Book review: 'Inside Scientology' by Janet Reitman

Although the compelling, well-researched book lacks blockbuster revelations, it mostly delivers on Reitman's promise of an "objective modern history" of the church.
Kim Christensen
kim.christensen@latimes.com
July 4, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-et-book-20110704,0,6684792.story

Small wonder that L. Ron Hubbard had the creative chops to parlay his 1950s self-help system, Dianetics, into a worldwide religion — and a very lucrative one at that. Hubbard was, after all, a science-fiction writer, a dreamer, a charming teller of tales and the inventor of much of his own history: He fabricated or embellished aspects of his military service, education and personal adventures, not least of them his purported run-in with a polar bear in the Aleutians.

His most famous invention, of course, was Scientology, a controversial religion-without-a-deity that has its own "technology," galactic story line and quirky vocabulary. It teaches that spiritual freedom — the state of "clear" — can be reached through one-on-one counseling known as auditing, aided by a polygraph-like device called an "e-meter." The sessions, along with extensive training courses, can cost Scientologists hundreds of thousands of dollars.

That Scientology has endured for six decades, attracting generations of devotees despite a legacy of secrecy and widespread allegations of intimidation and abuse of its own members, is in itself remarkable. Then again, as Janet Reitman demonstrates in "Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion," the church has always found a way, through a "combination of flexibility and mystery" to morph with the times: In its early days in Los Angeles, it reached out to free spirits and hippies, later to celebrities and, more recently, to African Americans and legislators.

Reitman's book, which grew out of an article the Rolling Stone contributing editor wrote for the magazine in 2006, is a well-researched and compelling read, especially for those who start with little knowledge about Scientology, Hubbard or his successor, David Miscavige. While it lacks blockbuster revelations, it mostly delivers on Reitman's promise of an "objective modern history" of the church.

Intertwined with the church's history is that of Miscavige, who spent his teenage years as one of Hubbard's cadre of young aides. He was 25 when he assumed control in 1986, when "LRH" died as a paranoid recluse on a ranch in Creston, Calif., under investigation by the IRS. Miscavige went on to be instrumental in ending "the war" with the IRS and securing the tax-exempt status that deemed Scientology a church, a financial boon.

Sometimes called "the pope of Scientology," Miscavige in the book lives up to previous reports depicting him as a small but intimidating leader, an occasionally unhinged little tyrant alleged to have frequently whomped his top execs. He is said to live much higher on the hog than anyone else, including the elite "Sea Org" members posted to Scientology's international headquarters, or "Int," a former resort near Hemet. Even his beagles, Jelly and Safi, who wore "tiny blue sweaters with commander's bars," fare better than people who have signed billion-year contracts with the church: "Miscavige was known to make his staffers salute the dogs, who held ranks higher than those of many people on the base."

Much of Reitman's material is culled from, and duly credited to, earlier works including Hubbard's own writings, books by his critics and newspaper stories stretching from the Los Angeles Times' groundbreaking series in 1990 to the St. Petersburg Times' multi-part exposé in 2009.

But Reitman obviously has done her own extensive legwork too, digging deep into the details of the death of Lisa McPherson, a "clear" Scientologist who suffered a mental breakdown and died after 17 days in isolation in the church's care in Clearwater, Fla., its spiritual headquarters. Nearly 16 years later, her death is still a rallying point for Scientology's critics.

Reitman also offers up the insights of members from the church's past and present, giving the material a fresh feel and sense of fairness. She balances high-ranking defectors' eyewitness accounts of oppression, abuse and escape with the observations of practicing Scientologists who come across as believers but not robots — and ask some pretty good questions of their own.

"All the people who've come out and told the press these things were in a position to do something about it — to change things," said Natalie Walet, a young Scientologist who doesn't excuse the abuses. "Instead, they stood there and watched. Why?"

It would be easy to deride or dismiss many of Scientology's more eccentric elements, such as the long-held secret story of Xenu, the evil tyrant leader of the "Galactic Confederation." Only after reaching an advanced level are Scientologists taught that he killed his enemies with hydrogen bombs 75 million years ago and then captured their souls, or thetans, and electronically implanted them with false concepts. These altered thetans later glommed on to human bodies, the story goes, causing spiritual harm and havoc for mankind.

Even Tom Cruise, the most famous Scientologist, "freaked out" and was like, 'What the …?''' when he learned of it, according to one former member. But in a nice touch of fair play, another ex-member reminds readers that more mainstream religions also have stories that require a long leap of faith. Water into wine? Raising the dead? How plausible are those?

Hubbard made many claims during his life, but parting the Red Sea was not among them.

Something About Nicole

Thanks to Richard Metzger & DangerousMinds.net for the following...

http://www.prehensile.com/tales/zeldman/zeldman.htm

Tattle Tales are true tales of sex, madness, and the planet by guest writers. And this week's offering is a humdinger of a Tale. "Jeffrey Zeldman Presents" was one of the first sites I ever visited on the web. Years later, Jeffrey Zeldman contributes this week's Tale of the Week. I'm a happy, happy Halcyon. If you've never visited Zeldman.com, make it your first stop after you read this incredible tale. Or go now. We'll wait for you.

Something About Nicole
by Jeffrey Zeldman

Let's talk about sex.

And movie stars.

And Stanley (Spartacus, 2001, A Clockwork Orange, Lolita, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining) Kubrick, brilliant though reclusive filmmaker, who has spent the last five years making "Eyes Wide Shut," a movie starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, and costarring Harvey Keitel.

Make that formerly costarring Harvey Keitel.

Yes, there is dirt, and yes, I am here to share it with you.

You know, friends, in my role as the web's answer to Barbara Walters, I am frequently asked, "Could you move, please? I was sitting there."

