Scientology is the religion everyone loves to hate. So how come so many movie stars are devout followers? Moves into the church's Celebrity Centre for an exclusive look at the starway to heaven. AT FRANKLIN AND BRONSON A LOGJAM OF LIMousines crawls toward the mock-French Normandy Chateau. At the grand doorway, celebrities, lawyers, producers, and the children of the well-heeled of the entertainment industry step onto the crimson-carpeted tarmac, chattering through the pink-and-gold lounge to the lawns and fairy-lit trees beyond, ...

It was 9:30 and Arnie Lerma was lounging in his living room in Arlington, drinking his Saturday morning coffee, hanging. Suddenly, a knock at the door — who could it be at this hour? — and boom, before he could force anything out of his mouth, they were pouring into his house: federal marshals, lawyers, computer technicians, cameramen. They stayed for three hours last Saturday. They inventoried and confiscated everything Lerma cherished: his computer, every disk in the place, his client ...

The group is unhappy that Clearwater has not resolved a dispute over legal fees in a successful fight against the city. CLEARWATER — Mayor Rita Garvey, City Commissioner Fred Thomas and others are singled out for criticism in the latest edition of Freedom, a tabloid newspaper published periodically by the Church of Scientology. The organization is delivering the 12-page publication this week to about 100,000 residences in Clearwater, Largo, Dunedin and Palm Harbor. The new edition also criticizes the ''St. Petersburg ...

The article that appeared in the Metro Times Sept. 21-27 issue is a perfect example of how the media believe they need "controversy" in order to thrive. A group of people practicing their religion, thriving and learning isn't controvetsial enough, so things get added which are intended to stop any new idea from growing. Scientology is a people's activity, a grass-roots movement, and is taken up and used by individuals who then apply it to their lives. The understanding that ...

Is the Church of Scientology a religion, or a multimillion-dollar corporate cult? Some former Scientologists have spoken of spending thousands of dollars or working long hours without food or sleep to pay off debts to the church. The church characterizes itself as misunderstood and persecuted, emphasizing testimonials and community outreach activities, while attempting to discredit critics. "Scientology is a racket," says Bloomfield Hills attorney Constance Cumbey, who has handled four Michigan lawsuits against the church. "That's not to say that everyone ...

WHY DID LISA Marie Presley and Michael Jackson get married? Love, if you believe her press release, the one pledging to "dedicate my life to being his wife." Or, according to speculation from Hollywood, Jackson is rehabbing his image and simultaneously consummating the ultimate entertainment empire merger. But another possibility is circulating among the conspiracy-minded former members of the Church of Scientology. It's an astounding theory — that the church itself helped arrange the Presley-Jackson union. But these defectors say that ...

Why did Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson get married? Love, if you believe her press release, the one pledging to "dedicate my life to being his wife." Or, goes the speculation from Hollywood, Jackson is rehabbing his image and simultaneously consummating the ultimate entertainment merger. But another possibility is circulating among conspiracy-minded former members of the Church of Scientology. It's an astounding theory - that the church itself helped arrange the Presley-Jackson union - but these defectors say nothing about ...

[Picture / Caption: RESOLUTION — "I think the judge just wanted to bring an end to this case," says Graham E. Berry, right, with Gordon J. Calhoun.] For years, the Church of Scientology has been synonymous with bitter litigation battles. But the 40-year-old religious organization, long known for its aggressive legal tactics, threw in the towel recently on a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles that it had been waging against two critics. Besides serving as a legal setback, the action in ...

For both sides, the relationship between the Church of Scientology and the nation's largest public relations firm, Hill & Knowlton, had been a good one. But that relationship fell apart in 1991, just two days after a cover story in Time magazine blasted Scientology as a cult of greed. Hill & Knowlton dropped Scientology as a client. Lilly and Scientology have been locked in battle over Scientology's campaign to discredit Prozac, an antidepressant drug made by Lilly. Scientology blames Prozac for ...

No one would ever accuse the Church of Scientology of not being vigilant about its press coverage, especially when it comes to its famous Hollywood members. One of the latest cases in point was the 2,000-word response in Premiere magazine after a recent story about Scientology's ties to the entertainment industry. This was followed by the publication of a 16-page booklet dubbed "Premiere Propaganda." "Premiere's reporter was not interested in writing a fair story on the church. Instead he went out ...

Scientology's leaders say the best defense is a good offense. DID THE CHURCH of Scientology kill a judge's dog during a trial? Did the judge, who is now dead, think church members did? Did that lead him to be prejudiced, and bias the jury against the church? These and other issues are part of an intense battle by the church's litigation machine to overturn what remains of a $30 million verdict won in 1986 by former church member Larry Wollersheim. Mr. ...

