SCIENTOLOGY LEADER CAN'T HANDLE
THE HEAT ON XENU, STORMS OUT ON MARTIN BASHIR
by Foster Kamer
October 25, 2009
ABC's Nightline
ran a special on Scientology this weekend. It was typically strange and
disconcerting, but nothing necessarily new. Except: What could provoke
their spokesman to storm off the set of an interview? We get to learn.
Paging Lord Xenu.
Martin Bashir was grilling Scientology spokesthing Tommy Davis regarding
Xenu, the intergalactic god who did or did not come to Earth 75 million
years ago to bury his people in volcanos. Bashir asks Davis a very
simple question: Do you guys believe in this crazy shit? Is Xenu and his
people-pod volcano plot part of your religion? Etc. Watch what Davis
does, starting at about 2:45 for context, but 3:40 if you just want to
see him freak out and stomp off.
Why would Davis
stomp off? Bashir wasn't asking him to explain Xenu, or justify Xenu, or
even to provide context around Xenu. All he was asking was: Do you guys
believe in an intergalactic God named Xenu? Is this part of your
religion?
How is that an unfair line of inquiry? That's like feigning indignation
at a line of inquiry asking whether or not Jews have horns. How can you?
Of course we don't, you moron! But if we do, well, it's not a silly
question, is it? Is it?!?
TOMMY DAVIS:
SCIENTOLOGY'S NEW ANGRY, UNSTABLE PITCHMAN
October 27, 2009
Tommy Davis, the
latest chief spokesman and outraged-interview-cutter-offer for the
Church of Scientology, is a callow Hollywood brat, Tom Cruise hanger-on,
and "drug revert" who thinks "L. Ron Hubbard is the coolest guy ever."
Scientology has a
long history of spastic, sweaty spokespersons with creepy laughs who
eventually crack under the pressure and leave the organization. There
was Robert Vaughn Young, who publicly renounced the church in 1989 after
decades in its leadership. He was followed by Mike Rinder, an unhinged
Australian bulldog who decided to stop lying for church leader David
Miscavige last year and spoke out publicly about the cult's bizarre and
arbitrary cruelty in June.
The latest
inheritor of Young and Rinder's mantle as the unsettling public face of
scientology is Tommy Davis, the head of the cult's Celebrity Centre in
Los Angeles. Davis lived up to the role last week by walking out on ABC
News's Martin Bashir during a Nightline interview after Bashir asked him
about Xenu, the intergalactic warlord that Hubbard believed is
responsible for saddling us all with a bunch of crazy body thetans.
So who is this
guy, and how long before he cracks up and turns against the church like
all the rest?
He's a
Hollywood scion.
Davis, 37, is the
son of actress Anne Archer and Jeffrey Davis, a real estate investor.
According to Rolling Stone's Janet Reitman, Davis "freely admits to
being a Hollywood rich kid. He dresses in Italian suits, drives a BMW
and is addicted to his Blackberry. 'I have enough money to never work a
day in my life,' he says."
He's Tom
Cruise's BFF.
According to the
Daily Beast's Kim Masters, Davis spent nearly a decade as Cruise's
"personal, full-time, assigned Scientology handler." Claire Headley, a
former Scientologist who left the cult five years ago, tells Masters:
"'He filtered everything, reported on what [Cruise] was doing to [Church
of Scientology leader] David Miscavige.' Officially, Davis was assigned
to the church's president's office in the Celebrity Centre, she
continues, but he was essentially with Cruise full-time from the late
1990s until 2005." Davis worked intimately with Miscavige on the
deeply
strange Tom Cruise tribute video that was leaked to Gawker last year.
He goes for
stunts.
When the BBC's
John Sweeney decided to make a documentary about Scientology two years
ago for Panorama, Davis and his then-colleague Rinder decided to make a
"counter-documentary," and succeeded in goading Sweeney into an angry
outburst that they caught on camera and distributed widely in order to
discredit him. Davis harangued Sweeney mercilessly in the middle of
Scientology's graphic "Psychiatry: Industry of Death" exhibit, and
Sweeney later said of his enraged response: "I felt they were trying to
control my mind." In the course of the same documentary, Davis walked
out of an interview after Sweeney called Scientology a "sinister cult."
