Last time people saw Leah Remini hosting a “roundtable” was when she was one of the hosts of The Talk, the CBS talk show that ended in disaster for Remini when Leah was fired for her inability to get along with others. Co-host Sharon Osbourne famously said of Remini: “… my only wish is that Leah would just stop all this negative, unprofessional and childish behavior…it’s time to move on.”
Co-host Sharon Osbourne famously said of Remini: “… my only wish is that Leah would just stop all this negative, unprofessional and childish behavior… it’s time to move on.”
Now Remini’s back with a “roundtable” that presumably won’t end well when A&E and co-owner Walt Disney Co. find out the history of one of Remini’s unvetted “stars.”
Remini’s obvious goal in the latest episode of her hate-filled reality TV show was to create a gabfest in the style of The Talk in which her guests would soak up an hour in lies denigrating and disrespecting another’s religion. And to show how far Remini, co-host Mike Rinder and A&E’s Nancy Dubuc will go to scrape the bottom of the barrel, they recruited as a “star” Bruce Hines, a man defrocked as a minister 22 years ago after, among other things, admitting to such sick behavior as exposing himself to women, “peeping Tom” incidents and even secretly pleasuring himself around women he was supposed to be counseling.
But Leah Remini doesn’t care because she has already admitted she won’t vet her sources as long as they disparage her former religion, and that A&E is perfectly happy letting her get away with it. One can only imagine the look on the faces of Dubuc and executives at family entertainment icon Walt Disney Co.—half owner of A&E—when they read that the “star” of Remini’s episode once wrote the following about his behavior in a sworn affidavit:
“I have knowingly and intentionally violated these codes by engaging in activity in which I was attempting to view women while they were undressed for my own gratification, and I have also positioned myself on many different occasions so that women would see me naked, with the potential of having intercourse with them (although I never did). I even planned this out on a number of occasions and left doors open at certain angles and waited naked until someone looked into my room.”
Twenty-two years ago, Hines was caught engaging in sexually perverted conduct contrary to the ethical standards of the Church. Once caught, Hines was defrocked and confessed in writing to many of his violations of the ministerial code in Scientology. Here is a sample of the handwritten confessions from Hines:
- Again I got some perverted sexual pleasure from this which was a sick rendition of the tech.
- I pretended to be auditing her, going through the motions, when in actuality I was trying to satisfy some sexual desire. This was an utter corruption of the purpose of auditing.
Hines was expelled from the Church over a decade ago. He first came into Scientology in 1973 to rid himself of his drug habit, routinely smoking marijuana and adding to it cocaine, LSD, soporifics and other psychedelic drugs. For over two decades, Hines appeared to turn his life around by staying clean from drugs, for which he credited Scientology. But Hines had other secrets. Before long, he was caught engaging in his sexual perversions, which he knew were violations of Church ethical standards. Of course, Hines was defrocked as a minister and the rest is history; that was 22 years ago. The Church has zero tolerance on those very rare occasions when it discovers immoral conduct on the part of its clergy, and the fact is that its leadership moves swiftly and forcefully to protect its parishioners. Hines was that very rare occasion: making sexual advances toward women he was ministering to, acting as a peeping Tom and exposing himself to women. In his words, he “had a problem with exhibitionism and voyeurism.” For her part, Leah Remini looks the other way as long as it stirs up more hate.
The Church has zero tolerance on those very rare occasions when it discovers immoral conduct on the part of its clergy, and the fact is that its leadership moves swiftly and forcefully to protect its parishioners. Hines was that very rare occasion: making sexual advances toward women he was ministering to, acting as a peeping Tom and exposing himself to women.
Hines was ousted from any position of ministering to others and relegated to janitorial work for the last eight years of his time in the Church before he was expelled for good more than a decade ago. The man has no credibility. Over the past decade, he has tried to make money and gain some kind of notoriety from media by telling stories about the Church and trying to pass himself off as some “high priest” when he was just a sick individual. Once his acts were uncovered, he was removed immediately and eventually expelled. Hines was unable to apply standard Scientology and get a result. Proof positive: Hines was Mike Rinder’s auditor and Rinder never made a gain.
Of course, it’s no surprise that Remini does not care about the character and reliability of her unvetted “people” because all that matters is generating religious hate. Freedom of religion in her eyes is meaningless. Remini’s the self-appointed queen of hate, sitting on her throne judging everyone else because Leah believes she is better than them.
Of course, it’s no surprise that Remini does not care about the character and reliability of her unvetted “people” because all that matters is generating religious hate.
Another unvetted source for Remini’s episode is Ronit Charny and her husband Yossi. Neither were qualified to become clergy, lying to get admitted. Both entered the clergy with an outstanding $75,000+ judgement against them in a civil case for defaulting on a mortgage loan for an apartment in New Jersey that ended up increasing to well over $100,000 due to interest and lack of payment. This is one in a string of situations the Charnys have got themselves involved into, including Ronit perjuring herself in a court case in Israel. She lied on the stand.
Ronit Charny and her husband have a history of dishonesty, lying and scheming if it results in getting out of work, paying dues and not telling the truth. Now the Charnys, trying to eke out a living selling cheap sunglasses and souvenirs in a Portland mall, will do anything for a buck and attention which explains why they would jump at the chance to appear on Remini’s show. They are perfect unvetted sources for Leah Remini—who is portraying Ronit as some “high level” insider without ever telling anyone that she was found repeatedly lying in the Church, unable to maintain the ethical standards of a minister and unable to actually correctly apply the Scripture of the religion as written by the Founder. Not to mention the fact, that like Remini, Ronit was just plain mean and nasty.
Using those unvetted sources to savage a religion is bad enough, but Remini goes a step further by savaging her own mother, ridiculing her for what she believed in. Remini’s former confidant, Mark Rathbun, who turned down Remini’s offer of a blank check if he would be part of her hate-filled show, tells of watching a previous reality show starring the sitcom actress in which she trashed her mother for doing what she believed was right for her family. Rathbun said he told Remini, “I mean that is pretty personal…I got one problem with it though. I mean I think it was really terrible how you just dumped it all on your mother and made her look like she was the villain of the piece and somehow unintelligent and stupid and culpable for getting you, the whole family involved in Scientology…she looks terrible.”
But Remini’s mother, Vicki Marshall, never had a chance to make spiritual progress because of Leah. Vicki was in constant strife over Leah’s mistreatment and abuse of her, but could do nothing about it because she depended on Leah for her financial support. It was Leah who made Vicki Marshall’s spiritual progress impossible.
Vicki was in constant strife over Leah’s mistreatment and abuse of her, but could do nothing about it because she depended on Leah for her financial support… It was Leah who made Vicki Marshall’s spiritual progress impossible.
None of this is a surprise. Remini criticizes everything and everyone who doesn’t tow her line, including criticizing her sister’s born-again Christianity, that’s because in the Church of Leah, the only gospel is hate.