The Church of Scientology uses private detectives and bulldog litigators to pursue its numerous detractors. It also hires low-key establishment lawyers who work quietly within the system. So who is directing the $416 million libel suit against Time? On April 27, 1992, lawyers for the Church of Scientology International filed a $416 million libel action in federal court in New York against Time Warner, Inc., Time Inc. Magazine Company [Time Warner is a partner in American Lawyer Media, L.P.], and writer ...

CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY sues Time Warner for libel. The church seeks $416 million in punitive damages for an April 1991 cover story in Time magazine, a unit of Time Warner Inc. The article called the church a "Mafia-like" cult and alleged criminal activities by its leaders. The suit alleges that a biased reporter was put on the story and that the article was false and defamatory. A spokesman for Time, based in New York, said the magazine stands by the article ...

PETROLIA, Humboldt County — The people who have been allowed to see the colossal tube that's buried in a velvety green hill just up the road from Petrolia say it's the strangest thing they've ever laid eyes on. And the most mysterious. The huge, pipe-shaped vault is as wide and high as the cabin of a Boeing 747. It is more than 140 feet longer than one of the jumbo jets. Disciples of the late L. Ron Hubbard, founder of what ...

And now, the next Walt Disney Studios— the Church of Scientology! That is, if entrepreneurs connected with the Hollywood based cult can muscle into the film business with their proposal to homogenize films by tailoring them to the tastes of the unwashed masses. It all began last July, when Future Films, a new, eccentric studio, began running ads in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter touting its revolutionary ideas. No one knew what to make of it all. The grand concept, to ...

A PIECE OF BLUE SKY. By Jon Atack. Lyle Stuart. 428 Pages. $21.95. It has been 17 years since the Church of Scientology secretly bought the historic Fort Harrison Hotel and established a base for an important arm of the church in the city of Clearwater. And it has been nearly 10 years since critical public hearings — which detailed allegations of a slew of Scientology wrongs — captivated city residents for more than a week. The church professes to have ...

CLEARWATER — The Church of Scientology is facing another lawsuit in the midst of an expensive nationwide campaign to bolster its image. The sect, which maintains its spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, has spent millions of dollars in recent weeks for advertising in the newspaper USA Today. In the lawsuit, a former sect member claims the church is a fraud; owes him money for counseling services he never used; and has cut him off from his two daughters, who still follow Scientology. ...

NEW YORK—WPP Group's Hill & Knowlton, the giannt public relations agency charged with generating favorable images for clients, is having public relations problems of its own. The latest controversy surfaced last month, when the agency was forced to resign the $2 million Church of Scientology International account a week after a May 6 Time cover story labeled the church a "cult of greed" that had bilked its followers of millions of dollars. The church quickly began an ad campaign in ''USA ...

A bizarre run-in between Time magazine and the Church of Scientology has ensnared an unlikely victim: WPP Group's Martin Sorrell. Ever since Time ran a May 6 cover story depicting the Scientology group as a "cult of greed," the Scientologists have been striking back, criticizing the article as a "sensationalized attack" full of "falsehoods." In the past week, the Scientologists have broadened their attack. This time, in one of the stranger plot twists Madison Avenue has seen, their target is Mr. ...

NEW YORK (AP) — Some subjects of unflattering magazine profiles are content to write a letter to the editor or cancel their subscription. The Church of Scientology, pilloried in Time as "The Cult of Greed," is fighting back with a $3 million ad campaign. After several weeks of taking out full-page color ads in USA Today, the church has released a glossy, 28-page booklet that purports to refute Time's charges and expose its motivation for the May 6 cover story. Titled ...

The Church of Scientology International last week unleashed an estimated $2 million media blitz against Time in response to the magazine's May 6 cover article labeling the church a "cult of greed." The organization on May 28 broke a series of page color ads in Gannett Co.'s USA Today accusing Time of giving favorable coverage to Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, LSD and Prozac. Although the use of advertising for rebuttals isn't uncommon, rarely are such campaigns as prolonged and pricey. The ...

Last June, the Los Angeles Times published a damning series on the Church of Scientology. Scientologists responded by extracting a few good things the writers had to say about their organization and putting those quotes in foot-high letters on billboards all over town. On May 6 of this year, Time magazine published a cover story on Scientology. It had even fewer good things to say, and now the church has responded with an even more aggressive counterattack. Scientology's campaign of daily ...