I liked the part where some actors/actresses were described as being "born" into scientology-- that's about as far as got through the article.
The fact that John Travolta joined prior to being a star was also interesting.

i found the travolta thing disturbing -- once he became a scientologist, he says, "my career took off." surely strings were pulled. it wouldn't be hard for an influential producer who happened to be a scientologist to get a young wannabe actor a spot on a television show.

john travolta's whole career is a fraud perpetrated on the public to advance scientology. i mean, he's as untalented as anyone else, but tarantino's gotta feel burned.

Hey, I am against that cult as much as the next guy, but so what that Travolta may have used scientology to get ahead. Nepotism exists everywhere. That new movie Thank You For Smoking is directed by Ivan Reitmans son. You think a hollywood career was much of an uphill battle for him?

I got a job once over others because the person who was hiring was also Sicilian. That's the way it goes and *that* is the only reason to join scientology.

read this excerpt carefully, and see if it makes sense:

> Scientology is not mentioned once in the film. Nor is Hubbard. And neither are mentioned afterward, during an hour or so conversation I have with a motherly woman in her early fifties named Laurie.... Self-betterment is a powerful concept to use as a sales technique, and Laurie begins her pitch in the gentlest of ways. "Tell me about yourself," she says. "What made you interested in Scientology?"

the first half of that article seemed rather kid-gloves delicate and almost apologetic toward scientology, and the second half was the regular criticism we've come to know and love. i get the idea there was an edit done on part of the article to either make it nicer or meaner at one point...tough to know which way it was aimed, but for the CoS to be on board at all, they must have done some mollycoddling.

my point is not that Travolta "got ahead" by scientology -- but that scientology MADE HIM FAMOUS. like, they said, "okay, now we must make this guy famous and he will spread the word." and the world is so duped.

it's like nickelodeon and how they tell us that a hilary duff is famous and so it is. i don't even know what a hilary duff is.

Funny, Travolta is supposed to play JR Hewwing in the bigscreen version of Dallas! I can't imagine him playing that role, but I have a feeling he'll pull it off. I wonder if it's going to be a comedy, or a drama?