Leah Remini and The Church Of Scientology have been publicly criticizing each other for more than a decade, but their shared war of words has gotten a lot more intense this week. First, the longtime King Of Queens star filed a lawsuit, accusing the religious organization she belonged to for decades of “psychological torture” amongst many other grievances. Now, the organization has fired back with its own statement that tells her to “consider emigrating to Russia.”
The Church Of Scientology has always been more forward than most religious organizations with its public statements, but even against those expectations, this latest one in response to Leah Remini’s lawsuit has a lot of heat on it. It refers to the actress as “an anti-free speech bigot” and accuses her of producing “paid for tabloid hate television.” You can read a portion of the full statement below…
If Remini can no longer get a job, she has nobody to blame but herself. Obviously everybody in Hollywood now knows what we already knew: That Remini is a horrible person and toxic to so many who have the misfortune to come in contact with her. While Remini was in the Church, she had to restrain her antisocial traits. She said so herself—that Scientology was the only thing keeping her “monster” at bay. The Church is not intimidated by Remini’s latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech. If Remini does not believe in free speech, then she should consider emigrating to Russia.
Of course, Remini didn’t mince words in her public statement about Scientology that preceded this either. In addition to filing the lawsuit, the actress threw up her own middle fingers on social media and explained why she decided to take her long-running battle to the courtroom. She accused The Church of silencing thousands of people over the years and said people should have the right to speak their mind without being intimidated or harassed. Here’s a portion of her quote…
For 17 years, Scientology and David Miscavige have subjected me to what I believe to be psychological torture, defamation, surveilance, harassment, and intimidation, significantly impacting my life and career. I believe I am not the first person targeted by Scientology and its operations, but I intend to be the last.
The very public back-and-forth allegedly began more quietly all the way back in 2006 at Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise’s wedding. The often repeated story is that Remini asked about why leader David Miscavige’s wife Shelly wasn’t at the wedding. She was allegedly told she didn’t have the rank to ask about such things, and the argument allegedly led to her being investigated by The Church. The relationship steadily worsened until she publicly left in 2013. In the time since, she’s talked very openly about problems she sees with The Church and even produced documentaries about its alleged abuses.
Earlier this year, Remini was very vocal during the sexual assault trials of Scientologist Danny Masterson. It’s unclear whether her very public statements during the legal proceedings set in motion the renewed problems between the actress and her former Church, but her lawsuit was officially filed on August 2nd.
Both sides are used to commenting publicly about the other, but with the case now in front of the legal system, it’s unclear if lawyers will instruct both sides to be quieter than usual. Either way, expect to hear a lot about the case as its works its way through the process.
