Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology

Never was a big fan of Remini and I marginally was aware of her "stardom". I caught her show, King of Queens, on occasion and thought she was cute and funny. I also watched her performance on Dancing with the Stars when she had just exited the cult of Scientology. It was a big deal and I was not that surprised by it.I have always had an interest in Scientology since I was born into a cult-like religion myself in which my family left when I was older. Remini's brashness just seemed at odds with the type of submissive, and unquestioning, personality one needs to be able to acquiesce many of the teachings and the actions of its leaders. I was very interested in reading her side of the story because I knew Scientology Incorporated wasn't going to issue a "no comment" in response to her spilling some of their secretive doctrines, questionable teachings, and scurrilous acts. In fact, some of their very nasty responses only demonstrate for us non-Scientologists is that they can be one heck-of-a vicious group when it comes to protecting the entity. Actually, much more nasty and vindictive than I even imagined. Just reading about the Nazi-like "Knowledge Reports" that members are required to write up when they see behavior "unbecoming" to a Scientologist. One would think a reasonably intelligent person would decry such a practice. Yet, Scientology has got that base covered by teaching their adherents that if they DON'T write up the behavior they are endangering their own spiritual existence. This is a very entertaining read and Remini discusses her "rise to fame" with aplomb and self-deprecation. If you are interested in a scholarly analysis of Scientology, you won't get it in this book. It's a personal narrative of her life and the interweaving of Scientology's teachings and their impact on her and her family. Remini is honest and doesn't attempt to shield herself, or minimize her, at times, questionable behavior. She is, at heart, a rebel and often paid dearly (literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in one shot!) for it. It's a relatively quick read. Of course, Tom Cruise plays a prominent role in the book and he comes off creepier than ever. Hide and seek anyone? Scientology's catering to his whims, and those of other leaders, while ignoring their transgressions against its teachings, is what ultimately broke the spell. The disappearance of her friend Shelly Miscavige; her attempts to communicate with her. Remini's encounter with Cruise's children with Nicole Kidman is heartbreaking after Cruise's marriage to Katie Holmes. Also, being used as a lure to bring Jennifer Lopez into the cult and, thankfully, failing greatly at it. There's lots of profanity, so be prepared if you object to such language. She does discuss her career and life outside Scientology. Her role on The Talk and being let go from it after the first year. My favorite part is her response to vociferous Sharon Osbourne after she took Remini to task about an email she sent to the cast. Loved it! Yes, Remini was extremely fortunate that her family left Scientology with her. It's this that keeps many people in cults that want to leave, their family. However, she did lose many of those she thought were her friends once she was declared a SP (Suppressive Person or an apostate, an enemy of the church). What she was smart in doing was keeping her mouth shut when it came to the friends she did have outside Scientology. This allowed her to have a support system when she did make her exit. Though, she didn't realize it at the time. Too many people that are in cults only associate with other members, this means leaving comes at great emotional, and often financial, cost. This is still true for Remini because when everything you have believed about the world nearly your entire life is suddenly put into question, it is devastating. Scientology makes enormous demands on the resources and time of their members, rich and less than. Even to the point of going deeply into debt. When it's gone, there is a huge hole left intellectually and emotionally. Yet, it also extremely freeing to be able to now dictate one's own life and to actually have the time to do so! Thanks for writing this book, Leah Remini. I wish you, and your family, well on your journey to discovering and creating your life outside Scientology.

It's 7:20 AM as I write this, and I haven't slept since I started reading this book, moments after downloading it. I'm about 80% done at this point, but had to stop and post this early review (I'll update this a bit when I'm 100% done). I've never been much of a fan of sitcoms, so I'm not exactly part of the audience who has had much experience with Leah's acting work - although I knew who she was, certainly. I'd seen enough however to know I found her appealing and incredibly attractive long before I learned she'd be writing this just from what I'd seen in an episode of two of King of Queens. When I heard advance word of the release, having read just about every book there is on the subject of Scientology (from Inside Scientology, to Bare Faced Messiah, to Beyond Belief to The Unbreakable Miss Lovely), from personal accounts to journalistic exposes, I eagerly anticipated Troublemaker. The biggest surprise for me, first off, is how supremely readable "Troublemaker" is - how entertaining, honest, unpretentious, shocking and just plain funny it is. Leah has a big mouth, and she knows it, but her writing speaks directly to the reader in an open and unfiltered way that books written by celebrities rarely do. She isn't a bulls***ter, and she's not going to sugarcoat anything, including her herself. She even starts with something of a confession of past perceived sins, as she is all to aware that Scientology will strike at her as they are known to do, by using information gleaned from auditing to embarrass, intimidate and discredit. She knows she is now "fair game." Even with the little that I knew about her, her account of her early years with her family and struggles as an actress are highly entertaining, and make an honest impression that makes you feel more like a confidant than a reader. For this type of book, it is, surprisingly, very well written - free of fanciful prose, but deeply engaging, concise and highly personal. The early biographical chapters are vital, as it turns out, as it sets a very clear stage for why she was bound to one day become a monumental thorn in the side of Scientology. A theme that pops up a few times is how Leah was sometimes perceived as "lacking in class" (code sometimes used to discredit or embarrass truth tellers, female ones in particular) in comparison to the norm of perceived celebrities and society's elite. This book shows, clearly, that she has more class than the majority of Hollywood's elite put together. I can't wait to read the remaining 20%, and regardless of my ignorance of her acting career, with this book she's become one of my favorite people. If only more people in the world had the guts that Leah clearly has. More so than even the recent Going Clear documentary, this book, in my opinion, has the potential to expose Scientology for the abusive, draining, exploitative, paranoid and disingenuous organization that it has become, the Church of Cruise and Miscavige. And if you're looking for a real window into the bizarre, rarefied world of celebrity scientologists (Leah attending Tom Cruise's wedding to Katie Holmes, for example, and the subsequent fallout after she is brazenly manipulated to get J Lo and Marc Anthony to attend as well, is jaw dropping) you need look no further. Highly, highly recommended.

