Editorials › Andrew Morton, Beck, celebrity, Celebrity Centre, Chick Corea, David Miscavige, death, Europe, Giovanni Ribisi, Great Britain, Hollywood, Isaac Hayes, Jason Lee, Jenna Elfman, John Sweeney, John Travolta, Juliette Lewis, Katie Holmes, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley, Lisa Marie Presley, London, Nancy Cartwright, Nicole Kidman, Office of Special Affairs, Panorama, psychiatry, Sea Org, Suppressive Person, Tom Cruise, Victoria Beckham, Will Smith
Published on Thursday 14th February 2008
I was skimming through High Winds when I came across an article winningly headlined ‘Handling Suppression on the Fourth Dynamic’ (by then I had learnt that the ‘fourth dynamic’ meant the whole of mankind). In a tone of unforgiving militancy, it talked of ‘eradicating SPs’, and crowed about how they had ’shut down’ one particular defector who had criticised the movement. ‘Unemployed and abandoned by his family, this squirrel had schemed to make money by hawking his lies in a book. But the Office of Special Affairs had a court declare his book libellous. He has now been forced into bankruptcy…’
Editorials › Beck, California, celebrity, Charles Manson, Ethan Suplee, Giovanni Ribisi, Greg Garcia, Internal Revenue Service, Isaac Hayes, Jason Lee, John Sweeney, John Travolta, Juliette Lewis, Katie Holmes, Kirstie Alley, L. Ron Hubbard, My Name is Earl, Panorama, Priscilla Presley, South Park, Tom Cruise, TV, United States of America
Published on Saturday 9th June 2007
The brilliantly slick My Name Is Earl carries the karmic principle through to its logical/absurd conclusion with reformed felon Earl Hickey making up for past wrongs by doing good deeds. It’s a feelgood kind of show. Yet there’s something rotten at the heart of Earl if you believe the whispers. Critics claim there’s an unholy influence by the Church of Scientology on the show with jobs for the boys and a crypto religious subtext just two of the allegations. I thought it was all about making a better world?
