Leah Remini says Scientology forced her to raise money for Tom and Suri Cruise as punishment
Leah Remini was ordered to raise money for Tom Cruise’s pet causes as part of her punishment for displeasing Scientology leaders, the actress claims in new court documents.
Remini — who is suing the church for defamation — claims in the court declaration that she was made to “raise money for Scientology causes led by Tom Cruise” after questioning the whereabouts of Shelly Miscavige, the wife of church leader David Miscavige who has not been seen in public in 2007.
Additionally, Remini, who was involved in Scientology from 1979 to 2013, alleges in the latest court filing that she was “forced to donate money to name a seat in a Scientology auditorium after Suri Cruise.”
The declaration, first reported by Tony Ortega of The Underground Bunker, was submitted in response to the church’s legal attempts to have Remini’s lawsuit, filed in August, tossed out of court.
“This lawsuit is ludicrous and allegations are pure lunacy,” a Scientology spokeswoman told The Post of Remini’s lawsuit and follow-up declaration. “The Church is not intimidated by Remini’s latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech.”
A representative for Cruise did not reply to a request for comment.
Remini, who is suing the church for unspecified damages, claims the transgression that led to her alleged punishment began while she was attending Cruise and Katie Holmes’ $2.5 million wedding in 2006 at a castle in Bracciano, Italy.
Within Scientology, the ceremony was billed as the “Wedding of the Century,” according to the declaration. As a result, Remini was “shocked to discover” that Michelle “Shelly” Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, was not there.
Concerned, she asked highly placed church members, including Cruise’s personal handlers, “Where is Shelly?” — only to be “immediately admonished by the group” for asking the question, court papers state.
(Last year, the LAPD issued a statement saying: In 2014, Los Angeles Police Department detectives assigned to the Missing Persons Unit (MPU) went to Shelly Miscavige’s location and personally made contact with her and her attorney. Detectives found her to be alive and safe, and subsequently closed the missing persons investigation.)
The “King of Queens” actress claims she later filed internal church reports about what she alleges to have been “unethical contacts between various Scientology executives and others at the wedding” that Remini “understood to be forbidden by Scientology teachings.”
Upon returning to Los Angeles from the wedding, the declaration states, Remini claims she was “ordered to go to Florida, to the Flag Land Base Building” — the spiritual headquarters of Scientology.
There, according to court papers, Remini allegedly underwent a “Truth Rundown, described as “a form of psychological torture meant to rewrite the target’s memories.”
She claims to have been held at FLAG for four months and to have endured “psychological torture [that] continued hour after hour, day after day, for months.” Eventually she “rescinded” the reports and took responsibility for “being the problem.”
Remini left Scientology in 2013 and became publicly critical of the church. In 2015, she authored a book, “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology.” Soon after leaving, Remini claims in the court document, “I filed a missing person report on Shelly Miscavige with the LAPD.”
