October 26, 2009
What’s great about Scientology is that it’s a perennial gift basket for journalists and reporters. There’s always some new outrage, some new guts-spilling defector, or some new Tom Cruise hissy-fit. Last week, ABC’s Nightline did a lengthy investigative piece on the religion (if the IRS defines them that way, then who am I to say otherwise?), with heavy emphasis on the behavior of the church’s leader, David Miscavige. Among other not-very-charming idiosyncrasies, he was accused by former colleagues of various physical abuses, as well as a slavish devotion to his dog, whom he dressed in the uniform of a military commander and insisted that all church members salute. If this is true, then why didn’t the tell-all apostates relating these stories run away screaming after the first putative beat-down or forced doggy salute? Weak wills? Brainwashing? Masochism? Whatever the case, the timing of the report is interesting as a respected Hollywood heavy-hitter has just “disconnected” from the religion after 35 years: director and Academy-Award-winner film festival Paul Haggis.


A pairing of the literary and the fashion worlds doesn’t exactly seem like a match made in heaven. That is, unless you’re talking about Tom Wolfe’s suits, Truman Capote’s spectacles, or the late Hunter S. Thompson’s propensity to break every fashion (not to mention, literary) rule in the book. But, thanks to "