© CBS
Doug (Kevin James) and Carrie (Leah Remini) in the sixth-season of THE KING OF QUEENS, on the CBS Television Network.
Doug (Kevin James) and Carrie (Leah Remini) in the sixth-season of THE KING OF QUEENS, on the CBS Television Network.
A lawyer acting for the Scientologists tried to get the show, which threatens to reveal details about the church, pulled before it airs on cable channel The Arts & Entertainment Network.
The former "Kings of Queens" star was blacklisted after walking away from Scientology in 2013, criticizing officials' treatment of their followers. Since then the 46-year-old has gone public with her disdain for the religion and is to reveal details about the church and former members of the religion in her series Scientology and the Aftermath, which debuts on November 29, 2016.
According to Underground Bunker blogger Tony Ortega, the church has sent a series of scathing letters to the network, as well as parent ABC, in which the organization attacked Remini, calling her a "spoiled, entitled diva" and "has-been actress."
Leah's lawyer is demanding the $1.5 million as "compensation for the past, present and ongoing reputational, emotional and economic injuries and damages (Leah has) suffered."
A spokesman for the church responded to Leah's lawyer — calling the demand for compensation "nothing more than a provocative ploy to generate publicity for what will no doubt be another failed program by a failed 'celebrity' seeking to make a buck off of her former religion."
"The Church will freely exercise its constitutional rights," the spokesman added.
The actress, who joined the church with her mother as a child, is also producing the TV series, which comes a year after she penned an autobiography entitled Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology.
I hope 'has been' Leigh Remini get that money AND MORE!! Not only is she a very, VERY good actress, what those scumbags at Scientology have done to her and countless others is sociopathic, abusive and I'll bet in many cases, downright criminal! The whole organization was started as a bet by that psycho Hubbard who said 'If you truly want to get rich, start a church' and proceeded to do just that. If anyone reads his sci-fi, Hubbard's misogyny, sexual deviance and impossibly massive ego (he honestly thought he was a 'god') is plain to see and in plenty of abundance.
He really should have been institutionalized or imprisoned but he was smart enough to live on his ship and managed to scam enough money and people to do his bidding too. I'm actually shocked that the entire scientology farce hasn't imploded from the giant ego-vaccuum encircling it.