After walking out on Bashir last week, Davis reportedly showed up
unannounced at ABC News headquarters less than an hour before
Nightline's airtime and demanded that the piece be spiked. He was
rebuffed.
Panorama reporter's outburst at Hollywood
star's son is captured on video
by David Smith, The Observer, Sunday 13
May 2007
A Journalist at Panorama, the BBC's
flagship current affairs series, has been reprimanded
for losing his temper and screaming with rage during the
making of an investigation into the Church of
Scientology.
John Sweeney has apologised for the
outburst against a scientologist which was filmed and
then put on the video-sharing website YouTube, prompting
criticism of the corporation. The BBC held an internal
inquiry but said Sweeney had not breached any
guidelines.
The incident is one of the first examples
of 'video ambushing', where organisations being
investigated turn the camera on the film makers. The
Church of Scientology, whose members include the
Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta, shadowed
the Panorama team in America with its own camera crew.
It has made a 'counter documentary', attacking Sweeney's
methods, and distributed 100,000 DVDs to MPs, civil
servants, religious groups, media organisations and
business leaders.
Panorama has responded by posting a
YouTube clip of its own in which leading scientologist
Tom Davis, a friend of Cruise and son of the film
actress Anne Archer, also a scientologist, is seen
losing his temper at Sweeney's use of the words
'sinister cult' and storming away mid-interview with the
reporter in hot pursuit. In a separate clash Archer, an
Oscar nominee for her role as Michael Douglas's wife in
Fatal Attraction, is understood to have snapped when
Sweeney asked if she could have been brainwashed. The
Church has withdrawn consent for the BBC to use the
footage and Panorama is being hastily re-edited for
broadcast tomorrow, but will still include the Sweeney
outburst.
Journalists in all media are facing
greater scrutiny than ever from bloggers and independent
film makers armed for a video ambush. Michael Moore, an
award winner for documentaries including Bowling for
Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, is himself the subject of
a website, Moorewatch, a book, Michael Moore Is A Big
Fat Stupid White Man, and a forthcoming film,
Manufacturing Dissent, which examines his methods. Dan
Rather, the veteran US news anchorman, was forced to
retire after blogs showed that a CBS report questioning
President Bush's National Guard service had been based
on forged documents, and Reuters sacked a photographer
exposed by bloggers as having doctored a picture.
Sweeney lost his temper while visiting
the Church of Scientology's exhibition, 'Psychiatry:
Industry of Death', which uses graphic images to attack
psychiatry. Sweeney said that, having dogged him for six
days, Davis accused him of giving an easy ride to one of
his interviewees, a critic of Scientology, even though
he had not heard the full interview. It was then that
Sweeney, his face contorted with anger and his finger
jabbing, began yelling at the top of his voice: 'You
were not there at the beginning of the interview! You
were not there! You did not hear or record all the
interview!'
The response of YouTube users has been
damning. One said yesterday: 'I for one feel confident
and glad that I am paying good money for this psycho to
remain on television! Is this really what English TV has
degraded itself to?' Another wrote: 'Surely this is a
joke right? How can a mentally unbalanced man like this
be a BBC reporter? This kinda makes you wonder if he is
not dreaming up what he reports or if TV actually
reports truth! Man I'm done with the BBC.'
Sweeney, a former Observer journalist,
admits he went too far. 'I am hugely embarrassed,' he
said. 'I look like an exploding tomato and shout like a
jet engine and every time I see it it makes me cringe.
The moment it happened I said sorry. I let the side down
and the BBC down and I am ashamed. But I felt I was
being brainwashed and if people see the full clip I
think they will have more sympathy with me'
The journalist has been disciplined after
an internal investigation. 'I've been arse-kicked but I
haven't been fired,' he added. 'I feel mortified. There
is no one on this planet more irritated then me. Fool,
Sweeney, fool. It was like an animal reaction to a
series of images and pressures. I felt they were trying
to control my mind. I can't wait to get back to
Zimbabwe: hiding in the backs of cars from Robert
Mugabe's goons is a damn sight easier.'
