Showbiz411

In the end Scientology will be taken down over money. Interesting, huh? A wealthy couple from Irvine, California are suing the Church of Scientology and its leader David Miscavige for fraud. Long time members of the cult, Luis and Rocio Garcia filed in federal court in Tampa, Florida. They say they’ve invested in something Scientology calls the “Super Power Building” in Clearwater, Florida that was begun in 1998 and has never opened. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Power_Building

The Garcias have found a high powered Tampa attorney, Theodore Babbitt, who’s already held a press conference down there and started up a P.R. machine.

The story– with a video you should watch– appears in today’s Tampa Tribune. http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/couples-lawsuit-accuses-church-of-scientology-of-fraud-deception/1271893

Scientology, of course, denies all the accusations. But the lawsuit comes at a propitious moment, as Lawrence Wright’s book, “Going Clear,” is a bestseller and sheds new light on the religious cult that has been accused of all kinds of things from fraud to brainwashing to torture. All of the last year has been a bad time for Scientology. Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie “The Master” depicted a fictitious version of the cult’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard and his Cause– a cult that walked and talked like Scientology.

The group was hurt earlier last year when Tom Cruise’s wife, actress Katie Holmes, managed to “escape” from their marriage to New York. Holmes managed to get the quickest Hollywood divorce ever– it took two weeks and Cruise signed on the dotted line. But during those two weeks, Scientology was blamed for the break up. Ex Scientologists came out of the woodwork. Cruise, it’s thought, acquiesced quickly rather than expose the group to more investigation.

Another book, due shortly, is from Miscavige’s niece, Jenna Miscavige Hill, who publicly left the organization and has since been very vocal about its inner workings.

This week, Kim Masters, one of my favorite colleagues in the Hollywood press, wrote a great piece about her own experiences dealing with Scientology. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tom-cruise-scientology-why-media-414256.

I’ve had my own encounters with this scary group– that’s for another time. For now, the Garcias, they say, are just the beginning as Babbitt courageously takes on more cases down in Tampa.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.