Filmmaker to Spill Scientology Story
His defection from the Church of Scientology's celebrity coterie was big news in 2009, and now writer and director Paul Haggis is following up with a detailed exploration of his former organization, in the form of a book collaboration with journalist Lawrence Wright.
His defection from the Church of Scientology’s celebrity coterie was big news in 2009, and now writer and director Paul Haggis is following up with a detailed exploration of his former organization, in the form of a book collaboration with journalist Lawrence Wright. –KA
TRUTHDIG’S JOURNALISM REMAINS CLEARGawker:
New Yorker staff writer and Looming Tower author Lawrence Wright is writing what his agent calls “the most profound reckoning to date” with Scientology, told through the eyes of director and apostate Paul Haggis. This should be good.
Haggis spent 35 years as a Scientologist before angrily and publicly ditching the cult in 2009 after he became convinced that leader David Miscavige is a violent nut. He hasn’t spoken publicly about Scientology since, but a “blown” celebrity (to use the Scientological term for leaving the fold) like Haggis is Scientology’s worst possible nightmare—it can smear and threaten rank-and-file detractors all it wants, but when one of its former leading lights is making the charges, it’s harder to strike back.
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