But I am also frequently asked about those "insider gems" and "delightful tidbits" which only a "connected insider" such as myself could possess.

And this is one of those tidbits.

And I'm sharing it with you.

So here goes.

Most of Keitel's scenes have been shot, and the movie is close to good to go.

But there is a problem.

Keitel and Kidman just did a scene in which Keitel's character is supposed to stand behind Kidman's character and masturbate.

Keitel is not only a fine actor, he is a method actor.

You probably see what is coming – as it were.

Kidman didn't.

Keitel did not simulate masturbation, he engaged in it on the set.

Now, in the heat of action, many of us lose sight of our goals, and succumb to an overwhelming impulse. Keitel is, in that respect, no different from you or I, dear reader.

He ejaculated into Nicole Kidman's hair.

She walked quickly off the soundstage.

The next morning, Stanley Kubrick, one of the great living geniuses of cinema, was confronted by Mr. and Mrs. Tom Cruise.

The two told him simply, "Us or Keitel."

Kubrick reluctantly fired Mr. Keitel.

A replacement actor was hired (his name escapes me – it's not Wilfred Brimley, but it's also not an actor who is likely to duplicate Keitel's accident).

Good scenes which were shot and edited are now being redone at great expense because Keitel cannot appear in the picture.

Whether the film will be as good without Keitel, we will never know.

But now you, gentle readers, know the unpublishable truth. Verified by two sources at the company financing the film.

I can picture the conversation at Nobu:

SCORCESE: Harvey, Harvey, what's this about you and Kubrick? Robert, this tuna is great.

DENIRO: (nods)

KEITEL: (shrugs)

DENIRO: You know what I heard ...

SCORCESE: Pass the saki?

DENIRO: ... I heard this motherfucker got himself fired ...

KEITEL: Shut the fuck up.

DENIRO: ... 'cause he came in Nicole Kidman's hair!

(LAUGHTER.)

KEITEL: Shut the fuck up.

SCORCESE (OVER): Get the fuck out of here! Harvey?

KEITEL: Yeah. (SHRUG.) Came in 'er hair.

(LAUGHTER.)

DENIRO (OVER): Jesus, I can't breathe.

(LAUGHTER.)

(BEAT.)

SCORCESE: I'd a done that.

(LAUGHTER)

DENIRO: So, was it good?

(LAUGHTER. BEAT.)

KEITEL: It was pretty good.

(LAUGHTER)

KEITEL (faint smile): I'd do it again.

DENIRO: So the fuck would I.

SCORCESE: I would do that.

(LAUGHTER.)

(An elegant waitress presents the bill.)

DENIRO: (tearing up bill) On the house, Harve.

Events involving "Eyes Wide Shut" are based on anecdotes related to your humble web author by various Hollywood insiders who may never speak to us again. The scene at Nobu is entirely imaginary – as should be obvious. But nothing is ever obvious to lawyers, hence this disclaimer. We will deny it all, if pressed.

I have been abducted by aliens

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/i-have-been-abducted-by-aliens-says-japans-first-lady-1780888.html

I have been abducted by aliens, says Japan's first lady
(Oh, and she also knew Tom Cruise in a previous life)
By Peter Popham
Thursday, 3 September 2009

Move over Michelle, watch your backs, Carla and Sarah. There's a new kid on the first lady block, and she looks like upstaging the lot of you.

Miyuki Hatoyama, wife of Japan's Prime Minister-elect, Yukio Hatoyama, is a lifestyle guru, a macrobiotics enthusiast, an author of cookery books, a retired actress, a divorcee, and a fearless clothes horse for garments of her own creation, including a skirt made from Hawaiian coffee sacks. But there is more, much more. She has travelled to the planet Venus. And she was once abducted by aliens.

The 62-year-old also knew Tom Cruise in a former incarnation – when he was Japanese – and is now looking forward to making a Hollywood movie with him. "I believe he'd get it if I said to him, 'Long time no see', when we meet," she said in a recent interview. But it is her claim in a book entitled "Very Strange Things I've Encountered" that she was abducted by aliens while she slept one night 20 years ago, that has suddenly drawn attention following last Sunday's poll.

"While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus," she explains in the tome she published last year. "It was a very beautiful place, and it was very green."

When the new Japanese first lady related her adventures to her then husband, he told her flatteringly that it was probably just a dream. But she is confident that Yukio, the man now entrusted with the task of hauling Japan out of its deepest recession, would have reacted very differently. "My current husband has a different way of thinking. He would surely say, 'Oh, that's great'," she wrote. Mrs Hatoyama's self-confidence in projecting her personality, and shattering the traditional expectations of a political wife, probably derives from her early years as a dancer in Japan's legendary all-female Takarazuka theatrical troupe.

Founded in 1913, Takarazuka has long enjoyed cult status in Japan. The star players in its glitzy, saccharine, ferociously camp productions of US classics like Gone with the Wind enjoy superstar status among the armies of women that flock to the shows. Takarazuka's actresses are picked from thousands of teenage hopefuls in a stringent selection process and subjected to a quasi-monastic training regimen. While a handful become household names, the great majority, like Mrs Hatoyama, retire after a few years. But the aura of belonging to this exclusive sorority clings to them for ever.

After six years Mrs Hatoyama quit the troupe and went to the United States. It was there, while working in a Japanese restaurant in San Francisco, that she met Yukio, then a graduate student at Stanford University. Miyuki was still married to her first husband. "The average man chooses his mate from among unmarried women," Mr Hatoyama boasted years later. "I chose mine from among all women."

Rejecting the reticence that is customary in Japan, Mr Hatoyama makes no secret of his devotion to his multi-talented wife. His website has a photo of the pair of them in an affectionate pose, and he admits happily to being what the Japanese call a "my-home-papa". "I feel relieved when I get home," he says. "She is like an energy refuelling base."

