This Is Getting A Bit Weird...

So I'm watching TV on Friday night and I happen to catch the 20/20 episode with Leah Remini. By now the entire world knows that Leah, a once famous member of the Church of Scientology, is a Scientologist no longer. Leah has just written a book entitled, "Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology". In this controversial memoir Remini makes some stunning claims about her former church and it's teachings. Many of those claims have included the most famous Scientologist, Tom Cruise.

I thought this to be an interesting topic that I have little knowledge about, so I  continued to watch. Remini was a child who was brought into Scientology by her mother. So immersed in the church she became, that as a teen she attended the prestigious Sea Org, reserved for Scientology's most dedicated members. Remini claims that her education comprised of only Scientology related subjects, and she was dedicated to working her way successfully up the "Bridge of Scientology" which is much like climbing a ladder.  Remini admits to horrid living conditions while there and remembers getting in trouble for acts she committed with her then "boyfriend" that were prohibited by the church. Regardless of her previous discretion's, Remini continued to practice Scientology for 30 years.

It wasn't until her acting career took off and she became a celebrity when she was invited to the 2006 wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes that she began to question things that were happening in the church. Her most stunning claims:

• As a member of The Sea Org, Remini was required to sigh a billion year contract. Scientologists believe in reincarnation and are required to rejoin the church when they are reborn.
• Remini and her husband were recruited to teach Tom Cruise and his then-girlfriend salsa dancing. During the lesson, Tom was forcibly kissing Katie Holmes to which Remini responded for them to "get a room". She was immediately written up and sent into "succession". (a form of punishment in the church)
• Told by the church to invite her friend Jennifer Lopez and her then husband Marc Anthony to the Cruise wedding, she then realized that the church purposely sat them at different tables and purposely kept them away from each other during the evening. 
• Remini, perplexed about the absence of her friend Shelly Miscavage, the wife of Scientology leader David, at Tom and Katie's wedding, questioned Shelly's whereabouts to which she was immediately written up and disciplined. 

But here's the most perplexing thing, Remini says in her book, " I am an apostate. I have lied, I have cheated, I have been selfish and have been a horrible wife and mother." Remini says those things in her book because she claims she knows how the church deals with people like her. "I wanted to be the first one to say it."

For their part, The Church of Scientology had plenty to say about Remini, all of it not becoming to an organization that calls itself a church. Their entire statement can be found HERE. The language they use to denounce Remini is troubling at best. The Church Of Scientology, calling Remini in a public statement, "self-absorbed, shallow and spoiled", it was Remini who claims to have voluntarily left the church. Scientology refutes that fact in their statement. Of Remini's departure they said,

"Her repeated ethical lapses and callous treatment of others led to an ecclesiastical review which resulted in her being expelled. She now regurgitates the tired myths the Church has repeatedly debunked, circulated by the same tiny clique of expelled former staffers bitter at having lost the positions they enjoyed before their malfeasance and unethical conduct were uncovered. Ms. Remini is now joined at the hip with this collection of deadbeats, admitted liars, self-admitted perjurers, wife beaters and worse."

I'm now beginning to understand why Nicole Kidman never stayed with nor had much contact with her kids after her 2011 divorce to Tom Cruise. I often wondered how a woman could leave her children. Now the picture is becoming clearer and clearer.

Evidently-Nicole was "self-absorbed, shallow and spoiled" too.

WTF?

I'm saddened over yesterday's news of the tragedy in Virginia. Three young people snuffed out because of hatred.

It's unfathomable that a mentally and emotionally disturbed person ONCE AGAIN kills because he/she feels he should, or could. This headline is becoming more and more common in our society. What is this world coming to? This time a young, accomplished duo of journalists and the woman they were interviewing were gunned down. Three lost their lives and the other is fighting for hers. I say three because the shooter killed himself and although it's easy to not care about his life, we must.

Were there warning signs?

Yes, the shooter was fired from jobs multiple times for "disturbing behavior" but how are we to predict he would turn his anger into a deadly tragedy? The Shooter reportedly faxed a 23 page "suicide note" to ABC News two hours after the shooting. In his missive he claimed to be upset over the recent racially charged, deadly church shootings in South Carolina. He said he admired the shooters of Columbine High School and Virginia Tech and called one "my boy right there".

The question we are left with today is how do we prevent this? Can we?

Because a journalist should be able to report from the field without fear, students should be able to learn in a safe environment and church goers should be able to worship in their sacred place without a lock on the door.

And one more deadly shooting headline is one too many.

