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Tag: cult

  • Tina Fey Calls Ellie Kemper’s ‘Kimmy Schmidt’ Delightful

    Tina Fey has done it again. The SNL alum and 30 Rock star has created yet another hilarious sitcom–this time for Netflix. Starring Ellie Kemper from The Office and Bridesmaids fame, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is about a 20-something woman who escaped a cult to start over in New York City.

    “She’s just delightful,” Fey said in an interview with People magazine. “She is so intelligent and energetic and adorable.”

    “I think she is so likable and warm and skilled that I hope people really enjoy watching her,” Tina Fey adds.

    Ellie Kemper is just as excited about Tina Fey as Fey is about her. She calls her role in The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt a ‘dream come true.’

    “I was very excited,” Kemper says of meeting Fey for the first time. “She’s Tina Fey!”

    Ellie Kemper works with a rat on The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Does she harbor any grudges toward Tina Fey for having a rat as a co-star?

    “It was a showbiz rat, so it was calm,” Kemper explains. “It almost felt like a small kitten so it felt doable.”

    Tina Fey created Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt with another 30 Rock alum–Robert Carlock. That combination of talents–along with actors like Alec Baldwin, Jane Krakowski, Tracy Morgan, and Jack McBrayer–made for a hit sitcom that ran for seven seasons.

    Has Tina Fey found the same with Ellie Kemper (Jane Krakowski stars in the Netflix series, too) in The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt?

  • Glenn Close Says She Was Raised In A Cult

    Actress Glenn Close recently opened up about her childhood and what it was like for her growing up. She also confessed that she was raised in a cult where she as not allowed to be herself and was controlled by the leaders.

    “[For years], I wouldn’t trust any of my instincts because [my beliefs] had all been dictated to me,” the 67-year-old said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

    “You basically weren’t allowed to do anything, or you were made to feel guilty about any unnatural desire. If you talk to anybody who was in a group that basically dictates how you’re supposed to live and what you’re supposed to say and how you’re supposed to feel, from the time you’re 7 till the time you’re 22, it has a profound impact on you. It’s something you have to [consciously overcome] because all of your trigger points are [wrong],” she added.

    Close’s father took his family to live at the headquarters of the religious cult Moral Re-Armament, when she was only seven. She left when she was 22 and enrolled in college.

    She said that she was often haunted by the cult and her past but learned to overcome it. She said that although she was angry with her family and many members and leaders of the cult for a long time, she had to forgive them in order to move on and be happy.

    “I always thought, the way life works, the burden of forgiveness is on the child,” divulged Close. “That’s the way it goes. Forgiveness is probably the most revolutionary concept there is right now in our world. Because without forgiveness, you just perpetuate what has been before. You [have to] say, ‘It’s going to stop with me.’”

  • Glenn Close Discloses She Was Raised In A Religious Cult

    As a celebrated actor, Glenn Close exudes an innate sophistication, but the 67-year-old recently revealed that her childhood was actually spent growing up in an oppressive cult. Close made the shocking revelation in a recent issue of The Hollywood Reporter, where she appears on the cover.

    Close revealed that she entered the cult when she was aged seven and could only escape from its oppressive environment when she turned 22. Her father, Dr. William Taliaferro Close, entered into a conservative religious group called Moral Re-Armament with his family and even moved them to live in the group’s headquarters in Switzerland.

    — Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) October 16, 2014

    “You basically weren’t allowed to do anything, or you were made to feel guilty about any unnatural desire. If you talk to anybody who was in a group that basically dictates how you’re supposed to live and what you’re supposed to say and how you’re supposed to feel, from the time you’re seven till the time you’re 22, it has a profound impact on you,” said Close.

    It was only when Close started attending the College of William and Mary that she was able to sever her ties with the religious group in 1970. Even after leaving the group, however, Close was still haunted in her dreams by its influence. Since Close didn’t seek professional help, she processed her childhood trauma through these dreams.

