Leah Remini has a brave story of escaping the famously seductive and lecherous Church of Scientology. So when she joined AJ McLean's podcast he felt comfortable enough to spill that the scary cult-like group had tried to get their claws into him too!
AJ McLean's Brush With Scientology
Backstreet Boy AJ McLean, his Dancing With the Stars partner Cheryl Burke, and Rene Elizondo Jr. invited Leah Remini onto their podcast Pretty Messed Up where some wild revelations came about.
The Church of Scientology is famous for recruiting celebrities to be a part of their group and strategically separating them from the reality of the Church that normal members see and also isolating them from their own friends, family, and fellow Hollywood co-stars.
During the interview, it turns out that AJ himself had been recruited by the group! During Clive Davis's Grammy party in 2002, and he was talking to an athlete whom he chooses not to name when "he mentioned to me Scientology. At the time, I was living in Los Feliz, right down the street from the mega center of Scientology so I was curious. I didn't know what it was, I didn't know anything about it. But I wanted to not go alone, so I took a friend with me and we went down there."
"We got a tour of the facility and they brought us to this media room. And they sat us down and they said, 'would you mind watching this short film.' And we watched the short film, it was about 15 minutes long and I was like 'okay, well that was interesting' and we went to leave and the door was locked!"
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The Backstreet Boy was clearly surprised and was a bit scared! "They wouldn't let us out and then they replayed the same film again! We didn't get out of that room... they played it 3 times until somebody heard me knocking like 'uh hello'. So that freaked me out. Cause I'm like 'this seems like a brainwashing type technique. This doesn't seem normal to me.' So I got close, but I never would have [joined]."
Leah was grateful that he did not fall for their attempt, she simply said "Thank God." AJ asked the King of Queens star how she got involved in the Church and he learned that she had actually been brought in as a child who had no choice. Being raised in Scientology required a minimum of 2.5 hours of studying daily, on top of your responsibilities to the Church!
Luckily, AJ was able to leave the intimidating premises before getting trapped in and separated from his family and friends like many other celebs and everyday people before him.
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