Scientollywood: The influence of Scientology in the entertainment industry

The word Scientollywood was invented by Karl Hermann (then at PRINZ, later at TIP Magazin until December 2005, now at Formblitz AG since March 2006) and Karl Maier (then at PRINZ, now at BZ) in 1993. I learned of the word because of an hilarious cover page of TIP Magazin in 1996.

[film strip picture] Who's in Scientollywood, and who's out? Find it out in the Scientology Celebrity FAQ

Examples of Scientology influence on movie contents:

The Terminal Man: This movie contains a product placement for Scientology, at least in the german version. While the psychiatrist (Joan Hackett) with the weird hairdo searches for her escaped patient (George Segal) in his bedroom, a radio show can be heard in which a caller tells his successes with Scientology. Although the book was written by Michael Crichton, the movie was rather boring.

Far and away: The sound recording was made with Clearsound equipment, which was originally developed because of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's gasping breathing.

Frances: The book Shadowland on which this movie is based got support from Scientology president Heber Jentzsch and CCHR, a Scientology front group attacking what they call the psychs. The lobotomy of her is invented: neither Frances Farmer's own bio Will There Really Be a Morning? nor the memoirs of Walter Freeman (the infamous but proud-of-it ice pick lobotomy guy) mention it. The Frances Farmer page of CCHR conveniently "forgets" to mention this. Jeffrey Kauffman has researched this topic for 20 years, and has documented the inaccuracies of the book.

Delirious: A line was cut due to an orchestrated campaign by Scientologists (among them were Scientologists Eric Sherman and Jeffrey Scott) on executive producer Richard Donner and director Tom Mankiewicz. In the film, Emma Samms mused to her screen brother about John Candy's strange power over her (he influenced the future with his typewriter). He responded:

Do you think he's a Scientologist?

I loved the film anyway, although movie critic Leonard Maltin called it "astonishingly stupid".

World Gone Wild: Originally a science-fiction film in which much of civilization is gone, and a dangerous cult bases itself on one of the few remaining books: L. Ron Hubbard's "Dianetics." Scientology "somehow" heard of it, and after lawyers for Scientology visited the producer Apollo Pictures, all references to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, his book and Scientology were removed.

In Demi Moore's Striptease at 1:24:55 there is a scene where the waiting chauffeur Pierre (Anthony Jones) reads a book by Scientology founder and science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. It is hard to see, but I was able to identify it. It is Volume 9 of Mission Earth: Villainy Victorious. The scene is after the sister of Demi's ex prepares his broken arm with a golf club, and before Demi's daughter plays a card game with a blonde stripper.

In the TV series Melrose Place, there was an episode (between episodes 128 and 130) where Scientologist Priscilla Presley played "Nurse Benson" and applied shock therapy to a guy named Peter. People who saw the show noticed that the machine used looked like from the 50ies. This is typical for Scientology, which teaches that "psychs" have nothing else to do than drug or fry the brains of their patients.

Battlefield Earth: Based on a book written by L. Ron Hubbard and produced by Scientologist John Travolta, this movie has very strong connections to Scientology. However the reviews were devastating.

The Muppet Babies: Scientologist Jeffrey Scott, one of the screenwriters for this animated series, proudly brags that he inserted Scientology concepts into the show.

A 2005 episode of "South Park" making fun of Scientology and Tom Cruise was not shown in the UK, and a 2006 US rerun was pulled, possibly at the request of Tom Cruise. You can watch the episode in full length at Scientomogy.info.

Newspaper and magazine articles about Scientollywood:

Catch a Rising Star (also here)
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Scientollywood's top recruiter: Milton Katselas accused of greed, despotism, and worse
Defenders of the faith should stand at ease
Scientologywood: Putting the CULT back in Culture
defamer.com about Tom Cruise

Scientollywood entertainment:

Declaration of Michael J. Calagna about the difficulty to perform legal service on Scientollywood celebrities
Travolta enturbulated at the premiere of "The General's Daughter" (Multimedia report from XENU-TV also available!)
The lavish life of Kirstie Alley

Other resources about Scientollywood:

Operation Clambake presents: The Cult of Celebrities

Sometimes, Scientollywood influence spreads to non-scientologists. In 1996, a group of people who had business contacts with Scientologists Tom Cruise and John Travolta wrote a scurrilous Open Letter to Helmut Kohl, claiming that in the 1930s, it was the Jews, today it is the Scientologists.