Trending Topics

We here at The Daily Dandy are nothing if not trendy. So today we offer you a minuscule sampling of the topics that we are all talking about:

• #1 Trending Topic on Facebook: "Orange Is The New Black" show writer Lauren Morelli divorces her husband after two years of marriage and reveals that she is dating Samira Wiley, who plays Poussey, a lesbian inmate on the hit show. WOW, this is one hell of a story. Morelli says she realized her first day on the set that indeed, she may be gay and living a life somewhat parallel with the show's lead character, Piper. Months into a new marriage to a man, Morelli finds through the show's story lines that everything she thought to be true about herself now may be wrong. She has since worked through her feelings and came out publicly as gay. 

• #1 Trending Topic on Twitter: "Justin Beiber and Selena Gomez Get Cozy In Las Vegas." This is most unbelievable to me. Of all the things that are going on around the world, Twitter followers want to talk about Justin Beiber and Selena Gomez. Really? The Twitterverse seems far more concerned about the fact that Justin and Selena are back together and that Selena was photographed wearing a bikini.  I'm embarrassed for us all. 

• #1 Trending Topic On Google: "Miss America" The story here is that for the third year in a row New York has been crowned the Miss America winner. 23 year-old Kira Kazantsev's platform was Domestic Violence (how timely) and her talent portion was a rendition of Pharell's "Happy" accompanied by a plastic red Solo cup. Looks like pageants are big business in this part of the world. 

• #1 Trending Topic On ABC.com: "NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell criticized on airplane banners, TV broadcasts." It wasn't any given Sunday for Roger Goodell yesterday. His leadership was questioned by pre-game commentators and banners flew on airplanes over 3 stadiums bearing the message #Goodellmustgo. Goodell will most likey go-due to his dishonest bungling of the Ray Rice debacle. While I don't believe everyone has all the answers on how to handle a messy situation right away, I think lying about how you handled it is worse. 

And some quick hits (most requested) according to Google Trends for the month of August:

Actors: Robin Williams (#2 Arianna Grande)

Authors: William Shakespeare (#2 Martin Luther King, Jr)

Cocktails: Martini (#2 Bloody Mary)

Colleges: Pennsylvania State University (#2 University of Southern California) 

Dog Breed: Bulldog (#2 Pit bull)

Foods: Pizza (#2 Chicken)

Government Bodies: US Senate (#2 FBI)

Movies: Guardians of the Galaxy (#2 Frozen)

Musical artists: Niki Manaj (#2 Beyonce)

Politicians: Barack Obama (#2 John F. Kennedy)

Songs: Happy Birthday to You (#2 Shake it Off)

Sports Teams: Dallas Cowboys (#2 Manchester United FC)

TV Shows: Keeping Up With the Kardashians (#2 Dr. Who)

US Senators: Rick Perry (#2 Arnold Schwarzenegger)

Somewhere In The Middle

You know the old saying..there are three sides to every story; her side, his side and somewhere in the middle lies the truth. This comes to mind as I peruse the news stories and the media  hooplah surrounding the open letter Dylan Farrow, adopted daughter of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen,  wrote which was recently published in the  the New York Times Op Ed. 

The letter recounts the story of how Woody Allen sexually abused Dylan when she was a young child of eight years old in her mother's house. The fallout has lit up a firestorm of commentary, opinions and open discussion of sexual abuse, thereby causing Woody Allen to publish a rebuttal in the New York Times this past Sunday. 

She said. He said.

When I read Dylan's open letter, my heart went out to that little girl, laying on her stomach in the "closet like room in the attic".  The letter, published earlier this month, was in response to the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award Allen was given by his peers at January's Golden Globe Awards. Dylan Farrow wanted everyone to know what she has always known. I have to wonder what she would have to gain by publicly outing this dark secret, except complete redemption from a victim to a perp. Why else? 

Then there's his response. Throughout his rebuttal were these words:

Dispositive

Acrimonious

Enmity 

Malevolence

Equivocation 

Insidiously 

I wrote them down. Each one indicative of anger, deceit and bitterness. These words were not so much directed at Dylan but at her mother, Mia Farrow. Herin lies the crux of this story. The failed relationship between Allen and Farrow. The children somehow became fallout and maybe Dylan believed that her story became a victim of that fallout too. Maybe that's why she wrote the letter. 

He said, she said. Somewhere in the middle....

The sad truth is what the judge in this case said many years ago when bringing this litigation to a close; we may never know the truth. 

Because whatever the truth is now lost to all but the two people who know it. What we are left with is a peek into this dark story and our opinions. Some on his side, some on her side. 

And the rest of us? We too, fall somewhere in the middle.