Kent Stryker
Scientologist Kent Stryker was the subject of a TV investigative report exposing "look-alike" charities this week as well as an article in the Detroit Free Press. "Michigan regulators have issued cease-and-desist orders against two unlicensed charities offering to take car donations -- only if the donor first pays $200. The pitches are being made by the National Cancer Association and the National Lung Foundation, both located in Glendale, Calif. Representatives of the charities asked for donations of used cars. In a unique twist, they also asked that the donor first send a check for $200 or give a credit card number to pay for costs associated with picking up the vehicle. "Kent Stryker, executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Medicine, which is the parent organization of the National Cancer Association and the National Lung Foundation, expressed shock at Kelley's cease-and-desist orders. 'We've never taken a car donation in Michigan. We never call there, we never advertise there.' He said that's why the groups ignored the attorney general's request for information. "'We're a new charity, not a major charity,' he said. The only charitable program they currently sponsor is publishing a guide to 150 lung disease and cancer resources. A recorded message on one of the group's toll-free numbers refers callers about lung issues to the well-established American Lung Association. Neither of the Glendale organizations is related with the well-known American Lung Association and American Cancer Society." Message-ID: 36267d19.44158946@news.snafu.de
Bob Minton
Bob Minton posted documentation of Scientology's continued pattern of harassment against him and his family. "The scientology misfits let loose their CCHR attack dog on Mass General Hospital and passed out the following flyer to all Beacon Hill homes: "'Local members of an international psychiatric watchdog group held two 15 foot banners outside the main entrance of Massachusetts General Hospital to protest their use of lobotomies. Mass. General is the only hospital in the nation admitting to this barbaric procedure, said Kevin Hall, New England Director of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), 'A lobotomy protest may be startling, but it's time people wake up to the brutality, ham and even death created by psychiatry.'' "Do you suppose they are upset that my psychiatrist at MGH will not see them?" "Peter Franks, one of the London PI's working for scientology, has been talking to as many of Therese's friends in England as he can as well as my former business partner. My former partner, Therese and the children are the most likely targets to 'track' in order to bring pressure on me to stop. My former partners office and home (wife + children) have been regularly picketed and leafleted for several weeks. Franks says they will go after Jeff's clients, including picketing the Nigerian delegation to the IMF meeting in Washington, D.C. October 4-8. Franks claims Jeff is going to be caught in a web of IRS tax investigations of me and claims 2 IRS agents they are working with are about ready to pounce on me. Due to the 7 year statue of limitations, scientology figures Jeff will also be ensnared unless he does something to help them. "Franks has said that each and every neighbor of Therese will be visited in Boston and the whole ugly scene will be laid out for all to hear. The children's schools will be targeted for the same campaign which will include teachers, administrators and parents to paint me as a pariah. Police in England have taken an interest in this matter." From a letter by Maureen O'Keefe to Bob's wife Therese: "I am writing you this letter because it is important to me that you know at least one piece of truth in this foolish war between your husband and the Church of Scientology. No Scientologist would ever do anything to harm your Children. The numerous Internet postings accusing Scientologists of such things as following your children or doing things to upset them are simply not true. I coordinate most of the protest actions against your husband's anti-religious activities and I would never do or allow such a thing to occur. "To prove that what I am saying is sincere, I ask you to recall the picket that was done at the New Hampshire house on Labor Day weekend. After learning that the girls were at that house, I personally ensured that the picket signs said nothing that would upset them and simply carried the message of Constitutional Rights and 'respecting the religious beliefs of others'." Message-ID: 36131db5.9238129@news.tiac.net Message-ID: 36182350.10672834@news.tiac.net Message-ID: 361c9655.8246572@news.tiac.net