It is not the first time the Church of
Scientology has been accused of riling opponents by
'bull baiting', a technique in which members are taught
to remain calm even under extreme provocation. Mike
Rinder, a spokesman for the Church, said: 'I guess you
could say we John Sweeneyed John Sweeney. The licence
fee payers in Britain are entitled to see what goes on
behind the scenes. It's about time documentary makers
are held accountable.'
Sweeney has won awards for investigating
miscarriages of justice against mothers of cot death
victims and has reported on human rights abuses in
Chechnya, Kosovo and Algeria. He has said that 'one
recipe for investigative journalism is to find the
largest crocodile in the pond and give it a poke in the
eye with a sharp stick and see what happens next'. This
time, the crocodile bit back.
A spokeswoman for the Church of
Scientology said: 'The BBC Broadcast Codes are a
sensible set of guidelines that, if followed, would
result in a fair and accurate report with every piece.
We documented 154 violations of these guidelines by
Sweeney and his team and have presented those, with
evidence, to BBC executives.'
But Sandy Smith, editor of Panorama,
responded: 'The head of current affairs, George
Entwistle, has viewed all footage complained of and,
with the exception of the point when Sweeney shouts, he
found nothing that stood outside BBC guidelines.'
A BBC spokeswoman added: 'When viewers
watch the programme on Monday they will see the full
story and the background to this particular incident.
While John Sweeney's behaviour at one point in the
filming is clearly inappropriate, he has apologised. The
BBC is, however, happy that taken as a whole the filming
was carried out properly and fairly.'
Hot under the celebrity collar
Peaches Geldof and Ingrid Tarrant
During filming of the ITV2 show Deadline,
Peaches Geldof, teenage daughter of Bob Geldof and the
late Paula Yates, became furious as Ingrid Tarrant
attempted to photograph her. In the clip, leaked to the
video-sharing website YouTube, Tarrant tries to persuade
her to pose by saying: 'I knew your mum'. The incensed
Geldof replies: 'That's really rude of you to say that.
You've lost all of your dignity, Ingrid.'
David Hasselhoff and his
daughter, Taylor Ann
The ex-Baywatch actor was temporarily
banned from seeing his daughters after a videotape on
the web showed him slumped drunkenly on the floor as his
daughter, Taylor Ann, begged him to stop drinking. He
said later:' I have learnt from it.'
David O Russell and Lily Tomlin
Russell, director of the 2004 film I
Heart Huckabees, is seen responding to criticism from
actress Lily Tomlin by exploding with anger, calling her
a 'b****' and a 'f---ing c---'. This became a sensation
on YouTube. Tomlin said: 'I love David. There was a lot
of pressure in making the movie.'
He probably
doesn't know what he's talking about.
While Davis has
said in the past that he is "familiar with" the "confidential
scriptures" of Scientology that tell the story of Xenu --
PART FIVE
Scientology Official Addresses Works of L. Ron Hubbard
Posted: March 12, 2009 01:56 PM
MST
Church of Scientology spokesman
Tommy Davis: "I'm not interested in somebody else's version of my
religion or somebody else's idea of what my religion is."
By Nathan Baca
News Channel 3
PART FIVE
Our second half of our one-on-one
interview with one of Scientology's leaders continues in Hollywood.
We confront spokesman Tommy Davis
with the confidential works of L. Ron Hubbard and ask why there are
threats of death by pneumonia for those who read it.
Nathan Baca: Somebody from the
Village Voice apparently said the Church of Scientology is about
"ridding the body of space alien parasites." And your reaction then and
now is what exactly to that claim?
Tommy Davis: You know, here's the
thing. There are outrageous claims out there on the internet about what
Scientologists believe. These are claims that are forwarded by
anti-Scientologists. The best and easiest and most transparent way in
which people learn about it is through L. Ron Hubbard's books and
lectures.
NB (pulling out 650 page book of
"Technical Notes of Operating Thetans"): Looking at Mr. Hubbard's own
works, what seems to be in a sense curious is at least, according to L.
Ron Hubbard's own words, and I quote, "the head of the galactic
confederation. Seventy-six planets around larger stars visible from
here..."
TD: I can stop you. I know what
you're talking about. I'm familiar with the material. I think what
you're getting at is the confidential scriptures of the Church.
NB: But this is about the
fundamentals of-- is this not about the fundamentals of your belief,
though? This goes into the sense of the soul.
