Leah Remini Accuses Scientology’s Alleged Harassment of Ending Her Game Show, Causing Her Publicist To Drop Her
Aug. 2 2023, Published 2:48 p.m. ET
Leah Remini accused The Church of Scientology of harassing her in the decade after she left the church — and claimed their attacks cost her a lucrative gig on a game show and caused her longtime publicist to leave her, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Remini filed a bombshell civil lawsuit against the church and its leader David Miscavige. She accuses the defendants of civil harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation and various other counts.
As we reported, Remini’s lawsuit said, “Defendants have undertaken a campaign to ruin and destroy the life and livelihood of Leah Remini—a former Scientologist of nearly 40 years, a two-time Emmy-award winning producer, actress and New York Times best-selling author–after she was deemed a Suppressive Person and declared Fair Game by Scientology in 2013, when she publicly departed Scientology, a Suppressive Act as laid out by Scientology directives.”
“For the past ten years, Ms. Remini has been stalked, surveilled, harassed, threatened, intimidated, and, moreover, has been the victim of intentional malicious and fraudulent rumors via hundreds of Scientology-controlled and -coordinated social media accounts that exist solely to intimidate and spread misinformation,” the suit read.
Remini said the alleged harassment has cost her relationships in Hollywood and even led to a series of projects being canceled.
In the lawsuit, the first project she listed was a deal with iHeartMedia contract for a podcast about Scientology. Remini said Scientology members launched a campaign to derail her podcast by accusing her of defaming church members.
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“Defendants openly admit that they called and emailed iHeartMedia’s executive vice president and chief communications officer, producer, and the podcast audio editor in an attempt to prevent Ms. Remini’s podcast from airing,” the suit read.
“Ultimately, iHeartMedia ended its contract with Ms. Remini after its last episode aired on March 7, 2022,” the suit read.
Another deal Remini believes she lost due to Scientology was being the host of Game Show Network’s People Puzzler. She said she was hired in 2021 to host the show.
She said Scientology went after the network demanding they fire the “unhinged bigot.” In addition, Remini said they went after advertisers of the program.
“Defendants also sent OSA operatives claiming to be journalists to the set of People Puzzler, asking producers about “claims” that Ms. Remini is allegedly abusive in the workplace,” the complaint alleged. ‘Production on the fourth season of People Puzzler should be underway. However, production has not started, and Ms. Remini has not been contacted to begin the new season, which, upon information and belief, is the result of the ongoing harassment experienced by the network.”
In early 2023, Remini claimed Scientology started a new campaign against her. The actress had been a client of the entertainment PR firm ID/PR for nearly a decade.
“During her time as a client, Ms. Remini would take a hiatus occasionally when she didn’t plan to do any press appearances and would therefore not pay a retainer during this time,” the suit explained.
Remini said Scientology attacked the PR firm and her publicist Kelly Novak. “Scientology then started tagging the Twitter accounts of other celebrities known to be clients of ID/PR to ask them if they were aware of this non-existent anti-Scientology conspiracy being run by ID/PR,” the suit claimed. “All of these tweets, which eventually grew to over 100, were intended to get Ms. Novak to buckle under the pressure and drop Ms. Remini as a client, which would further isolate Ms. Remini in the entertainment industry.”
The Church of Scientology has previously denied all claims of wrongdoing made by Remini.