Unreal! Ex-Scientologist Head Honcho Claims Leah Remini Faked Documentary
RadarOnline.com can reveal that actress Leah Remini’s Scientology reality show has been branded “cheap and fake” by a former head honcho of the controversial church.
Influential ex-Scientologist Marty Rathbun has made a series of YouTube videos denouncing Remini and her co-star, former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder, saying that their hit A&E show Scientology and the Aftermath, which is up for the Best Informational Series Emmy, is all scripted.
Rathbun claimed that the 47-year-old revealed she was only doing the program for the money when she was “begging” him to be the show's producer. He notes he turned her down with the withering slam: “What you’re producing is a cheap, tabloid-esque pile-on and I’m not interested.”
As RadarOnline.com reported, King of Queens star Remini left the Church after 34 years in 2013 in a huge blaze of publicity, which included a series of high profile TV interviews and the publication of her autobiography entitled Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology.
She then produced her hit reality series, which takes aim at the controversial religion for its alleged abuse of devotees.
Rathbun alleged that he had a phone conversation with Remini regarding one regular slot on the show; a therapy session where former members discuss their experiences, which Rathbun thought was real, but was told otherwise by Remini.
“She said, ‘No. no, no, you didn’t get it all, this wasn’t an actual therapy session, this whole thing was planned out and scripted,’” said Rathbun, who added he asked if the entire scene was just an act.
"That’s how it works honey, doll, that’s how you do it, it’s not reality, I plan out all these episodes, and we figure them all out beforehand… it’s unreality, it’s fake reality,” Rathbun claimed Remini said.
Rathbun, 60, was the former Inspector General of Scientology until he left in 2004. Since then, he’s been an outspoken critic of the Church, starring in Louis Theroux’s documentary My Scientology Movie.
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However, his recent views on Scientology have softened, and other anti-Scientology bloggers believe that he could be back in the church’s fold.
But what about Remini?
Rathbun said that Remini's spectacular exit from Scientology was all cooked up by the actress, her agents and Rinder. In one YouTube clip, Rathbun claimed that Rinder had told him they'd “worked out an operation, where Leah’s departure from Scientology would be orchestrated, be reported in a way that they could manipulate it…it was a total act.’”
He added: “Leah would act as if she had been persecuted by Scientology for having all this information about it. All the while, she was orchestrating and having her agents create this story of her leaving… It was a sting operation, to get Scientology to react to her.”
“It was all going to be a roll out to increase her profile, to create this mystery, and create this figure who is this innocent warrior princess,” he continued.
“As it rolled out, Scientology never played its part. She never did get persecuted, she never got hunted down, she never got someone begging her to come back.”
Rathbun also says that the supposed disappearance of Miscavige’s wife Shelly — who hasn’t been seen in public since 2005 and is rumored to be living in a “punishment block” — is all fiction made up by Remini and Rinder.
Said Rathbun: “Rinder knew it was a scam from the beginning, he knew it was a cheap shot. I was certain that Rinder had conned her on the Shelly story. When I called her out on it, she said: ‘I already knew that, I was running a false black PR campaign on it the entire time…I knew she wasn’t missing.’”
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