Acting Seminar



The web log site justanormalgayguy.blogspot.com described on July 24th a

seminar at the Celebrity Center in Los Angeles for actors looking to get

into the movie industry.



"Last night I attended a seminar on 'How to Get Into the Industry'

presented at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International in

Hollywood, presented by Terri Novitsky. I presumed the 'seminar' would be

some hook for something else that may or may not be legitimate or in my

best interests. I was escorted by a nice gentleman in a suit to a back

room where others were waiting for the seminar to begin. It was warm

inside and those in attendance were sitting nervously, fanning themselves,

and waiting for the seminar to start. Meanwhile people were flipping

through the booklets we all got written by L. Ron Hubbard.



"Terri came in about 5 minutes late, but full of sincere energy and

enthusiasm. I could tell she was a little nervous herself.  There were

about 12 of us, all shapes/sizes/ages. We did some exercises where we said

a line and she told us what emotion to express. I went in front of the

class and found myself getting into it.



"Terri has great things to offer, but the seminar was a hook to get us to

buy another seminar for $35.00 which is probably good, but I declined. The

Scientology people tried pressuring me into signing up now and not

'procrastinating.' I saw it for what it was and decided if I wanted to do

the seminar, I'd do it later after I've done more exploring."



Message-ID: 3e471c14.0307311028.558f295d@posting.google.com





Los Angeles



The LA Independent reported on July 30th that Scientology has paid the

back taxes it owed to the local business district.



"The Church of Scientology on July 18 paid more than $94,000 in delinquent

property taxes on four of its Hollywood properties, including tens of

thousands to the local business improvement district. The Independent

reported the day before that the church had failed to pay $94,625 for the

fiscal year that ended June 30 on its properties, including $41,227 to the

Hollywood Entertainment District.



"'The payment was in the works and this happens to coincide with your

article,' said spokeswoman Linda Simmons Hight. 'It's really a non-issue,'

she said. 'I can't think of anything of less interest to the Hollywood

community than when somebody is going to pay their property taxes. I know

it's of great interest to the [business improvement district], but that

really isn't of general interest.'



"The Hollywood Entertainment District had counted on receiving money from

the Church of Scientology this year to fund services like street cleaning,

security patrols and graffiti removal. The church, whose members include

several celebrities, had owed about $31,200 in total taxes on its 6331

Hollywood Blvd. property, $41,700 on its 6349 Hollywood Blvd. property,

$4,800 on its 1715 Ivar Street property and $16,700 on its 6724 Hollywood

Blvd. property."



Message-ID: 3e471c14.0307311048.d9a66ac@posting.google.com





Lisa McPherson



The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled on July

22nd that a judgment against the estate of Lisa McPherson be set aside for

lack of jurisdiction.



"In 1997, the Estate of Lisa McPherson filed a wrongful death action in

state court in Tampa, Florida against various corporations and individuals

affiliated with the Church of Scientology.  Upon being served with the

complaint, and ostensibly as a cost-saving measure, Defendant Flag Service

Organization (Flag) proposed to the Estate that they enter into an

agreement to limit the number of Scientology-related corporate entities

and individuals that would be named in the suit. The Estate and Flag

consequently entered into a contract in which the Estate agreed to forego

adding certain enumerated corporate defendants, and Flag agreed to forego

encumbering its assets.



"In 1999, the Estate moved the Florida court to add David Miscavige to the

list of named defendants in its wrongful death action. Miscavige is the

Chairman of the Board of RTC, a Scientology corporation, and while RTC was

listed among the parties which the Estate was contractually bound to

exclude from its action, the Estate sought to add Miscavige under the

theory that it was not contractually precluded from adding Miscavige in

his personal capacity.



"RTC filed suit against the Estate for breach of contract, and against

Liebreich personally for tortiously interfering with the contract between

the Estate and Flag. RTC filed in United States District Court in the

Eastern District of Texas under a diversity of citizenship jurisdictional

theory. The jury returned a verdict for $258,697.10. RTC petitioned the

district court for an award of $549,015.84 in costs and fees for the

litigation of this single-issue breach of contract case. The district

court reduced the award to $327,654.00. The court did impose sanctions

against the Estate's counsel for 30% of the attorneys' fees awarded, which

totaled $98,296.00.



"The contention here is that Liebreich, as the personal representative of

the Estate, created in personam jurisdiction over the Estate. There are

two ways in which Liebreich might have brought the Estate into the reach

of the district court.  First, the district court found general

jurisdiction over the Estate via Liebreich. Moreover, RTC argues that

Liebreich created specific jurisdiction over the Estate. However, neither

general nor specific jurisdiction existed over the Estate.



"The district court correctly found that it had general personal

jurisdiction over Liebreich as a resident of Texas. However, the district

court impermissibly imputed that general personal jurisdiction to the

Estate.  As a creature of the Florida probate regime, the Estate resides

in Florida. Thus, for an estate probated in a foreign jurisdiction to

establish the type of continuous and systematic contact necessary for

general jurisdiction, the representative of the Estate must have made

those contacts in her representative capacity, on behalf of the Estate. It

is not sufficient that the personal representative herself lives in Texas.



"In sum, the district court lacked personal jurisdiction over the Estate.

Liebreich's general jurisdiction cannot be imputed to the Estate, and the

Estate did not establish minimum contacts relating to the breach action

with the forum jurisdiction sufficient to support specific jurisdiction.

Therefore, the district court erred in failing to dismiss the action

against the Estate for want of jurisdiction."



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WISE



Press newspaper from New Zealand reported on July 26th that public money

invested into a plastics factory run as a member of the World Institute of

Scientology Enterprises has not produced the jobs that were promised, and

is going bankrupt.



"A year ago, the Westland District Council was defiantly pushing ahead

with plans for the now-infamous Hokitika plastics factory.  Ratepayers

were assured that $581,000 of their money entrusted to some Australian

entrepreneurs would jackpot within a year into a world-first factory, and

Hokitika would be the world headquarters.



"They were promised 53 jobs, quickly growing to more than 100, with the

added benefit of having the plant licensed as a Wise training academy for

local staff training. No-one was told that means World Institute of

Scientology Enterprise, an offshoot of the Church of Scientology.



"Even when the Australians pulled out in November (having established

nothing more than a phone book listing in Hokitika) to focus the venture

in Sydney, the council continued to express faith that they would be back

and have the factory running before Christmas this year.  As public

dissension with the project grew louder, the decision was made for a

delegation to fly to Sydney to reassure itself that all was well. It

returned to pronounce that everything was on track.  None of that will be

forgotten now as the council scrambles to rescue the public money it

risked.



"FT Manufacturing (Westland) Ltd, the company hailed by Mayor John Drylie

as leading the 'next generation' of plastics technology, has gone bust,

and Westland ratepayers are going to be demanding answers, if not more."



Message-ID: 9uoaivgve9d7pp12ihai9usptsmo417t5k@4ax.com