Leah Remini’s A&E series about the Church of Scientology and its effects on its followers, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, premieres tonight and her press tour for it has been accordingly full of flames. To The Hollywood Reporter, Remini shared this anecdote in which she described giddy Scientologist Tom Cruise’s attempt to have use her sway to get CBS to pull a 60 Minutes segment on the church. (The King of Queens, in which Remini starred, aired on CBS.):
Remini: I got pressure to call Les Moonves at CBS to try and get a 60 Minutes report squashed. I got a call from the church and Tom to call Les Moonves and use my influence to squash the story.
THR: Tom Cruise was on that call?
Remini: Yep. So I called Les Moonves, even though I was really uncomfortable with it. And he said, “Listen — you’re not the only one who has called me about this and I have no right to interject my opinion of what I like or don’t like with the news organization of CBS and I will absolutely not engage this conversation. I’ll tell you or anyone else who calls me.” He said, “I don’t give a shit if it’s you, if it’s Tom Cruise, if it’s Jenna Elfman, you’re all going to get the same story from me.” And I said, “OK.” And then I called them back and said, “Hey, I tried.”
THR: What did they say?
Remini: They just weren’t happy that I couldn’t squash the story. I said, “I’m just a fucking actress on television and I can’t demand that my boss take a fucking report off the air.”
It would seem that “suppressive person” has a lot of meanings, depending on your POV!
To THR, Remini also said that the church wanted a reference to Katie Holmes removed from Queens when Holmes “was in good graces with the church.” As to rumors regarding Cruise’s potential departure from Scientology, Remini says, “I highly doubt it. Highly.”
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