To acknowledge her docuseries, Scientology and the Aftermath entering its third season, LaPalme Magazine made Leah Remini their fall cover story. In the interview, Leah addresses why Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes don’t speak out about their experiences with Scientology. According to Leah, their silence is because Scientology still has the power to make their lives miserable. So miserable that Leah says if her once-good-friend Katie had lunch with her, Katie could lose custody of Suri.
Leah Remini reflected on her friendship with Katie Holmes and made more allegations against the Church of Scientology in a new interview.
The Scientology and the Aftermath star, 48, opened up about her ongoing battle with her former religion in Us Weekly’s exclusive sneak peek of LaPalme magazine’s fall cover.
“I thought comedy would be my life. I don’t consider myself a champion. The people who speak on the show are champions,” she said of her A&E show. “But I keep wondering — why haven’t Katie Holmes or Nicole Kidman spoken out? I assume they were forced to sign prohibitive documents. Trust me, Katie’s not allowed to have a meal with me and we used to be close friends. She could lose custody of Suri. It’s quite sick, really.”
Remini also claimed that people she works with on her series “are harassed constantly, especially me. Members of the church go to my mother’s restaurant, confront my little sister and my step kids in San Francisco, trying to intimidate us. These abusive scare tactics are what they call a religion.”
I didn’t know Leah and Katie were friends and I don’t know why that surprises me. This is so sad. It’s like these people live under a dark threat for the rest of their lives. And because they are all-to-familiar with Scientology’s heinous intimidation practices, they know how serious that threat is.
Leah recently said that she’s noted a shift when it comes to reporting on Scientology in that people are feeling safer about speaking out against it. According to Leah, “People are starting to say we’re going say we’re to tell the story, and you can come after us and that’s OK ’cause we’re gonna tell the truth.”
I had a friend who felt lost and explored many spiritual options when she first arrived in LA, including an interview at the Scientology Center. The stories from those who have escaped are consistent with everything my friend described about their pursuit of her after that first meeting. It was like a grooming session and was truly disturbing to hear.
Photo credit: WENN Photos
Her partner on the show ,Mike Rinder, who was a big wig in Scientology, gets harassed by his adult daughter. She has fake FB pages where she accuses him of beating his mother and being a horrible father.
That’s sad
I can’t see how she’d lose custody, but my guess is a big part of the divorce agreement was “I stay quiet, you leave us alone”. I hope someday she feels free to speak about what she knows, but right now with her daughter, I don’t blame her one bit for keeping quiet.
Leah’s show is SO good, albeit really depressing.
Leah is jumping the gun a bit here I think. Didn’t Katie Holmes’ father Martin, who is a lawyer, handle her divorce? tom cruise hasn’t seen is daughter in many years apparently, he would never be able to just come and take the child from her. Suri is almost 14 isn’t she?
I hope that by the time Suri turns 18 years old, Katie can resume her friendships and finally feel free to do as she pleases. I’m sure Leah understands that Katie’s priority has always been to keep Suri far away from that cult.
My guess is that Katie won’t say anything even after Suri turns 18, because she knows that Suri would be harassed too. As long as she stays quiet, her daughter is safe from these maniacs.
I think that’s the likely story, moreso than Katie losing custody. There are tons of legal (and illegal) things they can do to annoy and harass Suri and Katie, and there seems to be a public detente right now (although i’m sure Katie is persona non-grata behind closed doors).
Ehhh… I don’t pretend to know Scientology’s hold on Tom Cruise but I have to think he wouldn’t stand for his daughter being harassed. He is the most priveledged member of the cult. I think all hell would break loose if they went after Suri.
He doesn’t even spend time with her himself. If he cared that much about his daughter and he genuinely had that much pull in the cult he would see her.
Nicole Kidmans children are still in church and I do think a lot of her not talking has to do with this fact. The few times she said something about them she comes across as a heartbroken mother who is trying not to alienate her children even more.
I also do think that’s also one of the reasons why Katie Holmes kept Suri as much as possible with herself from the get go and bolted early.
Leah is incredible lucky that her family went with her. Katie and her family could study Nicoles case and prepare themselves. Nicole got quite overdriven despite having shared custody in the beginning.
I could see this being the case if Tom actually bothered to see suri but he doesn’t so it’s properly null and void. It’s funny that gossip cop (Katie’s preferred outlet) says that Katie is close two Jamie’s two girls (one of which is younger than suri) and that Jamie has spent only a little time with suri. That must be part of her divorce agreement right? They’ve been together for 5 years now and he’s a great dad to his own girls and his friends kids so why is he not close to suri?