Bruce Pettycrew
Bruce Pettycrew is free to picket the Mesa, Arizona org again after Scientology's representative failed to appear at a hearing to resolve the Temporary Restraining Order issued against Bruce last week. "Mesa Org OSA maven Leslie Duhrman failed to show up in court today. Instead Ginny Leason, who used to have Leslie's position, appeared to ask for an extension. She claimed that L. D. was out of the country on a 'religious pilgrimage'. Ginny claims she, herself, is no longer on staff and does not represent the 'church'. The judge offered my attorney the alternative to just dismiss, but noted that they (C0$) could re-file. Since there are significant weaknesses in the current filed papers, my attorney (my son) and I decided to allow the extension until Oct 19, so that they could not refile a stronger petition after more legal advice. That way we will have a decision on record that we can use to fend off later attempts, and we can ask for costs and sanctions, as well. Until the hearing the judge issued, and had officially served to both sides, an order that I am allowed to continue picketing." "Kathy and I went out after dinner to get back in the picket line. By my estimation, the result of the Co$ second attempt to muzzle me has been three more pickets than usual this week, and I can promise many more, and many more new people joining in, as well. Towards the end of the picket, Ginny Leason arrived. She is aging noticeably. She stubbed out her cigarette and stalked into the Org without coming over to chat." "We got good responses from the traffic and I gave out two Xenu pamphlets to walkers. Now that the heat is leaving, there will be more pedestrians." Message-ID: 6uue9e$ak9$1@nnrp02.primenet.com Message-ID: 6uv1gr$fm3$1@nnrp02.primenet.com Message-ID: 6v6t9s$1sk$1@nnrp03.primenet.com
Cult Awareness Network
Jim Beebe reported that Scientology is still preventing former Cult Awareness Network members from visiting their files. "We are still locked out. Locked out of the warehouse where the CAN Files are stored. Last week a preservation project was started to preserve the CAN Files. The CAN files had been under Court Seal since agents for the Church of Scientology bought the CAN assets. A public outcry over personal letters, materials etc. forced the Bankrupcy Court to place the CAN Files under a Court Seal and they were not included in the sale of CAN's assets. The scientology cult has been scheming to get these Files and recently announced that on Oct. 21 they would seize the Files as payment toward the Jason Scott Award. "Contributors came forward with money to copy and preserve the CAN Files. Copy machines were rented and about to be delivered to the warehouse where the CAN Files are stored. But a scientology lawyer threatened the warehouse owners with some 3rd party legal action. This bogus intimidation worked and the CAN people involved with this preservation project were locked out of their own Files. CAN's legal help is sparse now and so there was no timely response to this." Message-ID: 19980928182658.24099.00003253@ng69.aol.com
CCHR
A Sacramento Bee editorial criticized California Governor Pete Wilson for vetoing a mental health benefits bill that is opposed by Scientology's CCHR branch. "So what happened Monday when Wilson vetoed legislation that would have required that insurers give people with severe mental disorders the same benefits as those being treated for physical ailments? What happened is this: Wilson ignored the evidence. He ignored the evidence and caved. "The list of AB 1100 supporters was 31/2 pages and 137 organizations long. By the time the bill hit the governor's hands, only 12 businesses or organizations and the Church of Scientology opposed it. Associations representing nurses, doctors, law enforcement, seniors, university professors, teachers and countless others urged the governor to sign the bill. The only thing that stood in the way was Wilson's pen. Surprise, surprise. He vetoed the legislation Monday night. Local NAMI members will protest Wilson's veto on the west steps of the capitol from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 4. Gravestones will symbolize lives lost because of mental-health treatment denied. "The concept of equity is so basic, how could Wilson not get it? When a man has high blood pressure, his insurance covers its treatment. When a woman in the midst of a schizophrenic episode is hospitalized, her family could very well be hit with an astronomical bill. How is this fair?" Message-ID: 3621fbde.8012215@news.snafu.de
Dennis Erlich