    “I had these dreams, and they started with betrayal, a sense of betrayal, and then they developed into me being able to look at these people and say, ‘You’re wrong. You’re wrong.’ And then the final incarnation of those dreams was my being able to calmly get up and walk away. And then I didn’t have them anymore,” Close said.

    — Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 15, 2014

    Close never resumed contact with the group and has since forgiven her father for her traumatic childhood. “I always thought, the way life works, the burden of forgiveness is on the child,” Close said.

  • Leah Remini Talks About Scientology

    Leah Remini, 43, the former King of Queens star and Dancing With The Stars contestant, has been extremely vocal about her relationship to the Church of Scientology since the announcement that she was leaving the organization in June 2013.

    She has been making headlines for leaving the controversial religion after reportedly facing “years of interrogations” and “thought modification”, and for questioning the leader of Scientology, David Miscavige.

    What wasn’t revealed, was that she had issues with the Church, and in questioning the leader, David Miscavige, according to several sources close to the actress, she was required to go through extensive “security checks,” which is a practice of intensive personal questioning.

    In a recent interview with People she revealed her personal reasons for leaving the church after a more than three decade relationship.

    “I wish to share my sincere and heartfelt appreciation for the overwhelming positive response I have received from the media, my colleagues and fans,” Remini, said in a statement.

    (image)

    She revealed even more information about her near life long experience with the church, as well as her reasons for leaving, in an interview with E News:

    “We went from a middle-class lifestyle [in Brooklyn, N.Y.] to living in a roach-infested motel with six other girls off a freeway in Clearwater,” Remini recalled of her family’s transition to the church’s compound in Clearwater, Fla., in 1983. She was just about to turn ten years old.

    “We were separated from our mother. We had to sign billion-year contracts we didn’t understand. And we kept saying, ‘Why are you doing this to us? Why are we here?’

    And further, she explains about her hardships during her “time” in the organization, “We were working from morning until night with barely any schooling. There was no saying no. There was no being tired. There was no, ‘I’m a little girl who just lost her father and everything I’ve ever known.’ There was only, ‘Get it done.’”

    But according to Remini, her biggest reason for leaving the organization, was that she did not want her daughter to repeat the life she experienced.

    In a Buzzfeed interview, Remini explained that she decided to leave the church for the well being of her 9-year-old daughter, Sofia.

    “She was getting to the age where the acclimation into the church would have to start,” said the actress.

    What is most disturbing about this organization is the implications of what an insider said, “stepping away from Scientology will be challenging, but she will fight.”

    In what universe is it a fight to walk away from a religious organization? It sounds much more like a cult.

    Images via Wikimedia Commons, YouTube

  • Leah Remini On Leaving Scientology: ‘I Was A Hypocrite’

    Leah Remini of King of Queens fame opened up about her decision to leave the Church of Scientology in an interview published on Wednesday.

    She had been in the Church of Scientology for over 30 years. Her decision to leave had to do with the well-being of her daughter Sofia, 9. Remini said that her daughter was nearing the age when her adaptation into the church would have to start.

    Remini recalled how it was when her mother joined the church. She was barely 10 years old when her family moved into the church’s compound in Clearwater, Florida. It was her stepfather who convinced her mother to join the organization, but he never showed up after that.

    Remini and her sisters were separated from their mother, who worked for the church and was “never home.” She came to resent her mother for not being able to take care of them. Remini said that her mother had the belief that she was “helping the planet—that’s what the church tells you.”

    It was a life Remini did not want for her daughter. “In my house, it’s family first,” she said, “but I wasn’t showing that.” She calls herself a “hypocrite” for spending more time at the church instead of with her family.

    Remini had expressed her desire to change the situation, but she said she was met with opposition. According to her, the church “Didn’t care about doing the right thing,” prompting her to comment that everything she had been taught by the church was a lie.

    Her decision to leave resulted in an uproar. Actress Kirstie Alley who practices Scientology called Remini a bigot when she became a guest on The Howard Stern Show in December.