Though Mr Hatoyama is a multi-millionaire and the fourth generation of his family to rise to the top of the Japanese political world, his appearance is unconventional by rigid Japanese standards: his hair is unruly and he rejects the navy uniform of the political world in favour of suits of brown and moss green.

It is this refusal to bow to convention, as well as his tendency to drop conversation-stopping remarks – like his call, during the election campaign, for a "politics full of love" – that long ago led other Japanese politicians to dismiss him as an uchujin, an alien. Though not, presumably, the one who took Miyuki to Venus.

Behind the Fake Report of Jeff Goldblum's Death

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Fox reporter: Scientologists wanted him fired

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/06/15/fox-reporter-scientologists-fired/

Ex-Fox reporter says celebrity Scientologists pushed to have him fired
By Stephen C. Webster
June 15, 2009

Former Fox entertainment columnist Roger Friedman said Monday that he plans to file a wrongful termination lawsuit against his prior employer.

Friedman, who was supposedly fired for reviewing a pirated copy of Wolverine, alleges that celebrity Church of Scientology members Tom Cruise and John Travolta’s wife, Kelly Preston, pressured network management to shake loose the columnist, who has been a critic of Scientology for some time.

“Last August, Friedman went to Memphis for the funeral of his friend and R&B legend Isaac Hayes, who was a Scientologist,” reported the New York Daily News. “Preston was also in town for the funeral. Friedman, who now writes for The Hollywood Reporter, tells us that when Preston saw him at the Peabody Hotel, Mrs. John Travolta loudly blasted him for his columns criticizing Scientology.”

“After [an] alleged meeting between Preston and the Fox executives, Friedman was forbidden from reporting on the death of Travolta’s son Jett, and was also told to take it easy on Tom Cruise’s film Valkyrie,” National Post noted.

“A source” told the Daily News that Tom Cruise may have pushed to have Friedman fired as a condition of his appearance in the upcoming 20th Century Fox comedy “Wichita.” Friedman added that once his review of “Wolverine” was published — which was approved by an editor before publication — Fox’s film studio began dictating the news operation’s next moves.

“Preston and Cruise’s lawyers both issued outright denials. Fox refused to comment,” Gawker noted. “And we might have a ball game.”

The suit will be filed in a New York federal court next week, Friedman’s attorney reportedly said.

The Holocaust, Tarantino-style

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1027043.html

07/10/2008
The Holocaust, Tarantino-style: Jews scalping Nazis
By Assaf Uni
Tags: Israel News, Holocaust

BERLIN - For weeks, Germany's tabloids and culture pages have been preoccupied with Quentin Tarantino's film "Inglorious Bastards," slated to start filming next week in Germany.

While the tabloids are drooling over the movie's star, Brad Pitt, who is moving with his wife Angelina Jolie and their children to a villa close to Berlin ("The most beautiful couple in Wannsee," one headline declared), the serious media is focusing on another angle: Is Germany ready for a Tarantino-style treatment of World War II?

An early draft of the script leaked onto the Internet three months ago suggested the film would contain scenes of bloody vengeance exacted by Jews against Nazis. One campaign would be carried out by Jews in the U.S. Army intent on scalping Nazi soldiers on occupied French soil; another would be a Jewish refugee's revenge against the Nazi officer who murdered her parents.

Pitt is to play Jewish-American Lt. Aldo Raine, the leader of a revenge squad known as "The Bastards," who launch a killing spree in which they hang, torture, disembowel and scalp German soldiers and engrave Swastikas on their foreheads, according to the leaked draft.

The film is raising controversy in Germany, where the subjects of World War II and the Holocaust are usually restricted to historical discourse.

"This is pop culture meeting Nazi Germany and the Holocaust with unprecedented force," said the film critic of SuedDeutche Zeitung, Tobias Kniebe. "The effects of this collision are utterly unpredictable."

German film critics blasted last week's decision to grant the film money from the German Film Fund and another local fund, saying that Germany cannot finance a movie that uses Jewish-Nazi relations as entertainment, especially one by Tarantino.

The SuedDeutche Zeitung warned that the film may be no less explosive than the Hollywood film Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise, about German officers' abortive attempt to assassinate Hitler toward the end of WWII. The movie, filmed in Germany and scheduled to be released in spring 2009, has already drawn fire from German historians.

"All the German historians and critics who were left gasping for breath by Tom Cruise and his worthy attempts to produce a correct image of Stauffenberg will be so shocked by 'Inglorious Bastards' that they will savage it on the spot," writes Kneibe.

Tarantino's film is not supposed to mix history and fiction, but to offer the pure, hyper-violent entertainment that the American director of "Reservoir Dogs," "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill" is known for.

"It is sort of a spaghetti western set in World War II," Tarantino told the German News Agency DPA. "I am not going to call it this, but if it had a subtitle for it, it would be called, 'Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France.'"

Films that treat the Holocaust period as pure entertainment could be destructive, says Alexander Kluge, a noted film director and author, who has been dealing with the Holocaust and its memory for more than 50 years.

He cites Swiss-Jewish director Dany Levy's comedy "Mein Fuehrer" as a case in point. This film raised a storm in Germany two years ago, when it portrayed for the first time a neurotic, empathy-evoking Hitler. "Such films can obscure the events' true significance," says Kluge.

Tarantino's film received a 300,000 euro grant from the state of Brandenburg, because it will be filmed in Potsdam's Babelsberg studios. Founded in 1911, this is the world's oldest major film studio. Films including Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" and "The Blue Angel" with Marlene Dietrich were filmed there in the 1920s and 1930s, as were numerous Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda films.

