The Church of Scientology slams Alex Gibney’s documentary “Going Clear”
Source: Salon
Tuesday, Jan 27, 2015 09:39 AM EST
The Church of Scientology has released a statement slamming Alex Gibneys HBO documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, which premiered to rave reviews at Sundance earlier this week. Based on New Yorker writers Lawrence Wrights 2013 national bestseller of the same name, the film is a searing exposé about life inside the Church. In particular, it features damning revelations about Scientologys star member Tom Cruise, including that the Church tapped his ex-wife Nicole Kidmans phone as part of attempts to intimidate Kidman and split up the couple.
Heres an excerpt from the Churchs statement:
The Church has documented evidence that those featured in Gibneys film regurgitating their stale, discredited allegations are admitted perjurers, admitted liars and professional anti-Scientologists whose living depends on the filing of false claims. All have been gone so long from the Church they know nothing of it today. Yet Gibney and HBO stonewalled more than a dozen requests by the Church to offer relevant information about them, with more than 25 individuals with firsthand information eager to speak. To this day, neither HBO nor Gibney can deny that they have yet to present the Church with a single allegation from the film so the Church may have an opportunity to respond. The Church never sought special treatment, only fair treatment.
<snip>
HBO, for its part, was well-prepared for blowback from the famously litigious Church, telling The Hollywood Reporter back in November that they had probably 160 lawyers looking at the film. Lawyering up was a smart move: Wrights book was met by a barrage of criticism from the Church when it came out, which led to it being dropped by its British and Canadian publishers.
Read more: http://www.salon.com/2015/01/27/the_church_of_scientology_slams_alex_gibneys_documentary_going_clear/
Response to inanna (Original post)
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Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)samsingh
(17,601 posts)snooper2
(30,151 posts)Watch the first couple of minutes of this (or whole thing)...BBC reporter exposed them in 2007 and went OFF!
Here he is doing it again
inanna
(3,547 posts)I think it needs to be seen.
crim son
(27,464 posts)Wow.
7962
(11,841 posts)They'll do everything they can to stop the rest of us from seeing it too.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)I know Chef went crazy when they went after them in South Park.
I went to see Book of Mormon over the week-end, and about pissed myself.
samsingh
(17,601 posts)argues that they were not contacted by the moviemakers.
well the church was allowed to put out a press release that has been circulated so why not rebut specific points instead of the usual 'proven purjurors, thrown out members (aren't Churches supposed to be tolerant?), and vicious and demeaning words to describe human beings.