    The Church of Scientology also responded to the remarks made by Remini. In their statement, they said they were not surprised that Leah Remini’s “insatiable craving for attention” and self-absorption would make her exploit Scientology as a “publicity stunt” and that she omitted saying she had been part of a program that would make her remain a Scientologist by choice.

    Remini, according to the statement, was actually on the verge of being discharged from the church due to her ethical lapses.

    Image via YouTube

  • Craigslist Killer Admits to Slaying 22 Others

    A craigslist killer charged in the November murder of a man has confessed to slaying 22 other victims within the past six years.

    Miranda Barbour, 19, and her newlywed husband are facing criminal homicide charges in the death of 42-year-old Troy LaFerrara.

    After connecting with the victim via a Craigslist post, Barbour lured LaFerrara to a mall parking lot and then the two drove six miles into Sunbury, Pa. The post was reportedly a sexual-service advertisement set at a price of $100.

    Barbour told investigators that her husband was only supposed to strangle the victim, but because LaFerrara continued to agree to sexual advancements after she had falsely claimed to be 16 years old, Barbour decided to take his slaughter even further.

    LaFerrara suffered from nearly 20 stab wounds.

    The couple had just moved from North Carolina to Pennsylvania prior to the slaying. After only three weeks into their marriage, LaFerrara was their first killing together.

    However, for Barbour the man was just another victim to add to her list of committed murders.

    During an audio-recorded interview from prison, she told journalist Francis Scarcella of The Daily Item that she has contributed to a number of murders in North Carolina, Texas, Alaska, and California.

    “When I hit 22, I stopped counting,” Barbour said Friday night in her confession from Northumberland County Prison.

    Barbour requested the interview because she finally wanted to confess to the killings.

    Police officers have now started to investigate more into her claims and have contacted appropriate authorities within several states.

    “From information we gathered and from information gathered from her interview we are seriously concerned and have been in contact with the proper authorities,” Sunbury Police Chief Steve Mazzeo told The Daily Item. (image)

    According to Barbour, she first started participating in several murders at age 13 after joining a satanic cult in Alaska.

    “I wasn’t always there (mentally). I knew something was bad inside me and the satanic beliefs brought it out. I embraced it,” she said.

    Barbour claims that she would go after “bad people” and according to her, LaFerrara did not deserve to live.

    “I studied them. I learned them and even became their friend. I did this to people who did bad things and didn’t deserve to be here anymore.”

    Hauntingly enough, the Craigslist killer told the newspaper that her killing spree would always be a constant pattern.

    “I know I wanted to talk about all this because I know I had a 20-year window where I would possibly get out of jail and I don’t want that to happen. If I were to be released, I would do this again,” she said unapologetically.

    Barbour plans to plead guilty to LaFerrara’s murder, and in doing so, she offers to lead investigators to the locations where the other 22 killings occurred.

    Image via YouTube

  • Westboro Baptist Church Protests Outside of Four Churches in California

    The religious-crazed circus is at again with all their obnoxious antics and political beliefs.

    Westboro Baptist Church was scheduled to protest at four churches in Glendale, Calif. on Sunday morning.

    According to their website, the protests were to take place at Holy Family Catholic Community, Salem Lutheran Church and School,  St. Matthews Church, Glendale Presbyterian Church, and First United Methodist Church of Glendale.

    More than anything, the church is very well known for their rude protests at military funerals. However, they also object to gay marriages, “fake Christians” and basically anything they consider to be a form of sin (fornication, divorce, adultery, etc.).

    Since 1991, the group has conducted 51,934 protests, spewing its radical beliefs all across the country.

    So, their most recent presence in Glendale was no different than any other attention-seeking demonstration they have conducted.

    Hundreds of counter-protestors came out as well to defend their own beliefs.

    In a report by Glendale News-Press, Pastor Kurt Christenson of Salem Lutheran responded to the protest with the theory that WBC is just built on pure anger instead of love.

