images of Miscavige yanking ribbons on new empty buildings, then it is "suppressive propaganda spread by merchants of chaos." Miscavige does have reason to be upset. This show exposed a lot of the bad aspects of scientology to a larger audience than the A&E … [Read more...]
Why Now?
As I have mentioned in a number of posts recently, there has been a remarkable groundswell of response to Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. It goes beyond the show trending on Twitter every week, many, many emails and messages on Facebook and handshakes in the supermarket from complete strangers. Most heartening is the number of people who are reaching out to tell their stories. Many have not been heard from before, and the stories are utterly devastating. Perhaps it is a measure of the level of devastation inflicted on people how long it takes for them to be able to talk about … [Read more...]