Everyone should know about the intimidation practices, the lies, the bullying and threats to former members, the people used as servants in the Sea Org etc etc by now.
Scientology is a totalitarian cult with fascist leanings, hence I don’t get why movie projects still employ people like Elisabeth Moss, Ben Foster, Giovanni Ribisi, and especially Tom Cruise.
Hollywood doesn’t give a crap about the morals of its employees as long as they make money for their employers. It’s the same reason why Weinstein operated for so long, why Bryan Singer still works, why the child molesters there are still in power. Just like in other industries, when these people stop being profitable, they will be dropped. Then we’ll hear Hollywood feign shock and moral outrage at the behavior of some of its members. The hypocrisy would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic.
I have a lot more sympathy for second generation Scientologists like Elisabeth Moss who would lose their entire family if they leave the church. It’s insidious. It’s a cult. But there are human beings inside of it.
Anyone who doubts what she is saying needs to read survivor’s statements. She absolutely can lose custody of her kid, because the cult will orchestrate or fabricate what they need to make that happen. The sad part is how many people hate this cult but still live in denial of the level of crime and conspiracy (not theory) the cult is willing to go to in order to silence others. I come from a similar cult, and those who reached the highest levels before the 90s swore to kill anyone who revealed the secrets of those levels. It is not a joke. You have a legitimate hit out on you if you are outspoken.
Shudder. Shades of the Ford hearings amirite? Probably kAtie (and future victims/past victims that have not come forward) realizes the pain she would put her child, Family, loved ones through is not worth speaking out.
That is my biggest fear of these decisions btw. It’s not just about the individual victims, it’s about setting precedents moving forward.
Sure Leah that’s it maybe she doesn’t associate with you because you can’t keep your trap shut to the media. I don’t buy she would lose custody no way Katie would ever leave Tom with full custody of Suri if she didn’t have everything go her way before she pulled that trigger. Her father and brother are divorce lawyers for crying out loud…
Now if Katie hasn’t spoken out well its possible she just doesn’t care either and probably won’t say anything because she’s moved on with her life. She’s not going to write a tell all or do any of those things because it has never been her style to do so.
I think the divorce agreement was more or less like this :
– Katie : shuts up about Scientology and Tom’s dirty little secrets in general, not allowed to date publicly for five years, doesn’t talk about religion, doesn’t hang out with suppressive people so that nobody in that crazy cult loses face.
– Tom : leaves Katie alone, pays lots of money, leaves full legal and physical custody of Suri to Katie.
I am so glad that Katie managed to escape. I read Tony Ortega’s blog and it’s honestly both frightening and sad.
When Leah left Scie, all she did was criticise Katie, Scientology makes you snitch on people and right reports and Katie did that to her, and in a small voice, and quick words , Leah said she did the same. Katie will never talk, as some one just wrote , its not her style, but Leah knows if she mentions Katies name in her interview , it will get max coverage, but let’s be honest Leah is making a lot of money out of this.
It’s obvious Katie just wants to get on with her life, protect her daughter, and probably tries to forget whatever she went through. Katie was branded hostile, by her so called auditers, and they were punished when she took off, because they didn’t see it coming.
At least Leah is speaking out. She’s taking a risk and also has kids. Katie has done zero to help victims of the cult.
It’s in Katie’s divorce agreement that she can’t talk about Scientology. I think her daughters safety is the most important to her. The small statement she gave to Leah during her 20/20 was telling but it’s all she can get away with. Leah is in a different position as her whole family got out with her, it’s a very different scenario to Katie divorcing the second most important person in the cult. Plus Leah is a pit bull, Katie is tougher than she looks but she’s not out there starting fights with everybody.
Leah knows nothing compared to Katie, because Katie had a lot of pillow talk with Tom, she probably knows so many personal and private things about everybody connected with Scie and you are not that friendly with somebody when you continually called them (katie) new kid on the block, because katie was getting better treatment than Leah was, if you call the things that went on better treatment.
Leah lost me on this, she is exposing things on Scie, but I think her main agenda is filling her pocket as well. Katie will never talk, she has never talked about any of the, men in her life, even Chris Klien who she was engaged to . All I see is a woman who tries to protect her child as much as she can. Bet Katie has a lot of secrets, locked inside her, and probably that is where they will stay, and Tom knows it, because again Katie will do anything that is right for her daughter, and exposing her ex and suris father is not going to happen.