WIKIPEDIA: The Master is an upcoming drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson. It was given the green-light in May 2011, and began filming in June. The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and Laura Dern. The plot involves a religion called “The Cause” which has been compared to Scientology. A charismatic intellectual (Hoffman) launches a religious organization following World War II. A drifter (Phoenix) becomes his right-hand man but as the faith begins to gain a fervent following, the drifter finds himself questioning the belief system and his mentor. Score by Radiohead’s […]
HATFUL OF HOLLOW: DN’s Local Boy Becomes Pope Of Scientology Story A Whole Lot Of Not Much
DAILY NEWS: Jenna Miscavige Hill, herself a former member of the church, says Scientology caused her to become isolated from her family while she was growing up – an unofficial church policy often referred to as “disconnection” – and she no longer speaks with many relatives still in the church. “I feel that there is a good possibility that the Miscavige family would be better off if my grandpa had not found Dianetics,” she told the Daily News in an email yesterday. “I can’t say that if [he] didn’t find that, then he wouldn’t have found something else. But not […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Lawrence Wright‘s cover story in the current edition of The New Yorker reports on the Church of Scientology and focuses on why screenwriter and director Paul Haggis resigned from the organization in 2009 after spending nearly 35 years with it. Haggis, who directed Crash and wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, spoke with Wright about his reasons for leaving the church and the response from his fellow Scientologists. Wright tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross about the detailed fact-checking process his article went through — The New Yorker assigned five fact checkers to the story and sent the […]
WORTH REPEATING: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Scientology But Were Afraid To Ask
NEW YORKER: Everyone knew that the big revelations resided in level O.T. III. Hubbard called this level the Wall of Fire. He said, “The material involved in this sector is so vicious, that it is carefully arranged to kill anyone if he discovers the exact truth of it. . . . I am very sure that I was the first one that ever did live through any attempt to attain that material.” The O.T. III candidate is expected to free himself from being overwhelmed by the disembodied, emotionally wounded spirits that have been implanted inside his body. Bruce Hines, a […]