A hearing was held in the Dennis Erlich case this week. Keith Henson posted a report on the proceedings. "[I] came in with Carla Oakley doing a fine job on a number of points. One which stuck in my mind (because Judge Whyte ruled against me on it) was that the courts have held that you have to look at a larger picture than just a few pages which were copyrighted as a tiny unit of something larger, and that it has been held by the courts that sometimes fair use permits quoting the whole thing. "There was considerable argument about deposing Mary Sue Hubbard. It looks possible that Judge Whyte may permit that. If so, it will have to be done fairly soon, because the pretrial conf was set for Dec. 18. The scns wanted a date after April, because Rosen is tied up in other cases till then. Dennis' lawyers wanted one as soon as they could get it. They argued that the order Dennis is under greatly inhibits his ability to speak out against the abuses of scientology. Judge Whyte got very hot at this accusation, saying that that was not his intention. "After the hearing, the judge called all the lawyers into chambers and imposed a settlement conference on them. Judge Whyte seems to have put the scns on notice that they have potential problems because of their abuse of Dennis' civil rights when they got and then abused a civil search warrant they got from him-- one which he later ruled was unconstitutional." Message-ID: hkhensonF04D1J.L1p@netcom.com
Jesse Prince
Jesse Prince, formerly second in command of Scientology, posted his experiences that Scientology corporations are a sham, and that the entire organization follows the orders of David Miscavige. Some excerpts: "During the spring of 1983 I was promoted to Inspector General External and Treasurer on the board of directors of the Religious Technology Center. There were two other board members; Vicki Aznaran, Inspector General and President, and Warren Mc Shane, executive over legal matters concerning RTC, was a member. David Micavage, Norman Starkey and Lyman Spurlock were the trustees of RTC. It was during this time that I learned the true nature of Scientology management and how it ran its affairs. The meetings I attended at ASI were always called and run by David Miscavige. It was here that I learned that David Miscavige was a managing agent of the various Scientology corporations, including but not limited to ASI, RTC and Church of Scientology International (CSI). Each senior executive of RTC, CSI and ASI met once or twice a week to give a report concerning each of the above corporations. This in fact was the inner circle of Scientology's elite and as a result of my position I was involved in and received communications concerning Scientology's most secret operations. "More often than not, on orders from Miscavige to get the stats up, Fran Harris would bypass Bridge Publications and go direct to org finance personnel and demand that the orgs buy books from BPI so that ASI would get its weekly commissions. Fran enforced her demands by using lower conditions, ethics hearings, comm evs and just plain intimidation to make the nonprofit scientology orgs pay money to BPI, often before the org had even had a chance to feed and clothe its staff. BPI never saw much of this money itself, as it was considered that BPI owed a debt to ASI going back to before ASI was ever incorporated. This action, which went on every week, was a known criminal act by all concerned, as not only did it violate Scientology's own policy of corporate integrity, it also violated the laws of the land. "During my tenure as an executive and senior executive in RTC, I was taught how to aggressively go about destroying an enemy or critic of Scientology. Enemies and critics of Scientology are considered to be suppressive persons or groups. Once David Mayo was off staff he decided to start his own church, the Advanced Ability Center (AAC), that was an alternative to Scientology and used many of the same techniques used by LRH. At this point David became the target for 'fair game.' DM became infuriated and ordered Mayo's new group to be destroyed using all means possible. Bob Mithoff, brother of Senior C/S Int Ray Mithoff, was placed by RTC in David Mayo's new church as a plant to obtain financial and critical legal information to forward a planned attack on his group. Week after week Bob Mithoff provided financial information to RTC concerning Mayo's new group. The fact of the matter is Mayo had drawn a good amount of people who were ex-Scientologists to his new church and was making $20,000 to $30,000 gross income every week. Mithoff stole a copy of the AAC's mailing list and provided it to RTC. Within four months of its inception, AAC had a standard newsletter it mailed to its adherents. With the stolen mailing list RTC operative Gary Klinger designed a similar newsletter that contained disparaging information concerning AAC to the same mailing list. This list was used by RTC to contact members of the AAC for the purpose of harassment and intimidation." Message-ID: 361431a9.2280729@news.tiac.net
