Leah Remini reveals that she’s been stalked during production of her new TV series.
Tony Ortega:
Leah Remini reveals that she’s been stalked during production of her new TV series
http://tonyortega.org/2016/10/31/le...alked-during-production-of-her-new-tv-series/
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Leah Remini’s A&E television series about the Church of Scientology premieres on November 29, but it’s been filming for months. And in that time, Leah and her production crew have been subject to the usual reaction from the church itself including threatening letters, surveillance, and in Denver an encounter that was especially memorable.
We visited Leah this weekend in Los Angeles on the set of her show, and while she was cautious about the details of what’s in the eight episodes of her series, she did want us to know about how her production has come under fire.
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This summer, Leah was in Denver spending time with well known former Scientologists Marc and Claire Headley. The Headleys were Sea Org workers at Scientology’s secretive international base until their escape in 2005. We’ve featured them many times, and you’re probably familiar with the ordeal they went through — including Claire’s two forced abortions. (Sea Org women were compelled to have abortions from about 1982 to 2010 by Scientology, reasoning that children were a hindrance when you want employees to work 112 hours a week for pennies an hour.)
Leah was with the Headleys at a restaurant one day when she noticed that there were two cars parked across the street in an empty lot, and the two drivers were talking to each other. She thought it was strange, and suspected that they were Scientology-hired private investigators. (The Headleys, who at one point sued the church, have a very long history of being stalked by Scientology private eyes.)
“I was having dinner with Marc and Claire, and I noticed two cars parked across the street in an empty lot,” Leah says. “I asked Claire, do you think we’re being followed?”
The next day, it became even more obvious that they had picked up a number of private eyes as tails.
“They weren’t doing a very good job of being inconspicuous. I think they wanted to be seen,” Leah says. “I was with Mike Rinder. And it became obvious that they were spying on us.”
Rinder, the former Scientology spokesman, is used to being under constant surveillance by the church. But for Leah, it was relatively unusual. We’ve noted in the past that she had largely escaped the heavy stalking and harassment that other former Scientologists have had to put up with. But in Denver, Leah found herself being targeted.
Two of the men were standing outside of the hotel where Leah was staying. She decided it was time to get some answers.
“Mike went to confront them. One took off, but Mike got in the face of the other one,” she says.
Leah’s crew managed to catch a pretty good image of the man.
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