The celebrity cult will do everything they can to bring down the A- list director.

Anything.

Scientology

Paul Haggis

Paul Haggis Arrested in Italy on Sexual Assault Charges

Oscar-winning Canadian screenwriter and director Paul Haggis has been arrested in Ostuni, Southern Italy, on charges of sexual assault and aggravated personal injury allegedly inflicted upon a still unidentified woman who has pressed charges.

According to multiple Italian press reports and a note from the public prosecutor of the nearby city of Brindisi, Haggis is charged with forcing a young “foreign” – meaning non-Italian – woman to undergo sexual intercourse over the course of two days in Ostuni, where he was scheduled to hold several master classes at the Allora Fest, a new film event being launched by Los Angeles-based Italian journalist Silvia Bizio and Spanish art critic Sol Costales Doulton that is set to run in Ostuni from June 21-26.

Bizio has confirmed to Variety that Haggis is under arrest. – Source

Break from Scientology

After maintaining active membership in the Church of Scientology for 35 years, Haggis left the organization in October 2009. He was motivated to leave Scientology in reaction to statements made by the San Diego branch of the Church of Scientology in support of Proposition 8, the ballot initiative which banned same-sex marriage in California.

Haggis wrote to Tommy Davis, the Church’s spokesman, and requested that he denounce these statements; when Davis remained silent, Haggis responded that “Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent.”Haggis went on to list other grievances against Scientology, including its policy of disconnection, and the smearing of its ex-members through the leaking of their personal details.

The Observer commented on the defections of Haggis and actor Jason Beghe from Scientology, “The decision of Beghe and Haggis to quit Scientology appears to have caused the movement its greatest recent PR difficulties, not least because of its dependence on Hollywood figures as both a source of revenue for its most expensive courses and an advertisement for the religion.”

In an interview with Movieline, Haggis was asked about similarities between his film The Next Three Days and his departure from the Scientology organization; Haggis responded, “I think one’s life always parallels art and art parallels life.” In February 2011, The New Yorker published a 25,000-word story, “The Apostate”, by Lawrence Wright, detailing Haggis’s allegations about the Church of Scientology. The article ended by quoting Haggis: “I was in a cult for thirty-four years. Everyone else could see it. I don’t know why I couldn’t.”Haggis was interviewed as part of a group of ex-Scientologists for the 2015 movie Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. – Source

Read more on these Tags: ,