Jezebel recently pointed us to this article in Business Insider on former celebrity Scientologists. It answered a question for me about Brad Pitt’s involvement with the cult. We know he dated Juliette Lewis around the time that they co-starred in the TV movie Too Young to Die in 1990 and the film Kalifornia in 1993. Lewis has been involved in the cult since at least 1988. So did Lewis attempt to get her then-boyfriend, Brad Pitt, indoctrinated into Scientology? Former Scientology Amy Scobee claims in a recent book that Lewis did, and said that it caused Pitt and Lewis to break up. Scientology bigwigs were of course drooling over Pitt, but he was wise enough to get the hell out of there while he could.
In former high-ranking church official Amy Scobee’s book, “Scientology — Abuse at the Top,” she claims Brad Pitt completed two Scientology courses in July 1991 and May 1993.
“In the end, Brad didn’t think it was for him and he and Juliette broke up,” said Scobee. “He was high on the church president’s list of stars they felt could be ‘recovered.”
[From Business Insider]
The site “Truth about Scientology,” which compiles information from Scientology’s official magazines, has Pitt listed as completing two courses in Scientology in the years Scobee mentioned. Given the time frame, he was probably high as a kite at the time. Good for him for getting out while he could.
I found this article I wrote in 2006 and totally forgot about. It’s about Tom Cruise making a weak ass attempt to recruit Angelina Jolie into Scientology by asking her to come by their headquarters and pick up an “award.” Cult expert Rick Ross also mentioned that Brad Pitt dumped Juliette Lewis over Scientology, so I guess this news has been out there for a while.
I finally watched the BBC Panorama documentary on Scientology from 2007 that so many of you have been mentioning in the threads. (It’s available in four parts on YouTube.) I remember hearing that Juliette Lewis was interviewed in it, but when I watched it the segment with the famous Scientologists, including Kirstie Alley, Ann Archer, Leah Remini and Juliette Lewis, had no actual statements from the actresses due to legal threats from Scientology. All we saw were the facial reactions from the women. (That’s at about 4:00 into this video.)
Part of Juliette’s interview did make it online eventually. BBC later released deleted scenes from the Panorama series, in which journalist John Sweeney asked about Scientology being a cult. (Juliette’s segment is at at 4:30 in the video linked here.) She handled it way better than the others. Juliette laughed about whether Scientology was a cult and said “Some people also say that women are really stupid and shouldn’t vote.” Both Leah Remini and Kirstie Alley pulled the bigotry card, with Alley and Anne Archer getting particularly worked up.
As for the Panorama documentary, I’ve heard about it for a while and put off watching it until now. It’s a worthwhile expose, but there was so much yelling, stalking, intimidation and creepiness that it was hard to watch.
Here are some highlights I found:
Scientology spokesperson Tommy Davis goes off at 6:00.
Sean Lonsdale, a videographer attempting to expose Scientology, is shown at the beginning of this video. He gets confronted by Tommy Davis with details of his criminal history (which was also posted on fliers around town in an attempt to intimidate him). Lonsdale ended up “committing suicide” under suspicious circumstances in 2008.
Tommy Davis goes off again at :30
Scientologist blame psychiatry for the Holocaust at 3:40. After that Sweeney goes off on Tommy Davis.
There’s some chatter that Tommy Davis has not been seen in public in some time. I could not confirm that, but he’s been replaced as cult spokesperson by a woman named Karin Pouw.
Here’s Juliette and her new boyfriend, Travie McCoy of Gym Class Heroes, at an event on 5-27-12. Credit: WENN.com
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