    “We know that the folks in Westboro are angry, and that comes out in hate…I think they’re angry at the way America seems to be going,” he said. “It’s not like it used to be…They’ve decided they don’t want to engage in conversation. They just want to yell and scream and protest. There is an opportunity to say at the end of the day that love is stronger than hate.”

    However, at St. Matthews Church, Pastor Keith Banwart Jr associates the organization to a cult that enjoys harassing the LGBT community. His stance in the whole event was to support those who convey love, no matter what their sexual orientation may be.

    “These people want to show that God’s love is bigger than the hate that may be displayed here this morning,” Pastor Banwart said.

    Even throughout the demonstrations, church members were seen standing up for their church before removing themselves from the scene to attend service.

    WBC was also scheduled to protest outside of the Golden Globe Awards Sunday afternoon.

    It appears that their next upcoming stop includes picketing outside the home of Theresa Caputo, TV personality on TLC’s “Long Island Medium,” January 19.

    Others also involve A&E’s Duck Dynasty in New York, George Strait at Sprint Center in Missouri, and Super Bowl XLVIII in New Jersey.

    It’s like a never-ending story that won’t go away!

    What are your thoughts?

    Raw footage of the protest on Sunday:

    A documentary about WBC:

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Leah Remini Is A “Bigot” Says Kirstie Alley

    Leah Remini Is A “Bigot” Says Kirstie Alley

    Kirstie Alley seems to be upset by Leah Remini’s public criticism of the Church of Scientology. Alley, who was a guest on “The Howard Stern Show” Wednesday, ended up calling Remini a Bigot for attacking her religion.

    Alley has been a staunch and vocal supporter of the controversial church and says she joined the church to overcome her cocaine addiction when she was younger. Alley was asked whether she feels offended when people attack her because of her beliefs. “I think that is the most repulsive thing a person can do, attack another person’s faith,” she said, “Because a faith is what you look to to have hope, and is what you look to to help other people, and I just think it’s really wrong.”

    Actress Leah Remini has been on the offensive against the Church of Scientology, an organization she broke away from since July. Remini had been one of the church’s celebrity members for almost 30 years but broke away from the church because according to her, the church attempted to modify thoughts and use interrogations on members. “I don’t think everybody knows that’s what is required when you leave… its the friends and family members, mothers and daughters, that is what is required,” Remini said on “The View.”  “They can no longer have relationships with me, my family, so I don’t get to see my god kids, friends that we’ve known for 34 years.” said Remini.

    Now, the former “King of Queens” star is receiving push back from Alley, who thinks that the 43-year-old (Remini) is a bigot.

    “When you are generalizing, and when your goal is to malign and to say things about an entire group — there are tens of millions of Scientologists in the world — when you decide to blanket statement, ‘Scientology is evil,’ you are my enemy,” Alley said.

    Alley also admitted that she had blocked Remini on her Twitter although they had not seen each other for seven or eight years. “She’s a bigot,” Alley said, as she seemed quite unapologetic on her aggressive stand against Remini, “If someone was out there attacking your religion, would they be your friend? They wouldn’t be mine .. It’s not selective, I just won’t have people in my life that are bigots.”

    Kirstie Alley Defends Church Of Scientology On Howard Stern

    http://youtu.be/INmZ9lFm7vU

    (main image via YouTube)

  • Michelle Pfeiffer Used to be in a Cult

    She thought they were personal trainers.

    Young, beautiful, naive actress arrives in Hollywood and gets lured into a cult. TV Movie of the Week? A film coming to an area theater near you? It certainly could be. It’s also the story of blonde knockout Michelle Pfeiffer. It seems that when the 55-year-old actress first arrived in Hollywood at the tender age of 20, she found herself caught up with a couple who believed in “Breatharianism” which is the ability to survive without the staples of water and food. Instead, the idea is that sunlight can provide all the necessities for human life.

    The Fabulous Baker Boys and Scarface actress was out promoting her new film The Family when she told Britain’s The Sunday Telegraph how she wound up with this group that could be defined as a cult. “They were very controlling. I wasn’t living with them but I was there a lot and they were always telling me I needed to come more. I had to pay for all the time I was there, so it was financially very draining.”