Keith Henson
Keith Henson received word this week that Scientology was awarded $75,000 for attorney's fees in his copyright infringement case. "Two items in the mail from Judge Whyte today. In the first, he denied my motion for a new trial finding 'that none of the defendant's arguments has merit.' Second, he doubled the judgment against me by awarding RTC $75,000 for attorney's fees. From Judge Whyte: "A review of the relevant factors supports an award of fees but in an amount far less than that claimed. RTC was successful in its copyright claim both in obtaining summary adjudication of Henson's liability for copyright infringement and in showing at trial that his infringement was willful. However, the litigation also originally involved a claim of trade secret misappropriation which, although appearing at first to have some merit, became very problematic and was eventually voluntarily dismissed before trial. The court has considered the fact that much of the initial work on this case was devoted to the trade secret claim and that Henson prevailed on that claim to the extent that it was dismissed. "Much of what Henson tried to do throughout the case was to turn the lawsuit into a trial of Scientology. Therefore, many of the positions he took before trial and much of what he and his counsel wanted to do, and to some extent did do, during trial had no relevance to the pertinent issues. In fact, the evidence presented and attitude exhibited by Henson and his counsel during trial left the jury with little choice but to find that Henson's infringement was willful. On the other hand, RTC was extremely aggressive throughout the litigation and did far more than was necessary to prosecute its case against an individual who represented himself until shortly before trial. RTC was also guilty of trying to present evidence and actually presenting some evidence at trial without objection that had little to do with the issues but was apparently designed try and make Henson look like a crackpot. "The court finds that RTC's counsel did high quality, although excessive, work. The court cannot justify compensation for as many expensive, out-of state counsel as were used. The court also finds that counsel put in far more hours than necessary, although it appears clear that RTC demanded an extremely aggressive approach by its counsel." Message-ID: hkhensonF08I6v.CEI@netcom.com
Picket & Revenge Picket Summary
Deana Holmes reported a leaflet on her doorstep this week, and additional pickets of the Salt Lake City org. "It reads: DEANA HOLMES You renounced your own religion, then attempted to trash the Mormon Church and now you pick on Scientology. Where will you go when you fail there too? Which religion will be the next target of your venom? "I was out there from 11:20 to 12:20. I got absolutely no response from the bOrg until the very end, when a woman named Sandra (along with a guy) came out and asked me my name as they were passing by. I told her I didn't want to give my name out as they didn't usually give their names out. She gave me her name, and I said, with just a trace of snottiness in my voice: 'Deana.'" "After I got home from work, I checked my voice mail and found out that the cult had apparently littered their flyers up and down the street on Sunday. This was due to a phone call from a neighbor, who also said she found the flyer to be disgusting. No, she was NOT impressed with Scn's attempt to DA me. So I went down to the org and put in a non-confront 15 minutes letting them know I was there, from 5:45 pm to 6 pm." "Unlike Tuesday, the bOrg managed to drag Phil out of mothballs. He had his usual platitudinous signs. I told him that if the cult was going to leaflet my neighborhood, at least have the common courtesy to *sign* the flyers. After about 25 minutes, the bOrg sent out two women armed with 'Way to Happiness'. I got the impression these ladies were going to step out into traffic and offer 'WtH' to anyone who looked like they were looking at my sign. I didn't like this at all and told them (a) that this was a traffic hazard and (b) that I was leaving. The next time I picket, if they try this stunt, I'm going to do (c) call the cops." Jim Wissick reported a revenge picket and pickets of the org in San