It looks like everybody's favorite celebrity cult - the Church of Scientology - is about to enter a big legal showdown in France. What did they do that was so wrong? Well it started out innocently enough, with their desire to help.It seems that one rather impressionable Frenchwoman - who's name has not been released - was out for a stroll one day when some helpful and concerned types offered her a free personality test. Now that sounded harmless enough. Eager to expand her self awareness she took them up on the offer. However that was not to be the end of it.
It seems that the poor woman was far more troubled than anyone expected. Straightening her out was going to be no easy feat. It wouldn't come cheap either. So, the woman claims, she was pressured into buying books, tapes, patent medicines - perhaps of the snake oil variety, the trial may help determine that, and some kind of electronic bio feed back device. I'm assuming that the last one is an E Meter.
Now the whole thing must've resulted in some kind of consciousness raising, because between the jigs and the reels the woman began showing signs of intelligent life. It occurred to her that many of the cures were dubious, perhaps even bogus. It also started to dawn on her that she was being manipulated - or as she says "subjected to mental pressure" - to spend more and more money. Naturally that's where the lawyers got involved.
Scientology doesn't plan on taking this lying down. In fact they're gearing up to pursue this with the same vigor with which they fight all their legal battles. Their lawyer in this case, Patrick Maisonneuve, sounds like a real scrapper too. For instance he was recently quoted in the press making the following tough talk - "We will contest every charge and prove that there was no mental manipulation."
Now this is kind of a big deal for Sci, since if they lose this case they could get banned in France. Apparently the French government is beginning to doubt that Sci is a legitimate religion, and might in fact be more of a money making venture. Germany had some similar suspicions, and banned the space church out right. If you'll recall that lead to some problems for Tom Cruise when he wanted to kill Hitler on location a little while back (Some might say that the actor was over 60 years too late, but a Scientologist never accepts personal limitations!). Now if this thing goes against Sci, it will be another shooting location off the list. Well no one said that saving the Earth from space aliens would be easy.
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