    Although her marriage to actor Peter Horton, Thirtysomething, did not work out. The couple split in 1988. Horton’s role in a film about the Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church nicknamed “The Moonies,” helped Pfeiffer in determining that Breatharianism looked like a cult and that she should get out as soon as possible. Pfeiffer said, “We were talking with an ex-Moonie and he was describing the psychological manipulation and I just clicked.”

    Apparently, Breatharianism is still around today. In fact, they have their own Facebook page. The site defines a person who is Breatharian as “someone who taps into multiple energy and food sources other than the regular food the world knows.”

    Image via Wikipedia

  • Michelle Pfeiffer was Once Part of a Cult

    During an interview with “The Sunday Telegraph”, Michelle Pfeiffer opened up about once belonging to a cult. By complete accident, she got involved with a couple, who she thought were personal trainers, and then came to the realization that she was actually a member of a cult.

    As a naïve 20-year-old, Pfeiffer did not realize that the people she had become involved with were actually the leaders of a cult. “They worked with weights and put people on diets. Their thing was vegetarianism,” she said. “They were very controlling. I wasn’t living with them but I was there a lot and they were always telling me I needed to come more. I had to pay for all the time I was there, so it was financially very draining.” She continued saying, “They believed that people in their highest state were breatharian.”

    The couple believed in breatharianism, which takes vegetarianism to a whole other level. Breatharianism is when a person goes, not only without meat and meat products, but without any food or water. Breatharian’s believe they can live with no food or water, and that the sunlight will provide their nourishment.

    Pfeiffer has always been a strict vegan, but did not realize she was in a cult until she met her first husband, actor Peter Horton. He had been cast in a movie about the Moonies, which were the people who followed the Rev Moon Sun-myung’s Unification Church. Pfeiffer says she was helping Horton do research for his role when it clicked for her that she was a part of one. “We were talking with an ex-Moonie and he was describing the psychological manipulation and I just clicked,” she said. Had Horton not been working on the film, Pfeiffer may not have realized the scary situation she had become involved in.

    Since her younger days, the 55-year-old actress has lived a quieter life with her husband, David E. Kelley, and her two children, Claudia and John.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Apple Inspires Cult-Like Religious Reaction In People

    Apple is a company and brand that has a lot of fans. Those fans can sometimes make Trekkies look like well-balanced, normal members of society. This just begs the question: is there a line between fanaticism and outright religious devotion?

    Let’s first define religion: according to Dictionary.com, religion is “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.” Well, that sure sounds like religion, but doesn’t sound anything like an Apple fan. I’m pretty sure most Apple fans don’t think Steve Jobs is a god and that he created the tech universe.

    Let’s look at the definition of fan then and see if we can find any correlation. A fan according to Dictionary.com is “an enthusiastic devotee, follower, or admirer of a sport, pastime, celebrity, etc.” Well, we can safely say that Apple as a brand fits nicely into the etcetera of the definition. The fans are enthusiastic devotees of the brand and religious folks are enthusiastic devotees of whatever they worship. Is that enough to say that they are one in the same?

    BBC News recently ran a documentary called “Secrets of the Superbrands” that looked into that very same subject. While a lot of the documentary looked into how other industries (such as the porn industry) are leading the charge into the adoption of new technologies, it also looked into the fandom of certain brands and how far it can go. It was found that people travel hundreds or thousands of miles to Apple store locations when they have one right next to them. Why travel to the one farther away? Because it was a brand new Apple store.

    In all of this, it was found that Apple products light up the same parts of our brains that religious deities do. While this is hardly fool-proof evidence that Apple fans view the brand as a god, it does confirm what we’ve known for years – Apple fans are serious about their devotion.

    Do you think that Apple is a god of the 21st century? Or are you just a casual fan of their products? Let us know in the comments.

    [h/t: CNN]

    [Lead image: The Economist]