Tarantino's film is also expected to receive 20 percent of its budget from the German Film Fund because it is being filmed in Germany. It is scheduled to be released in June 2009.

'Tropic Thunder': Say What?

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1592689/story.jhtml

Aug 13 2008
'Tropic Thunder': Say What?
By Kurt Loder
Robert Downey Jr. kills in an overdue PC nightmare.

"Tropic Thunder" is a cruel movie. Just when you think it's squeezed every last gasping belly laugh out of you, here comes another barrage of scathing hilarity. The picture is, among several other things, a bunker-buster assault on political correctness, and howls of unhappiness are already being heard from the usual PC precincts. But then how often can that be helped?

It's a movie about the making of a movie — a blockbuster war epic set in Vietnam in 1969. This film within the film, which is also called "Tropic Thunder," is a traditional tale of bloody heroism and great big explosions, with a motley cast of head-case actors. Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) is a fading action star desperate for a comeback after an ill-advised bid for Oscar credibility — a movie called "Simple Jack," about a, uh, developmentally challenged guy who can talk to animals — left him a laughingstock. Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) is a blond, blue-eyed Aussie whose pompous commitment to his craft ("I don't read the script; the script reads me") has driven him to undergo skin-pigment alteration in order to play a black Army sergeant in the film. Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) is the drug-gobbling star of a lucrative series of dimwit pictures devoted to a family of fat, flatulent buffoons. And Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) is a rapper-turned-actor who also rakes in millions with his hip-hop energy drink, Booty Sweat. The fifth member of this odd squad, a kid named Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), busies himself trying to make sense of what the other four nutcakes are doing, with only intermittent success.

The movie's movie is being shot on location in Southeast Asia, and it's a disaster from the outset — the production is already a month behind schedule after just five days of shooting. Combat consultant Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), the crusty vet upon whose battle memoir the picture is based, convinces the in-over-his-head director, Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan), that the only way to salvage the picture is to chopper the pampered actors out into the middle of the jungle, drop them there and shoot the action guerilla-style, to "get some real fear in their eyes." When a gang of actual guerrillas — not the Viet Cong of the movie's long-ago war, but hopped-up thugs guarding a jungle heroin factory — start shooting at these interlopers, the actors, armed only with SAG cards and blanks, find themselves called upon to fight back for real.

"Tropic Thunder" is so savagely and unremittingly hilarious that one hesitates to give any of it away. However, it has to be said that Downey delivers the most fearless and astonishing performance of his current career renaissance. It's been amusing to watch various media outlets attempt to whip up some kind of "blackface" controversy over Downey's performance, when it's nothing of the sort. He's playing an actor with the deluded conviction that he can not only portray a black man, but also bare a black man's soul. There's not a hint of minstrelsy in Downey's performance; it's a marvel of satirical precision directed at a specific variety of Hollywood cultural arrogance. And it's more than that, too. The scene in which the derisive Alpa Chino nails Lazarus' recitation of black-uplift homilies as nothing more than the lyrics to the "Jeffersons" theme is funny; but the one in which Lazarus quietly explains to Speedman that his "Simple Jack" character failed because he made the mistake of going "full retard" — rather than softening his character with cuteness in the manner of "Forrest Gump" — is so on-the-nose accurate, it takes your breath away. (Film scholar and critic Dave Kehr has pointed out that Downey's black GI seems to be modeled on the one played by blaxploitation icon Fred Williamson in "The Inglorious Bastards," the 1978 Italian movie that's currently on the verge of being remade by Quentin Tarantino.)

"Tropic Thunder" brings out the comic best in a number of other actors, too, among them Matthew McConaughey as Speedman's oily agent, and the wonderfully cracked Danny McBride as Cody, the movie's explosives expert. (The extent of his expertise is a little worrisome: "I almost blinded Jamie Lee Curtis on 'Freaky Friday,' " he admits.)

But the movie's most uproarious performance — as all but the most oblivious infants must know by now — is provided by Tom Cruise, playing a fantastically vile and abusive producer named Les Grossman. Buried under layers of latex and padding, Cruise is almost unrecognizable, and this anonymity seems to have liberated him — he dives into the character's bellowing, obscene tirades with ferocious abandon. It's a performance unlike any he's given before, and you can almost see the screen smoking after each of his foul harangues.

"Tropic Thunder" is both a parody of a big-budget action movie (Willem Dafoe's Christ-on-the-cross death spasm in "Platoon" is referenced not once, but twice) and a real one, too. So its sometimes gritty visual texture bears no relation to the tidy slickness of most contemporary comedies. (John Toll, the cinematographer, also shot "Wanted" and "The Last Samurai.") But the picture's satirical brilliance is on another level of accomplishment. Ben Stiller, who directed the film, cooked up the story with Justin Theroux, and then brought in Etan Cohen to help them write the script. That they have pulled no punches in lampooning Hollywood's self-congratulatory treatment of race and disability — not to mention gay monks, wispy mysticism and celebrity adoptions of exotically tinged foreign babies — is a wonder.

The movie is also a welcome affront to the sort of humorless PC scolds who mobilized for the movie's L.A. premiere on Tuesday — in numbers estimated by Entertainment Weekly to be "a few dozen." Maybe the tide of whiny complaint is turning. Have any of these people noticed yet that the only child in the movie is a chain-smoking, gun-wielding heroin kingpin? Or is a protest poster already at the printer's? Considering the business this picture's going to do, good luck.

Isaac Hayes' History With Scientology

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,401321,00.html

Isaac Hayes' History With Scientology
Monday , August 11, 2008
By Roger Friedman

My friend, Isaac Hayes, died on Sunday, and his passing leaves many unanswered questions.

