I tried watching “Smash” last night. I watched as much of it as I could take. Apparently, I wasn’t alone. Most of the people who watched the Betty White special on NBC also tuned out as “Smash” smooshed along. Betty had about 6 million viewers at 8pm. “Smash” had 4.4 million at 9pm. Everything did better–“NCIS,” “New Girl,” “Vegas,” even “Raising Hope.” I even sampled “Mindy Kaling” for five minutes.

For the “Smash” return, they enlisted Jennifer Hudson to be in a faux Broadway musical, and she was simply outstanding. Returning as the lead character–the producer of a Broadway show– Anjelica Huston is a movie star–looking like Cleopatra who ate the canary. Debra Messing is a fave, too. “Smash” is pretty much over, I would think. A worthy experiment. But no one knew how to write a nighttime soap.

“Smash” has too many heroines, and no one to root for. I couldn’t figure out if Megan Hilty or Katharine McPhee was the star. (If you know, please email me.) The men are all foreign or gay or both, and very poorly defined as characters. Jack Davenport kept squinting — I thought he was trying to read the TelePrompter. The most hilarious part–and this is where I got out to look for a hockey game–was when McPhee discovered a waiter and a bartender in a restaurant had written the next great Broadway musical. Are you really kidding or what?

Then there was a kind of nod to the “Rebecca” scandal of last year–Huston’s producer character has been taking mysterious money–is it mob money or what? It was so out of character. And anyway, Huston was the Oscar winning star of “Prizzi’s Honor.” She’s too smart for that. It made no sense.

And the Devils beat the Rangers.

Jenna Miscavige Hill writes in her must-read book: “It remains a mystery to me how, in our current society, this [Scientology] can go on unchecked. It is particularly insidious because of its celebrity advocates and affiliated groups, such as Narconon, Applied Scholastics, and the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. I feel that people should be warned about what the Church truly is, who its founder really was, what really goes on there, the lengths it is willing to go to, and what they are willing to sacrifice in the name of achieving their ends. The ends themselves are shrouded in secrecy and conflicting information. Scientology always has been a game of power and control. L. Ron Hubbard was the ultimate con man, and it’s hard to figure out how much of Scientology was an experiment in brainwashing and controlling people, and how much of it was truly intended to help people.”

The book is “Beyond Belief: My Secret Life in Scientology and My Harrowing Escape.” This young woman was raised in Scientology but has indeed escaped with many members of her own family and her inlaws, to tell the story. Her uncle is David Miscavige, the mysterious leader of the cult who has been accused of mental and physical brutality by former members. He’s also Tom Cruise’s BFF, Cruise’s idol, and the man who probably drove the biggest wedge into Nicole Kidman’s life with Cruise.

Hill’s book is as fascinating as Lawrence Wright’s new “Going Clear.” It should leave no question about the extreme dangers of Scientology as a cult. Hill pulls no punches either. I was very happy to see she calls Tommy Davis, son of actress Anne Archer, and the group’s number 1 hatchet man, “cowardly.”  I know all about this: I was attacked verbally by Davis and Kelly Preston in August 2008 in the lobby bar of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee the night before Isaac Hayes’s funeral. This pair eventually came to New York in an effort to get me fired from Fox News that fall.

Hill does not have a lot of gossip about the Scientology celebrities like Cruise, Travolta and Kirstie Alley. Her boyfriend, now her husband, “audited” Cruise personally. This means that Dallas Hill knows all the secrets any tabloid would pay millions for about Cruise’s personal life. Jenna observes that Nicole Kidman was basically not a believer, and was someone Scientology wanted get rid of. Mission: accomplished.

Jenna writes: “[because he was married to] Nicole Kidman, who was not as committed to the Church, Tom had been labeled a “Potential Trouble Source,” which had interfered with his progress in Scientology. Because Nicole’s father was in the psychology field, this made perfect sense. We were taught that those in the mental health field were bad and evil.”

Once Cruise divorced Kidman in a brutal and public way– by trying to pretend their marriage hadn’t last ten years and by making cryptic remarks about her– he became re-committed to Scientology and started jumping on couches, fighting with Matt Lauer, etc.

Jenna: Aunt Shelly [David Miscavige’s wife, unseen in public since 2007] … proceeded to go on about how similar Tom Cruise and Uncle Dave were, in that they were both very intense. Apparently, people called them by the same nickname, which had something to do with the word “laser.” I told Aunt Shelly how it seemed to me that Nicole wasn’t really into Scientology, and she seemed surprised that I had figured that out, saying I was exactly right and it was a problem they were trying to solve.”

One can only feel sympathy for Kidman, who was pared away from her children. It was extremely painful, but she’s remained mum to keep her connection with them.

Order Jenna’s book. Read Wright’s book. And Jenna is correct: it’s amazing this is still going on.

Reg Presley, 71, the man who made “Wild Thing”–you make my heart sing–famous–has died in the U.K. Presley was leader of the Troggs. Their hit “Wild Thing” is one of the great treasures of international pop music. The group had a couple of other hits including “Love is All Around,” which was covered more recently by Wet Wet Wet. But “Wild Thing” remains their one off monster, sort of like “96 Tears,” “Louie Louie,” or “Build Me Up Buttercup.” In the UK, the Troggs were huge, and even played at Sting and Trudie Styler‘s wedding, where everyone joined in on “Wild Thing.” Reg Presley will be missed…

…Sting performed a moving rendition of “Fields of Gold” last week in Los Angeles at the memorial service for A&M Records’ beloved Gil Friesen. Gil worked with Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss to make A&M Records an independent power house in the 1970s and 80s, launching The Police, Sting, as well as Carole King, Cat Stevens, Billy Preston, the Carpenters, and my favorite A&M Single of all time, “Do You Know What I Mean” by Lee Michaels. A&M star Bryan Adams sang “Heaven,” Suzanne Vega performed a song she wrote for Gil, Herb Alpert and Lani Hall did a duet on “I’ll Remember You.” Other guests included Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers of The Police, Sting’s manager and Gil’s friend Kathy Schenker, manager Derek Power, artist Ed Ruscha, Tom Freston, Peter Morton, and Jann Wenner…Speakers included Friesen’s two sons, aged 7 and 57. (That isn’t a typo.)

…Jane Campion is a champion filmmaker. She’ll also head up the Cinefondation and Short Films jury at Cannes this year, it was announced this morning. The award winning director of “The Piano” and “Portrait of a Lady” is a terrific choice, and just the beginning of the announcements from Cannes…