Jose this week. "The coward showed up around 7:30ish pm. He was promptly chased away by my neighbor. The coward just won another critic. He definitely pissed off my neighbor." "Arrived at 4:30pm with Keith. Put in about an hour or so. The org was back to looking like a ghost town, very empty. Lots of public support today. Many honks and waves and 'thumbs-up'. At 7:00pm a picketer showed up at my home...he stayed until 7:25ish.. He was quite lame, unable to carry a real conversation. I will have pics of him up in a day or so." Keith Henson also picketed San Jose: "5:45-6:45. It started out as a really dead picket, no activity from them at all. Then about 6:10 'blueshirt', a 20 year staffer drove in and started an interesting conversation where he accused me of being a nazi bigot. He also said (LOL) that because of my picketing (which he wants to go away) they are doing better than any time in the last nine years. Shortly after that a guy drove in, parked and walked to the front, reading my sign very carefully. He came out after a while, drove across the street, parked, and walked back. I met him and gave him a flyer and pointed him to the net. One raw meat lost for sure. "About ten minutes later three tall blacks in relatively nice car drove in. Two were women, but the third I could not determine gender. They read my sign (for variety I was carrying a Lisa sign) both sides *very* carefully--for such a long time that blueshirt and a woman came out and dragged them in. I mentioned it was a dangerous cult, and one of the women said they were going to keep an open mind. I expressed a hope that their minds did not fall out. " Ted Mayett picketed in Las Vegas: "Little Temple, 3:36pm, vehicles 3, 10 min, uneventful. They did not close the curtains this time." Kristi Wachter reported a picket in Palo Alto, California. "Keith and I did about 45 minutes (maybe an hour) a piece in Palo Alto tonight. I hung around until 6:45, when I handed out the last of my measly 11 fliers and spent about five minutes talking with a gentleman who was interested in the criminal allegations. A young lady came downstairs from the org a couple of times to check up on us - she kind of peeked at us and then went back upstairs." "I was revenge-picketed today. I returned home to find a lone picketer in front of my apartment building. I snapped a few pictures, then joined him on the sidewalk. I introduced myself, and he said his name was Ben. I asked him what made him think I was a religious bigot, and he said I was acting like one. He said that I didn't know anything about $cientology and that I hadn't read any books. I told him that I DID know a fair amount about $cn and that I HAD read some books - that I'd read a bunch of the tech and admin manuals and that I'd read Dianetics cover to cover. He said 'You have not!', but I assured him that I had. Indeed, I told him, I had my copy in my backpack. He mentioned that he'd been a Scientologist for, I believe, 22 years. He called me a 'silly girl' and a couple of times made sarcastic comments about how I thought I was being 'so noble.' Ben checked his watch a few times and, as soon as he'd put in his time, he took off. I held out my hand, but he declined to shake it. He said he was sure he'd be back; I wished him a good weekend." Kristi also reported on a picket in San Francisco. "Five of us, including two newcomers, did a good two-hour picket at the SF org today. It was a quality-over-quantity day for me, as I gave out fewer fliers but had some long conversations. To reduce the misconception that I was recruiting for $cn, I made a headband out of bright pink ('Pulsar Pink') paper that says on both sides, 'I AM *NOT* A SCIENTOLOGIST!' When I approached the org, only one person was visible, sitting on a ledge along the window of the org. There was no stress test table and no body-routing while we were there. A fair number of people did go in and out of the org while I was there. "Just one handler and very little additional interaction. A police officer came over to talk with us for a while. I gave him a few fliers and discussed my concerns about illegal activity. He was very interested in our picket and our fliers. He remembered Wayne's regular pickets; I gave him the sad news that Wayne had died. The officer was aware of the situation in Germany and recognized that Germany's reaction comes from their understanding of, and fear of, totalitarian organizations. The officer thanked us for the info and said, 'You guys have a lot of guts.'" "Skippy" reported pickets at the Mesa, Arizona org. "I picketed the org by myself for the first time today. After finding a safe place to