I suppose unleashing such Scientology drivel on a unsuspecting movie public would lead anyone to seek redemption. It has taken ten years for screenwriter J. D. Shapiro to unburden his soul, but here it is:
It was 1994, and I had read an article in Premiere magazine saying that the Celebrity Center, the Scientology epicenter in Los Angeles, was a great place to meet women.A couple things stand out.
Willy [Shapiro's pet name for his schlong] convinced me to go check it out. Touring the building, I didn't find any eligible women at first, but I did meet Karen Hollander, president of the center, who said she was a fan of "Robin Hood: Men in Tights." We ended up talking for over two hours. She told me why Scientology is so great. I told her that, when it comes to organized religion, anything a person does to reward, threaten and try to control people by using an unknown like the afterlife is dangerous.
Nonetheless, Karen called me a few days later asking if I'd be interested in turning any of L. Ron Hubbard's books into movies. Eventually, I had dinner with John Travolta, his wife Kelly Preston, Karen -- about 10 Scientologists in all. John asked me, "So, J.D., what brought you to Scientology?"
I told him. John smiled and replied, "We have tech that can help you handle that." I don't know if he meant they had technology that would help me get laid or technology that would stop Willy from doing the majority of my thinking.
First, Shapiro expresses a distaste for organized religion because it utilizes the fear of punishment I the afterlife for the misdeeds of the current. His motivation for thinking this is obvious since he nearly joined Scientology and wound up writing a proselytizing script for them solely because he wanted to get laid. The man is obviously a paragon of virtue.
Second, Shapiro’s most successful film has been 1993‘s Robin Hood: Men in Tights. He has had no critical or financial success with any script in seventeen years. He probably does not have much room to blame Scientology’s intervention, but considering they are a bunch of criminally abusive kooks, I will give Shapiro the benefit of the doubt.
(Via: Ain't It Cool News)
