Let's Dish

I am going to watch the F out of the Leah Remini Scientology docuseries

There is truly nothing more American than Scientology. A cishet white dude made a creation myth, founded his own church surrounding it, and turned it into an extremely insular, lucrative business that relies heavily on the suffering of its members. This is, weirdly, the kind of behavior the Puritans were laughed out of Europe for being so into. Scientology’s also tied to the extremely American showbusiness industry, one of our great contributions to world culture (second only maybe to something like war or having a wild ‘tude).

Anyway, former King of Queens actor and Scientologist Leah Remini recently escaped the church, and is releasing a docuseries for A&E about what that’s been like. In 2015, she released a memoir that detailed a lot of her own experiences (and her concerns about Scientology’s safety and legitimacy), but now it looks like she’s interviewing other people whose lives have been touched by the organization.

For Remini, one of the major deterrents from the church was the disappearance of dear friend (and wife of the church’s leader) Shelly Miscavige. Miscavige hasn’t been seen or heard from in nearly ten years, and from the looks of the trailer, Remini’s docuseries does not paint a flattering picture of husband David:

Will she flat-out accuse him of killing his wife? Holding her hostage? Sending her to Mars? There’s only one way to find out.

Also! If you haven’t watched HBO’s Scientology documentary Going Clear yet, I highly rec that you do as an appetizer for this eight-part television event. Prior to seeing that, my understanding of the church was essentially, “Something about aliens and the word Xenu?” But after the documentary I’m able to say things like, “Seems bad!” and, “It’s a cult!” and, “I wonder if Tom Cruise and David Miscavige are dating!”

So feel free to watch Going Clear on HBO Go and then let me know if you think Tom and David have boinked. That’d actually be a huge favor. You can tweet your opinions and any resulting slash fic to @christinefriar—I will be standing by.

And if you haven’t abandoned your life to join Sea Org after that experience, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath will air on A&E Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 10 p.m. (and hopefully appear on pirating sites minutes thereafter).