The great R&B star, actor, DJ, performer and family man, the composer of “Soul Man,” “Hold On I’m Coming” and other hits by Sam Moore and Dave Prater like “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby,” also was a member of the Church of Scientology.

Isaac was found dead by his treadmill, but conveniently missing from the wire stories was a significant fact: in January 2006, Isaac had a significant stroke. At the time, the word went out only that he had been hospitalized for exhaustion.

But the truth was, Isaac, whom I’d seen just a couple of months earlier when he headlined the Blues Ball in Memphis, was in trouble. Having lost the rights to his songs two decades earlier, he was finally making some money voicing the character of Chef on “South Park.” But “South Park” lampooned Scientology, so the leaders wanted Isaac out.

Push came to shove on Nov. 16, 2005, when “South Park” aired its hilarious “Trapped in the Closet” episode spoofing Tom Cruise and John Travolta. “South Park” creator Matt Stone told me later that Isaac had come to him in tears.

“He said he was under great pressure from Scientology, and if we didn’t stop poking at them, he’d have to leave," Stone said.

The conversation ended there. Isaac performed Chef’s signature song at the Blues Ball a week later with great delight. Although he was devoted to Scientology, he also loved being part of “South Park.” He was proud of it. And, importantly, it gave him income he badly needed.

But then came the stroke, which was severe. His staff — consisting of Scientology monitors who rarely left him alone — tried to portray it as a minor health issue. It wasn’t. Sources in Memphis told me at the time that Isaac had significant motor control and speech issues. His talking was impaired.

In March 2006, news came that Hayes was resigning from “South Park." On March 20, 2006, I wrote a column called “Chef’s Quitting Controversy,” explaining that Hayes was in no position to have quit anything due to his stroke. But Scientology issued the statement to the press saying Hayes had resigned, and the press just ate it up. No one spoke to Isaac directly, because he couldn’t literally speak. "Chef” was written out of the show.

Isaac’s income stream was severely impaired as a result. Suddenly there were announcements of his touring, and performing. It didn’t seem possible, but word went out that he’d be at BB King’s in New York in January 2007. I went to see him and reported on it here.

The show was abomination. Isaac was plunked down at a keyboard, where he pretended to front his band. He spoke-sang, and his words were halting. He was not the Isaac Hayes of the past.

What was worse was that he barely knew me. He had appeared in my documentary, "Only the Strong Survive," released in 2003. We knew each other very well. I was actually surprised that his Scientology minder, Christina Kumi Kimball, with whom I had difficult encounters in the past, let me see him backstage at BB King’s. Our meeting was brief, and Isaac said quietly that he did know me. But the light was out in his eyes, and the situation was worrisome.

But the general consensus was that he needed the money. Without “Chef,” Isaac’s finances were severely curtailed. He had mouths to feed to home. Plus, Scientology requires huge amounts of money, as former member, actor Jason Beghe, has explained in this space. For Isaac to continue in the sect, he had to come up with funds. Performing was the only way.

In recent months, I’ve had conflicting reports. One mutual friend says that Isaac had looked and sounded much better lately at business meetings. But actor Samuel L. Jackson, who recently filmed scenes with Isaac and the late Bernie Mac for a new movie called “Soul Men,” told me on Saturday that Isaac really wasn’t up to the physical demands of shooting the movie. (Neither, it seems, was Bernie Mac.)

Sam Moore, who recorded those Isaac Hayes songs in the '60s and loved the writer-performer like a brother, told me Sunday when he heard about the death: “I’m happy.” Happy, I asked? “Yes, happy he’s out of pain.” It was one of the most beautiful ideas I’d ever heard expressed on the subject of death.

But there are a lot of questions still to be raised about Isaac Hayes’ death. Why, for example, was a stroke survivor on a treadmill by himself? What was his condition? What kind of treatment had he had since the stroke? Members of Scientology are required to sign a form promising they will never seek psychiatric or mental assistance. But stroke rehabilitation involves the help of neurologists and often psychiatrists, not to mention psychotropic drugs — exactly the kind Scientology proselytizes against.

What will come next, I’m afraid, is a wild dogfight among family members for Isaac’s estate. His song catalog (with David Porter) is one of the greatest in music history. Isaac lost the rights to his big hit songs in 1977. But thanks to something called the Songwriters Act, his heirs — whoever they are determined to be — automatically get the rights back as the songs come up for copyright renewal. I guarantee this will not be pretty. Isaac Lee Hayes has over 300 original compositions listed with BMI, from the Sam & Dave songbook to Carla Thomas’ “BABY (Baby)” to his monumental instrumental “Theme from SHAFT.”

None of this should ever take away from who Isaac Hayes really was: a great friend, a warm congenial man with a big heart and a big laugh. He had married again right before his stroke, and was very happy. If he hadn’t had the stroke, I am certain he would have recorded a new album. There was talk of it after the stroke, but nothing materialized. When we made and promoted “Only the Strong Survive,” he was a masterful musician with a great mind and a wicked sense of humor. His loss at 65 is simply way too early and very tragic.

FeedBack: Eyes Wide Shut

Robalini's Note: It's odd that the two reviews of Eyes Wide Shut from The Konformist still (nine years after the film was released) get amazing amounts of comments and feedback. Here's yet another:

I saw the movie, Eyes Wide Shut, as a display of Tom Cruise as handler, and Nicole Kidman as his mind control subject. It seems to me that Cruise's motive in the making of this was driven by his own desire to break down his wife's inhibitions under the guise of their art. His goal in my opinion was to sexualize her on screen and thereby weaken the resistance within her inner self. The movie failed because he failed in his goal to manipulate her into letting go of her senuality on film for public display. Now after moving on, he has younger, more pliable material to work with.

