Editorials › celebrity, Isaac Hayes, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Nancy Cartwright, Priscilla Presley, South Park, Tom Cruise, TV, Will Smith, Xenu
Published on Wednesday 6th February 2008
Last year the Cheers foil donated $5m to the Church of Scientology. That’s more than big tippers Priscilla Presley ($50,000), or John Travolta ($1m), and nudges her ahead of Scientology’s poster boy, Tom Cruise, who donated the same amount over four years.
But all of them have been dwarfed by a contribution from a celebrity more famous and loved than any of them: Bart Simpson.
It’s upsetting enough that the Fresh Prince has been reportedly handing out Scientology personality tests to his film crew, but it has emerged that the voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright, once the idiot savant voice of reason in a world gone screamingly wacko, donated $10m to the Church in 2007.
Editorials › celebrity, Celebrity Centre, Clearwater, Fair Game policy, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Florida, Greg Garcia, Hollywood, Isaac Hayes, John Travolta, Katie Holmes, L. Ron Hubbard, litigation, Los Angeles, Mary Sue Hubbard, My Name is Earl, Operation Snow White, Paul Haggis, Paulette Cooper, politics, Priscilla Presley, psychiatry, Sea Org, South Park, Tom Cruise, TV, United States of America, Will Smith, Xenu
Published on Sunday 20th January 2008
In July, 1968, following a governmental review, the Minister of Health told Parliament that the organisation “alienates members of families from each other” and had “authoritarian principles and practices” that were a “potential menace to the personality and well being of those so deluded as to become its followers”.
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?