hide my card I picketed from about 5:00 pm until about 5:45 pm. I used my 'sandwich board' sign again. It says 'WWW.XENU.NET' on the front. I was pretty paranoid when I first got there, but calmed down after about 5 minutes when I saw that nobody was going to come out and hassle me. There was a lot more traffic than on Saturdays, in fact it was basically stop and go rush hour traffic the whole time. I'm sure my sign was seen by thousands of cars." "I made up a new sign this morning for my sandwich board..it says 'Scientology Killed Lisa McPherson' and 'www.xenu.net' at the very bottom. A nicely dressed lady came walking along the canal and stopped to talk to me. I thought it was odd that I didn't see her coming until she was almost next to me. I figured she popped out of the back of the org to come and handle me. She pretended that she was just a regular person interested in why I was picketing. I played along the whole time explaining the myriad of reasons I'm picketing. She would never really agree with anything I was saying. Usually when I talk to someone they'll say something like 'Wow, really? That's terrible!' or something similar. She would just say, 'Hmm.' to anything I said. "She did try to find out who I was several times. She acted like she was interested in learning more and could she please have a business card so she could contact me. I declined, and told her it's my policy to never give out my name because of how Scientology treats their critics, and how they might picket my home. She then said, 'well, if you don't have a business card, can you just give me your name and phone number?'" Christer Lindstrom picketed Scientology in Copenhagen this week. "Me and Ellen did a short (45 min) picket in Copenhagen. Stirred up some scienos, who seemed to dislike me yelling 'Demonstration AGAINST Scientology - AGAINST! Read all about the crazy cult Scientologists and their secrets'. The funny thing about the public is that they refused to believe I was against scientology. I only got approx. 30 leaflets out. Their reputation is bad in Sweden. But in Copenhagen, it seems like they have achieved a PR disaster." John Ritson, Hartley Patterson Martin Poulter reported their picket against Scientology in London this week. "About a dozen suppressives picketed the Tottenham Court Road, London 'Org' this afternoon. Not only did they have the indefatigable 'Duke' the loveable toy pooch (named in memory of Judge Swearinger's drowned dog) and placards and the boom-box playing extracts from L. Ron Hubbard's wackiest rants, but brightly coloured 'BodyThetans' - both stuffed toys about six inches high, and inflatables about two feet high, which squeak when squeezed. There were people coming out after doing the 'personality test' and then having a laugh with us. The Scientologists responded by mostly non-confronting, but then sending out Jacques Vollet to do some photography. Eventually they responded by playing some kind of music from a cassette machine on an extension lead. One passer-by suggested we should try and get it stopped as they were not displaying the necessary authorisation from the Performing Rights Society. "TC Road is a busy street in London's main shopping area best known for its Hi-fi bargain shops. Unfortunately as well as pedestrians it also a one-way throughfare, but only a passing fire engine was able to drown out Roland's 'Tone 40'. I crossed the road to distribute my leaflets (about 100 each of 'Xemu', 'Lisa' and 'Cult of Greed and Power'). OSA tech had sussed me out however - they cunningly sent a young lady across to counter leaflet!" "It was one of the best recent UK pickets in terms of public response. The street was very busy and we spread ourselves along the street, covering both sides. We're so used to doing this now that our teamwork is very good indeed. Dave was better than he's ever been on the amplified vocals, getting straight to the point with 'Scientology is a money-grubbing UFO cult. They charge you real money to exorcise imaginary space aliens'. He explained the price structure, the deaths of Richard Collins, Patrice Vic and the others, Hubbard's drug abuse and of course OT3 in considerable detail. There was laughter from passers-by all along the street when they heard us calling Scientology a scam. Several people came up to us and thanked us vigourously for what we were doing. "We were very proud to have a guest picketer; Andreas from Norway, the man Scientology cannot touch. He did his own moving picket back and forth in front of the org, looking totally cool and unfazeable." Message-ID: 360e873d.51433346@enews.newsguy.com Message-ID: 