TD: Right. For you to talk to me,
you as somebody who is not a Scientologist to talk to me about what my
beliefs are or to ask me to explain any core religious belief, that's an
offensive concept. Nobody should ever be asked to do that.
NB: And is that the reasoning for
the cease and desist letter for just about everybody who has published
these works, the esoteric works. From Sunshine Press to Google, I
believe, has also been given a cease and desist letter from Moxon &
Kobrin (law firm). That's the reasoning behind it, correct?
TD: Absolutely, I'm not interested
in somebody else's version of my religion or somebody else's idea of
what my religion is, or something that somebody stole from the Church
that is legitimately Church materials and is trying to show it to me for
the only intent of knowingly violating my religious beliefs and
knowingly violating how it is I see fit to practice my religion.
NB: But arguably isn't the reason
why they are potentially-- wouldn't want to read it is because the book
itself says that if you read it out of order, in effect "free wheeling,"
according to one of the pages, physical harm will come of you. I believe
it mentions pneumonia. There is an actual fear, a physical fear,
arguably. There is a physical cause and effect, saying that if you read
this, before you're ready for it, physical harm will come of you. I've
read, though, arguably not understood much of OT's 3 through 6.
According to this, as I read it, I should have had some kill switch and
I should have died of pneumonia. Why am I not dead yet?
TD: I...I... (laughs then pauses)
Here we're going to the basic fundamental point that I'm trying to make.
OK. What you're doing right now and what it is you're saying to me is an
intent to ridicule religious beliefs. That's really what we're talking
about. And you're just forwarding an agenda of hate.
he's also told
CNN's John Roberts that talk of "space parasites" is "unrecognizable to
me." Discussions of Xenu are strictly verboten among Scientologists who
haven't yet reached, and paid for, the OT-III—or Operating Thetan, level
three—step on the cult's "bridge to total freedom," during which Xenu's
exploits are revealed. Members are told that if they hear about Xenu
before their minds are properly prepared, it will make them retarded,
insane, or even kill them. Masters speculates that Davis' dumbfounded
reaction to Bashir's question may have been genuine:
Headley suspects Tommy Davis has
never participated in upper-level training in which the story of Xenu
would have actually been revealed. She thinks that may be why he walked
out of the Nightline interview when asked about it. "In Scientology, no
one can talk about it, whether you've done it or not," she says. "If you
talk about it when you're not up to that level, you can be banned from
ever doing it."
Davis wouldn't
tell her whether he'd reached OT-III, but according to a partial
database of Scientology course completions gleaned from announcements in
church publications, he hasn't.
He's a "drug
revert" and all around troublemaker.
Masters says Davis
has a reputation for mischief. He was a "happy-go-lucky" teen who was
caught smoking pot, which makes him in church parlance a "drug revert"
and should have barred him from serving in the cult's leadership. Davis
denies being a revert. But he has, according to Masters, gotten into
more recent trouble with his superiors. After the BBC flap, Masters
says, he briefly "blew" from the Sea Org and went AWOL, an infraction
that earned him a stint cleaning toilets in the church's Clearwater,
Fla., international headquarters—though Masters doesn't use the term, it
certainly sounds like Davis was shunted off to the "Rehabilitation
Project Force," the church's punitive gulag for staff members who fall
out of line. Davis' former friend, ex-Scientologist Jason Beghe, told
the Village Voice last year that he could see from the look on Davis'
face during a CNN interview that he'd been RFP'd.
He probably
won't last long.
Davis hasn't been
doing a great job. The Nightline interview was another in a string of
embarrassments for the church, and Paul Haggis' high-profile defection
over the weekend—announced in an open letter to Davis—is likely not
sitting well with Miscavige. Davis' job is to "handle" anyone who would
do harm to the church's reputation, and his tenure thus far has been
marked by a string of pile-ups—angry confrontations; Haggis' defection;
John Travolta's acknowledgment that, contrary to church dogma, autism is
real; the St. Petersburg Times' devastating series detailing the
revelations of high-profile defectors about Miscavige's violent and
insane regime. He also has personal relationships with people who've
left the church—he worked with Rinder, and was close friends with Beghe—and
has left the reservation before. How much abuse and lying can he take
before he follows them out the door?