Nectar of the demigods

http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/nectar_of_the_demigods_b_list

Nectar of the demigods: B-list-celebrity-endorsed foodstuffs
by Genevieve Koski, Josh Modell, Nathan Rabin, Kyle Ryan
February 7th, 2008

A-list celebrities don't really pimp food products. It's like doing TV commercials—it's okay in Japan, out of sight, but it seems far beneath the likes of Tom Cruise or Russell Crowe to do something so gauche in America. The exception is Paul Newman, whose vast food empire is about more than releasing a quickie, crappy product. The A.V. Club's Tasha Robinson has had a bottle of Olympia Dukakis-brand salad dressing (brought to you by the same defunct company that once foisted Erik Estrada corn chips on the world) on her desk since 1999: Inspired by that, we dug up some currently available products endorsed by marginal celebs. Sadly, the Dirt McGirt Rap Snacks did not show up in time to make this article.


Smokey Robinson Down Home Pot Roast

The most striking thing about Smokey Robinson's line of frozen entrées isn't the fact that he has a line of frozen entrées; it's his frighteningly dead eyes staring out from the surface of the package. They look cataract-stricken, or maybe devil-infested. Still, that doesn't stop Smokey from putting his name on seafood gumbo, red beans and rice, and other reasonably priced foodstuffs.

Level of celebrity: With an older crowd, fairly high. Younger supermarketeers might just think he's a creepy, dead-eyed chef.

Appropriateness of product to celebrity: Appropriate. Smokey offers comfort with his music, and cheap comfort with his meals.

Likelihood of consumption by non-fans: Moderate to high. For frozen entrees, these aren't half-bad. Or maybe they're exactly half-bad.

Marketing hyperbole: "The soul is in the bowl," which implies that you're actually consuming Smokey Robinson's soul. His creepy eyes agree.

Buy it at: Lots of grocery stores.


Dwight Yoakam's Chicken Lickin's Chicken Fries And Buffalo Style Bites

Just how much chicken-breast deliciousness can you get for $1? Not a whole lot, judging by Dwight Yoakam's suspiciously cheap frozen chicken treats. Tasters at The A.V. Club aptly described these microwavable goodies as "breaded nothing," though to be fair, breading only constitutes about 65 percent of each "chicken fry" or Buffalo-style bite. Check out modernfoods.net for more stomach-churning info.

Level of celebrity: High. Yoakam is a respected country singer, hotshot guitarist, and distinguished character actor. When it comes to selling chicken to rubes, however, he's no Colonel Sanders.

Appropriateness of product to celebrity: Moderate. Yoakam has long appealed to a more upscale, diverse fan base than his country peers, but this downscale item's cheap packaging and bargain price screams "midnight snack at the trailer park." Then again, there's a long tradition of country musicians lending their names to questionable products. Yoakam is clearly channeling his inner Krusty The Clown with his line of quasi-edible foodstuffs.

Likelihood of consumption by non-fans: Questionable, though these should appeal to misers who refuse to pay more than $1 for a chicken fix, and to folks enamored of products that look and smell like food, yet lack anything resembling flavor.

Marketing hyperbole: The label says "Wow! Only $1," but it just as easily could read "Yikes! Only $1!" Sadly, you get what you pay for with Dwight Yoakam's chicken treats.

Buy it at: 7-Eleven.


Mike Ditka Coach's Cut pork chops

Most former athletes or coaches can only hope to land a commentating gig (which Da Coach has), but name another one who has his own restaurants, resort, cigars, record label, food products, and wine ("Kick Ass Red," so you don't think he's a wuss or nothin'). His food, naturally, comes in gigantic proportions suitable for the fat-ass super-fans immortalized by Saturday Night Live.

Level of celebrity: In the football world, near the top. Everywhere else, not so much.

Appropriateness of product to celebrity: Perfect. Gargantuan meat products are perfectly suited for a man who's had a heart attack.

Likelihood of consumption by non-fans: Pretty good, at least among chronic overeaters.

Marketing hyperbole: "Finally Da Coach brings his own kick-ass twist to gourmet food!" Good, because real men only eat gourmet food that's ass-kicking, you fairies.

Buy it at: We got it at Dominick's.


Dexter Holland Gringo Bandito hot sauce

Of all celebrity foodstuffs, hot sauce seems the most common. Why? It's probably the easiest and cheapest to make—mix some vinegar with peppers, and voila, hot sauce. Joining sauce-marketers Cheech Marin, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Ron Jeremy, Patti LaBelle, and untold others we've missed, is Dexter Holland, singer-guitarist for long-running punk outfit The Offspring.

Level of celebrity: Among the Warped Tour set, pretty high. In the mainstream music world and beyond, middling.

Appropriateness of product to celebrity: Pretty appropriate. The label on the bottle features a drawing of Holland as a bandolier-laden Mexican gangster. And he's from southern California—that's close to Mexico, right?

Likelihood of consumption by non-fans: Slim, unless you live in L.A. or Orange County, where you can find it in some restaurants.

Marketing hyperbole: Holland doesn't take it too seriously, referring to it as his "not-so-famous" sauce and mocking the need for nutrition information on the label. ("It's vinegar and peppers, for God's sake. What did you expect?") But he's attuned to his customers in another way: "I tried to make it easy on the pooper, too."

Buy it at: gringobandito.com


Jeff Foxworthy Grillin' Sauces, original BBQ

Barbecue sauce is just one of the many products available at thefoxworthystore.com, which offers apparel, books (both volumes of the Redneck Dictionary!), CDs and DVDs, and food. (Rolling over a link to any elicits a Foxworthy quip: "Apparel! Are ya nekkid?") The groceries section—"Groceries! I'm hongry!"—features five varieties of barbecue sauce and three types of beef jerky.

