All the Reasons Why Leah Remini Really Hates Scientology
By Elizabeth Durand Streisand
October 31, 2015
Messy breakups are the worst — just ask Leah Remini. In anticipation of the release of her memoir, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, the 45-year-old actress gave an exclusive (and scathing) interview to 20/20 about her experience as a member of the Church of Scientology. Unlike many celebrities who come to Scientology by way of Hollywood, Remini was led to the religion by her mother and, consequently, spent three whole decades as a practicing Scientologist before cutting ties in 2013.
Not surprisingly, ABC News revealed that the Church of Scientology “hand-delivered” a packet to their office with “damning” claims about the The King of Queens star. In a nutshell, the church claims that Remini is making things up in a desperate plea for attention. We’ll just add that to the list of reasons she really hates the religion — here are the others.
1. She was forced to work an industrial sander when she was still a child.
Shortly after joining the church, Remini’s mother, Vicki Marshall, placed both Leah and her sister Nicole in the Sea Org, a group of Scientology “volunteers” who dedicate their lives to the church. According to Leah, the living conditions were abysmal and the work ranged from unpleasant at best (like being part of a cleaning crew) to unsafe at worst (like, umm, working an industrial sander).
Though Sea Org members are required to sign a billion-year contract (yes, billion with a “b”), Leah was basically kicked out after one year for not living up to the ethical standards of the group. What did she do wrong, exactly? She let her boyfriend lightly brush his hand over her shirt.
2. One time she had to watch Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes awkwardly make out.
Remini revealed that one night a church official randomly called her to go over to Tom Cruise’s house and teach him how to salsa dance. She didn’t comment on whether, at the time, she thought that was a strange request or not (seems a little odd to us), but she did confirm that she and her husband, Angelo Pagan, headed to Cruise’s abode. (For the record, Pagan used to be in a salsa band so perhaps Cruise considered him an authority on the subject.)
In any case, when the couple arrived, they were met by two church officials and Cruise, who was otherwise engaged with his then-new girlfriend — Dawson’s Creek alum, Katie Holmes.
“He was like, forcibly kissing Kate,” Remini explained with a slight shudder. “I said, ‘Hey, get a frickin’ room,’ and I was written up for that.” ICYMI, “getting written up” means you have to go to auditing sessions where you spend hours hooked up to some little machine that measures your energy so you can make amends for your wrongs… but the really unfortunate thing is that no amount of auditing can wipe that visual of Tom aggressively sucking face with Katie from your mind.
3. She’s not drinking the Tom Cruise Kool-Aid.
We all already knew the Church of Scientology (basically) worships Tom Cruise, but Remini honed in on the issue more pointedly than others who’ve critiqued the religion in the past. After seeing the international movie star attack Brooke Shields for her postpartum depression and jumping up and down like a lunatic on Oprah’s couch declaring his love for Holmes, Remini started to question whether he was a good representative of the religion. That was a big no-no.
According to Leah, being critical of Cruise is “being critical of Scientology itself.” She went on to clarify, “You are a person who is 'anti’ the aims and goals of Scientology. You are 'evil.’”
4. She believes that during his wedding to Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise actively tried to keep Remini away from her friends Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony.
OK, so this might sound petty at first, but Tom was the one who asked Leah to invite the singing superstar couple to his nuptials in the first place. Though she agreed and extended the invitation, she noted, “The church was really the one who invited them, on Tom’s behalf.”
Then, once they arrived at the lavish, three-day affair, Remini reports that she was kept far, far away from her friends. Remini isn’t certain what the motivation was, but suspects church officials were “trying to extract” her “because they wanted to make Jennifer a Scientologist” and thought Remini might get in the way. This isn’t as bad as being forced to operate a giant piece of dangerous machinery before you can legally drive a car, but we can see how that might rub someone the wrong way.
5. Katie Holmes personally filed a knowledge report against her.
Many people in the church were not happy with Remini after Tom and Katie’s “wedding of the century,” and she was presented with a “knowledge report” (i.e. a documented grievance) filed against her by the bride herself, Katie Holmes.
“I was dismayed at the behavior of Leah Remini during the events leading up to our wedding and our wedding,” the newly minted Mrs. Cruise wrote. “The behavior as a guest, a friend, was very upsetting.”
For the record, the following year, Remini wrote a letter to the Chairman of the Board of Scientology, David Miscavige, denouncing her behavior herself. “I acted like a complete idiot at the wedding,” she admitted in the note — though during the 20/20 interview, she explained that at the time, she was petrified of leaving the only church she’d ever known.
6. She gave $2.5 million to Scientology charities.
Yes, Remini is wealthy, but $2.5 million is still a lot of cash. What’s more, it wasn’t very clear what these charities actually were. This also doesn’t count the tens of thousands (or more) that Remini spent “moving up” the ranks in Scientology courses. Hey, if we spent that much money on something we later decided wasn’t such a great cause, we’d be a little angry too.
7. She was reprimanded, repeatedly, for asking where Shelly Miscavige was.
It was first at Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’s wedding that Leah noticed one person was notably absent: David Miscavige’s wife, Shelly. According to Remini, Shelly was always with David, so it was rather odd that she didn’t attend such an important, church-related affair. During the events, Leah asked where Shelly was, and received literally no response — but when she kept asking in the months that followed, the church cracked down on her, ultimately sending two officials (who sounded more like thugs the way she described them) to tell her to cut it out.
8. Despite all of that, she still can’t move on.
Host Dan Harris closed by presenting Leah with the Church of Scientology’s official statement about her claims. “Given Leah Remini’s insatiable desire for attention, it comes as no surprise that for two years she has been incapable of moving on with her life and remains obsessed with shamelessly exploiting her former religion in an attempt to get publicity,” he said.
Remini didn’t miss a beat. “Yes, I agree with them. I wish that I too could get over 30 years of this, quickly,” she noted before adding, “Unfortunately, it’s going to take time.”
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