September
2
Six Degrees of Sarah Palin Connects to Katie Holmes
[Posted by Steven Gaydos]
Blame it on the crushing din of the media maelstrom surrounding Sen. John McCain's unorthodox yet extremely fundamental choice for v.p., but follow the bizarre blogosphere dots and you can actually put Sarah Palin and Katie Holmes in close if unfriendly proximity.
It gets weird, so follow closely:
A recent Wall Street Journal piece speculated that someone from the Obama camp leaked the story of Palin's daughter's pregnancy.
This led to blog chatter that the "leaker" was Mark C. Rathbun, allegedly a former high-ranking member of the Church of Scientology and an organizer for "South Texas for Obama."
On Sept. 2, it was announced an anti-Scientology group, imaginatively named Anonymous, would picket Katie Holmes' Broadway debut in Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" on October 16. No word if those picketeers are fundamentalist Christians of the sort that make up a large portion of Ms. Palin's fan-base, but then a "Pray for Katie" widget did turn up this week on the Christian Film News site, which may or may not approve of Scientology (we assume the latter), but certainly does set their sights high. They are asking God himself to "give wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to media leaders as they make decisions in program and movie development."
They aren't trying to change just Katie, God love them. They've also got Warner Bros president and COO, Alan Horn, on their prayer call-sheet. Not exactly related to all this, but I know several writers, directors and producers who also pray regularly about Warner Bros "movie development," but they all have deals facing turnaround and they're actually praying to Horn not for him.
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I will admit we Christians have often embarrassed ourselves but no moreso than other secular media or religious zealots, all things considered.
Real Christians admit to failures and acknowledge our individual weaknesses. We pray for all kinds of people because most of us know the struggles we face and how much our lives have changed for the better because of Jesus. Like others, we make bad decisions and poor choices when we get ahead of the Lord. But, hey, at least we care enough about the industry to pray for the individuals involved in it.
If you have even a slight curiosity about a unique perspective of the industry, read The Famous One (available at Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com).
Posted by: Nicole | September 02, 2008 at 07:00 PM
Thanks for the press Steven!
As the Executive Editor of "Variety," when did you start reading the usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology ?
Are you a "suppresive person?" If you are, watch out for Tom Cruise; but, you'll have a lot of allies on the internet from around the world... You know, the one's that have successfully boycotted Tom's career?
Posted by: Tom Klemesrud | September 02, 2008 at 08:59 PM
If scientologists had any sense (at all) they would have based their 'religion' around a proper sci-fi writer like Frank Herbert and not a second rate hack like L. Ron Hubbard. Crazy days indeed.
Posted by: Mark | September 03, 2008 at 08:20 AM
Whew, how enlightening, whew! Next, I want you to tell the story of how Little Bo Peep and Little Red Riding Hood (both being imaginary friends) are related by blood and religion to, say, North Slope Oil Cost Overuns.
Posted by: Terryeo | September 03, 2008 at 04:27 PM
I love this article, lol! Kudos to you for your clevernes in putting this all together.
Glad to see someone put the spotlight on that Scientology Sea Org Executive masquerading as an libertarian news editor and political organizer: Mark C Rathbun, aka Marty. Has he registered to vote yet? His blog at Obama's site last showed he was unregistered... hahaha! Such are the hypocrites of the world.
ps: the Hollywood christians are praying for Hollywood, including scientologists like Katie Holmes, so I'd say you are correct.
The short video clip from hollywoodprayernetwork shows just who all they are praying for and why, The scientology marquee, included. http://www.hollywoodprayernetwork.org/new/welcome
Posted by: Mary McConnell | September 03, 2008 at 04:46 PM
Oh this is good, doing it this way you can use a word processor, correct your spelling and typos. You don't end up with the spray paint overwriting some rumor or innuendo that you want to rest of the bathroom gang to read.
Posted by: Terryeo | September 04, 2008 at 08:46 AM