Level of celebrity: Moderate, thanks to his current gig hosting Fox's Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?

Appropriateness of product to celebrity: Perfect. Game-show hijinks aside, Foxworthy made his name with his "You might be a redneck if…" shtick. Offering only jerky and barbecue sauce in his "groceries" section is a redneck joke in itself.

Likelihood of consumption by non-fans: Low, at least non-ironically.

Marketing hyperbole: On the label, Foxworthy tells of his father's accident-prone grilling legacy: "There was a good chance that there was going to be a call to 911 whenever he fired up the grill… You always knew, though, that when Big Jim was grilling, the food was going to be good and the burns would eventually heal." Foxworthy signs off "Bone appateet!"

Buy it at: thefoxworthystore.com


Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt energy drink

Steven Seagal is truly a powerful man. But even man-gods sometimes need a boost, so the mystical thespian—according to his website—traveled to Asia to find the perfect balance of energy and power. That follows through in the Cherry Charge and Asian Experience varieties of his energy drink, but what will the mystics think about Root Beer Rush?

Level of celebrity: Near the bottom of an extremely long downhill slope.

Appropriateness of product to celebrity: Damn near sublime.

Likelihood of consumption by non-fans: Zero; purchase will be limited to fans who are really buying a souvenir can/conversation starter.

Marketing hyperbole: "The name Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt was an inevitable afterthought. When Steven Seagal finished creating a drink that holds untold natural power, there was only one equivalent in nature—The Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt. Both mysterious and powerful, it's a symbol of the untold energy the earth has to offer—Such is Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt energy drink." Doesn't that say it all? More than it all, really.

Buy it at: lightningdrink.com or Wal-Mart


Ben & Jerry's celebrity flavors

It isn't like consumers really need an excuse to gorge themselves on rich, goody-laden ice cream, but really, who hasn't wondered what Willie Nelson tastes like? (For the record, it's not bong water and beef jerky, but rather peach ice cream studded with cinnamon-sugar crumbles. Weird.) A handful of entertainers have earned the right to be immortalized in dairy form by Vermont ice-creamery Ben & Jerry's, with predictably delicious results.

Level of celebrity: Varies, but usually somewhere in the realm of cult favorite: Stephen Colbert (Americone Dream), Willie Nelson (Country Peach Cobbler), Wavy Gravy, and Monty Python (Vermonty Python) have all merited flavors. A high ratio of jam-band tributes—Cherry Garcia, Phish Food, and Dave Matthews' Band's Magic Brownies—speaks to B&J's hippie-centric origins and philosophy.

Appropriateness of product to celebrity: Americone Dream, Vermonty Python, Wavy Gravy, and Cherry Garcia depend more on name recognition and puns than a strong conceptual connection to their respective celebrities, but Phish Food (which contains fudge fish), Country Peach Cobbler, and Magic Brownies have subtle tie-ins to their namesakes. (Also, Cherry Garcia, the company's longest-running celebrity flavor, swapped in black cherries instead of its usual Bing cherries for a month following Jerry Garcia's death in 1995. Aww.)

Likelihood of consumption by non-fans: Pretty damn likely. Cherry Garcia and Phish Food rank among B&J's top-selling flavors, and all but Wavy Gravy are still in production.

Marketing hyperbole: None necessary. Interest in the company's products is high enough that new celebrity-endorsed flavors tend to create their own hype: The debuts of Colbert and Nelson's flavors sparked a faux-feud (egged on by Colbert, of course) between the two entertainers.

Buy it at: Everywhere.


The Cheech "Waatsappenin'" hot sauces

Cheech Marin is in good company as a minor-ish celebrity pimping hot sauce, but "The Cheech" really appears to take pride in this stuff—the packaging is great, and the three sauces (garlic, mango, and chipotle) were considerably different from each other, and all quite tasty. No, there isn't a weed-flavored sauce, and only a very vague weed reference. Will Chong sauce follow?

Level of celebrity: Well, he's far outstripped Tommy Chong, with lots of TV and voiceover work, and even the occasional film role. (Robert Rodriguez is clearly a fan.) But still, he isn't exactly a superstar—which is par for the course for a guy with his own salsa.

Appropriateness of product to celebrity: High. Cheech is a proud Mexican-American, and his sauces can only serve to bolster his culture's already-delicious food. The sauces are even manufactured in Costa Rica.

Likelihood of consumption by non-fans: Reasonably high. There are plenty of hot sauces on the market, but Cheech's recognizable face and a solid product could send him straight up the charts.

Marketing hyperbole: "3 new sauces hot-nuf to joggle your jibber!"

Buy it at: thecheech.com


Rickey's hot sauce

There's no celebrity on the packaging or anywhere on the company's website, but fans of last year's video-gaming documentary The King Of Kong know the public secret: Rickey's hot sauce was brought into the world by Billy Mitchell, classic-arcade-game champion and outsized character. Don't get sticky fingerprints on your Donkey Kong console.

Level of celebrity: Practically nonexistent in the grand scheme, but massive in the very small world of video games. He's the first guy to ever get a perfect Pac-Man score, and he's got amazing hair.

Appropriateness of product to celebrity: Strangely perfect. Hot sauce can be mysterious, as can Mitchell.

Likelihood of consumption by non-fans: Extremely high. Mitchell surely sells more sauce to people who have no idea who he is than to fans. And that's because the sauces—especially the simple green jalapeno—are delicious.

Marketing hyperbole: Actually, it's anti-hyperbole in this case: "Rickey's does not want to change anyone's recipes or their way of cooking, we only want to enhance the flavor."