360e9077.318201@enews.newsguy.com Message-ID: 3610554e.7092442@nntp.best.com Message-ID: 361348e8.5805682@enews.newsguy.com Message-ID: humanrights-2809982312440001@racer.vip.best.com Message-ID: 199809300215.EAA10325@replay.com Message-ID: 3612203f.43187339@enews.newsguy.com Message-ID: 361370cf.44940282@enews.newsguy.com Message-ID: 6v59rp$du2$1@elle.eunet.no Message-ID: EF+wODAQ5mF2EwJ6@jritson.demon.co.uk Message-ID: 36176202.2ED5@daisy.freeserve.co.uk Message-ID: F0AyLK.LIK@fsa.bris.ac.uk Message-ID: 199810031933.VAA10796@replay.com Message-ID: humanrights-0310982338580001@racer.vip.best.com Message-ID: 36151764.865448@nntp.best.com Message-ID: 36157c1f.381081@nntp.best.com Message-ID: 199810030221.EAA03419@replay.com Message-ID: hkhensonF0A7ww.II5@netcom.com Message-ID: humanrights-0310982337170001@racer.vip.best.com
SLC Radio
Deana Holmes was a guest on a Salt Lake City radio show this week. "As some of you know, the cult left another scurrilous leaflet around the neighborhood sometime early on Sunday, September 27. I learned that it had been spread up and down the street. This I learned from a neighbor who lives a few doors away who called me to express her disgust over the leaflet. When I returned her call, I realized that she was a talk show host on a local radio station, and she wanted me to come on it, bring my picket sign, and talk about what'd been going on. So yesterday I went down to her radio show after work, took my picket sign, and enlightened the listeners of Radio One, KWUN, 1230 AM about Scientology from just before 6 pm to 7 pm. We had several callers, most of whom were regulars. We started out with the leaflets and the picketing, and then we went on to discuss Scientology and the IRS, Scientology's Snow White campaign, Scientology and psych drugs, and just basically free formed through whatever topic the callers wanted to discuss. I got the sacred URLs out: www.xenu.net, www.entheta.net, www.lisamcpherson.org. "We had one Scn caller. This woman, 'Laure', started out by saying that I was involved with the Free Zone. Well, I cut her off. I told her that no, I was NOT involved with the Free Zone, I'd never been a Scn. She didn't want to admit she was an Scn. I badgered Laure until she said she was Scn. She snapped into Scn-speak, and kept going on about trying to have communication, and at one point even went into this spiel about trying to have a sane conversation and I started laughing right then and there. It was so *ridiculous*." Message-ID: 3615a331.15000166@enews.newsguy.com
John Travolta
The NY Post reports that John Travolta wanted to bring a large group to the premiere of his latest film, including a Scientology advisor. "John Travolta - one of the most demanding prima donnas in Hollywood - insisted on bringing along such a large entourage for the New York premiere of 'Civil Action' the event has been cancel led, sources report. Insiders say Travolta wanted to bring along 16 people, including a cook, a hair-and-makeup artist, personal trainer, his publicist, his wife, Kelly Preston, his sister, Ellen, who runs his company, and a spiritual advisor from the Church of Scientology. 'With this many people, you need two private planes, which doubles the cost,' said one Left Coast source. 'In order to bring Travolta from L.A. to New York to Boston for events in all three cities, it was going to cost the studio $2.3 million." Message-ID: 19981002110749.20883.00008922@ng90.aol.com
Job Discrimination
The Star-Telegram reported this week that an Arlington, Texas veterinary clinic is being charged in a lawsuit with religious discrimination. "A federal lawsuit filed yesterday against a south Arlington veterinary clinic charges that employees were pressured to adopt religious beliefs and practices to be promoted. The lawsuit, filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleges that workers at the I-20 Animal Clinic, 5820 W. Interstate 20, were discriminated against if they did not adopt the principles of the Church of Scientology. "The lawsuit asks for lost wages on behalf of Cindy Bishop, a former accounts receivable manager at the clinic, who said she was harassed and retaliated against for not adopting the beliefs and was discharged in October 1996. The lawsuit also seeks punitive damages. Commission attorney Robert Canino said other clinic workers said they were affected and may join the lawsuit." Message-ID: 3623fd7e.8428336@news.snafu.de -end-
A.r.s. Week in Review is put together by Rod Keller ©
This collection is organised for WWW by Andreas Heldal-Lund.
Only edits done by me is replacing word encapsuled in * or _ with bold and underscore, and made links into HTML.