Leah Remini has most recently been seen as a co-host and fill-in for Erin Andrews on “Dancing With the Stars” but behind her take no crap demeanor, she has a lot to say in regards to the Church of Scientology. When she and her family, including her mother who introduced her to the religion, left in 2013, Remini was alienated and ostracized. Rumors that Tom Cruise had a vendetta against the former “King of Queens” and “The Exes” actress were addressed when she chose to do a sit down on “20/20” as she prepares for her book launch, “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology.” When she was a competitor on “Dancing With the Stars,” good friend Jennifer Lopez was in the audience, cheering the now forty-five-year-old on. It seemed like J. Lo had taken Remini’s side over Tom Cruise’s when she chose to exit the religion but what we learned in the sit-down was that it was actually the Church that requested the presence of Jennifer Lopez and then husband Marc Anthony.
“The Church was really the one who invited them. On Tom’s behalf.” But the besties did not get to celebrate the lavish two million dollar Italian wedding together as they were seated at different tables. “They were always trying to extract me. I could only assume because they wanted to make Jennifer a Scientologist and maybe I was barring that road for them,” Remini concludes. Though she does not regret having spent roughly thirty years with the Church, she and husband Angelo are just as happy to be done with them. She said that she was reprimanded for telling Katie and Tom to get a room when they were displaying extreme public displays of affection and she also filed a missing persons report when it came to the leader’s wife, Shelly. David Miscavige, who is super close to Tom and his family, was his best man but sans his wife, which Remini found to be odd.
But she also felt like she was being alienated, attempting to say that it was solely her behavior that disrupted the wedding, to which Leah had this to say: “Basically, they were just trying to get me to recant what I said, to apologize for ruining the wedding of the century.” Tom Cruise has remained silent while ex-wife Katie Holmes, 35, released a statement where she claims that she “regrets having upset Leah in the past and wish her only the best in the future.” What do you think about Scientology? Has your opinion changed at all or do you not even care? Let us know.