First of all Scientology is so dumb, it's unbelievable. As an outsider I always found Tom Cruise creepy, like a Rat that has a lions mask, but literally everyone around me as a kid n teen would just gush about him! I have never followed his work, but next big memory of Tom Cruise was his infamous jumping on Oprah's couch incident. Now reading this book, I actually feel a Sense of Pity and understanding of what this cult n set up can do to a person's mental setup. Attention like alcohol will affect anyone's head after a certain point. The sheer quantity of attention poured on a Tom Cruise..can make a ton of elephants drunk for eternity! Coming back to this book and its author, I knew Leah Remini from watching a bit of King of Queens. She is real. Period. She is funny, articulate and passionate. That comes across. Also, she is full of beans but she is also candid and uncalculating as evidenced that she gets herself the short end of the stick most often. I would believe her anyday over a ridiculously stupid, n dangerously creepy church . Most of us will believe Leah because it is the experience of all of humanity that all institutions become rotten by virtue of people who take positions of power and place themselves above question or reproach. I hope Scientology is fully exposed. The story that has left me truly shocked is that of Shelly Miscavige. How come the govt. And FBI are ok with a person vanishing from face of earth! This is their concern for citizens?! They bombed life out of Iraq but wont lift a finger to find a US Citizen who has vanished suspiciously, and ignore every concern raised about it! Makes no bloody sense at all! Finally, Leah Remini..you are a force! May God protect you!

Excelente! Esperaba éste libro con muchas expectativas y no sólo me encantó, sino que me confirmó qué la cienciología es una secta , peligrosa y clasista. Trabajé en Clearwater hace años y los veía caminando cómo autómatas clonados( visten similar a mormones) oí historias terroríficas de ellos, pero aquí hablan desde esferas más altas. Absolutamente recomendable.

"That sums up my problem with Scientology - despite its claims to the contrary, the practice doesn't help you better the world or even yourself; it only helps you be a better Scientologist." One thing to understand before reading this is that this is Leah's story more than a straight-up textbook that explains the complete organization of Scientology. Additionally, as much as someone may read this strictly for the "juicy gossip" and as much as some people may expect that that is all that Troublemaker is, it's so much more than that. Yes, there are insights into the likes of Tom Cruise, but this is also a very personal and revealing, horrifying and moving story. I really enjoyed Leah's narrative voice. She's quite a straight-talking and ballsy person - aspects of her that I wish I had more of - and it was really interesting to read about someone who is so different than myself in many ways. I am deeply disturbed by Tom Cruise's power and involvement in the cult of Scientology (I am in the midst of my own personal boycott of everything Tom Cruise - along with anyone else pro-Scientology) - I definitely believe him to be a top executive of the cult, if not David Miscavige's unofficial second. There's so much more I could say about this, but I'll stop myself for the sake of this review. Before I read this, I would always say to people: "Why are there no authorities running investigations on this cult or any of the people involved? Has this cult infiltrated the cops? Or are they literally just scared of the ramifications?". As it turns out, I'm not completely wrong about this, but I'll let you read for yourself. Also, I knew about Shelly Miscavige (and Leah filing the missing person report) before reading and this book just really confirmed my thoughts about the situation as when Leah first asked about her whereabouts, the response she got was "I don't want to be a part of this conversation". Highly suspicious, but, of course, no authority will do anything about this. I'm just going to finish this up by saying that this was such a fantastic read. Beforehand, I was worried that it was just going to be the same things I have heard before as I have read and watched a lot about the subject of Scientology (including Leah's show Scientology and the Aftermath which you should all watch if you liked this, or if you're even a little bit intrigued about Scientology), but I had nothing to worry about. I feel very proud of Leah (as well as everyone else involved) and huge respect for writing and publishing this book. As Rachel Ray said to Leah, "this takes balls".

Arrived quickly in new condition.

Very interesting and a well told personal story. Easy to read and follow. Ms Remini had a very interesting life and shared her personal account of her experiences really well.