Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Yesterday, the Huffington Post reported that the case against That ’70s Show star (and Scientologist) Danny Masterson had been inexplicably delayed, despite the fact that there is “compelling evidence” from the four women who have accused the actor of raping them in the early 2000s. Three of the women are confirmed to have been Scientologists at the time of their assaults and reportedly informed the Church of Scientology of the incidents when they occurred (to no effect).
While the case may be moving slowly (and the Church of Scientology may be doing everything in their power to stop it from moving forward), Masterson’s alleged victims clearly want to be heard. According to Tony Ortega, a journalist who works to expose the abuses within the Church, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath filmed an episode earlier this year featuring interviews with the former Scientologists who claim Masterson raped them. The episode in question, however, has not aired and there are no plans to currently schedule them due to fear of interfering with the ongoing investigation.
The District Attorney’s office, who has still not made a decision about Masterson’s charges, apparently met with Leah Remini and co-host Mike Rinder after the episode was filmed, and in an effort to avoid jeopardizing the case, Remini decided against airing it – and A&E agreed. Ortega does point out, however, that there’s a small glimpse of one of the interviews present in the show’s title sequence, implying that there might be hope for the episode to be aired at some point.
This isn’t the first time Masterson has been linked to Remini, either. Ortega reports that back in March, Masterson’s representatives claimed that the victims had been “put up” to reporting their allegations to law enforcement by Remini:
“We are aware of [Victim A’s] 16-year-old allegations. It was only after [Victim A] was in contact with Leah Remini that she made allegations of sexual assault by Mr. Masterson. Based on reading the anti-Scientology blog that posted this story, these false allegations appear to be motivated to boost Leah Remini’s anti-Scientology television series since [Victim A] only came forward after connecting with Leah Remini.”
According to Ortega, however, this timeline doesn’t match up, because the victims reported their assaults before ever being interviewed by Remini. The status of the interviews, the episode, and the case remains up in the air, but it’s safe to say that the Church of Scientology probably isn’t thrilled about any of this.