Buy it at: 800hotsauce.com


Sammy Hagar Cabo Wabo tequila

He's every Van Halen fan's second choice for lead singer, but Sammy Hagar doesn't need to slog it out on the road any more—in a way, he's getting the last laugh. His VH partners invested in his Mexican bar way back when, but when it faltered, he bought them out. Fast forward a few years, and Sammy's got an incredibly successful tequila—Cabo Wabo—to go along with his place. Last year, he sold an 80 percent stake to Campari, and presumably got even more stinkin' rich. In a related note, former VH bassist Michael Anthony has his own line of hot sauces.

Level of celebrity: Unusual. Drinkers still love him, but a VH tour with Sammy wouldn't generate nearly the excitement that last year's David Lee Roth-led tour did.

Appropriateness of product to celebrity: Hagar and tequila go together like Roth and Van Halen, which is to say very well.

Likelihood of consumption by non-fans: Drink enough, and you'll be a fan.

Marketing hyperbole: Sammy pimps like a madman for Cabo Wabo. Bikini chicks onstage with his band, the Waboritas, serving tequila? Oh yeah, he's got that.

Buy it at: Many liquor stores.


Dale Earnhardt Jr. Big Mo' candy bar

Guys who drive around in circles really, really fast have to get hungry. Is there a better way to satisfy that kind of hunger than with a big-ass candy bar, available with peanut butter or caramel filling? Perhaps. Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Big Mo' bar has quantity, but not quality. It tastes and looks cheap.

Level of celebrity: Pretty high? It's tough to tell how big NASCAR is; sometimes it seems omnipresent, but nerds on pop-culture websites can probably go years without giving it a thought.

Appropriateness of product to celebrity: Low. Dale should have some jerky or an energy drink. Candy bars are for ladies, not race-car drivers.

Likelihood of consumption by non-fans: Very low, and repeated consumption seems almost unthinkable. If it were tasty, non-fans could get over Dale's face, but the taste doesn't cut it.

Marketing hyperbole: "Creating the exclusive recipe of the Big Mo' bar included numerous taste-tests by Earnhardt Jr., and was tailored to please his palate."

Buy it at: These were kinda tough to find, but eBay has a few. They may have been discontinued already.

Tom Cruise Had Spielberg's Family Doctor Picketed

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/11/29/tom-cruise-had-spielberg_n_74731.html

Tom Cruise Had Spielberg's Family Doctor Picketed By Scientologists
Katherine Thomson
November 29, 2007

Deep in the December issue of Vanity Fair is an interesting throw-away line about Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. Bryan Burrough wrote a lengthy article called:

Showdown at Fort Sumner

Two years after Paramount purchased DreamWorks, Hollywood is transfixed by one of the nastiest breakups ever. As Sumner Redstone and David Geffen went to war (over Steven Spielberg?), the author got it from both sides.


The article is online, and on page 3 of the online copy, at the end of a paragraph on Tom Cruise being "fired" by Redstone, is this:

Spielberg felt the actor's antics had hurt his own movie, 2005's War of the Worlds. Far worse, though, had been an episode when Spielberg told Cruise the name of a doctor who had prescribed medication to a relative and the doctor's office was subsequently picketed by Scientologists.

The Cruise dismissal, however, was nothing compared to the sudden firing of Freston as Viacom's C.E.O., two weeks later....


Vanity Fair has stringent fact checkers. To repeat "when Spielberg told Cruise the name of a doctor who had prescribed medication to a relative and the doctor's office was subsequently picketed by Scientologists."

The sentence begs the question, what kind of doctor and medication? Could it be psychiatric? Cruise and Scientology have a well-documented opposition to psychiatry, and now it seems Spielberg has a documented dislike of Cruise.

Travolta echoes Cruise on psychiatry

http://omg.yahoo.com/travolta-echoes-cruise-on-psychiatry/news/526

Travolta echoes Cruise on psychiatry
June 19, 2007

Associated Press

NEW YORK - John Travolta says his thinking is in line with fellow Scientologist Tom Cruise, who has publicly defended the religion's stance against psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry.

Cruise, during a famously heated debate on NBC's "Today" show in 2005, criticized Brooke Shields for taking anti-depression drugs and berated host Matt Lauer for suggesting that psychiatric treatment might help some patients.

"I don't disagree with anything Tom says," Travolta says in the July issue of W magazine, on newsstands Friday. "How would I have presented it? Maybe differently than how he did, but it doesn't matter. I still think that if you analyze most of the school shootings, it is not gun control. It is (psychotropic) drugs at the bottom of it."

"I don't want to create controversy; I just have an opinion on things, and there is nothing wrong with stating your opinion if you are asked," he continues. "Everyone wants that right, and because you are famous doesn't mean you have less of a right."

Travolta, who also talks of his habit of going to bed at 6 or 7 in the morning and waking in the early afternoon, says being famous has little impact on how he lives his life.

"I will tell you the things that would be the same, fame or no fame," he says. "Being up all night would be the same. Liking empty restaurants, liking empty movie theaters Ã? unless I am starring in it."

Travolta, 53, portrays Ms. Edna Turnblad in "Hairspray," the adaptation of the stage musical that was spun from the 1988 John Waters film of the same name. The new film opens July 20. The role, in which he dons a fat suit and feminine garb, has added fuel to ongoing speculation about his sexuality.

"I have never been compelled to share with you my bathroom habits or share with you my bedroom habits," says the married father of two. "Everyone has a right to privacy, so I have never felt - even though I am famous - that I had to share that with anybody."

Do the rumors bother him? Does he think they've affected his career?

"No and no," he says. "What affects your career is the quality of the product. I don't think anyone can hurt me."

"Hairspray," a New Line release, also stars Christopher Walken, Michelle Pfeiffer and Queen Latifah.
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New Line is a division of Time Warner Inc.
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On the Net:

W magazine: http://www.style.com/w

http://www.hairspraymovie.com/