25 Jan Giovanni’s Superfan Sidebar 01/25/2017 – Leah Remini
A real time blog where Superfan Giovanni does recap and commentary on the show as it happens and opines on all things ACS
Guest – Leah Remini
Recorded 01-24-2017 – Release Date 01-25-2017
Production Number #1994
Adam opens the show to a funny “Jules Dash Oscar Nominations” intro and BB has Gina’s “Would You Like Me to Make Banana Cry” as today’s #TopDrop and Adam acknowledges Gina being under the weather and BB asks Adam about his morning routine.
Adam tells them about cracking the ice on the ground outside his pool this morning, he teases the arrival of Leah Remini and brings up her show, citing the insane tactics used to keep people in the church of scientology.
Adam says it’s so weird hearing about these old timey stand-over tactics still being effective in the modern era, Adam talks about the wiring and the way one must be indoctrinated in order to stay under the thumb of the church.
Adam says he heard from his dad who reminded him about a vestige from his childhood, he says every kid knows the “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells” rhyme despite nothing the biggest fans of Gotham city and its heroes.
Adam cites the “it must not have been very important” line that his mom often used when he would forget a thought, he talks about how kids forget what they were saying midstream and Gina brings up her awesome dad Steve who would try to jog her memory.
Adam is talking about other parents who schedule things against important events, kid’s birthdays opposite the Super Bowl for an extreme example.
Adam is talking about Sonny’s pressure to go to a party when he wants to watch football, Adam laments his super bummer mom and her horrible voice of bummer-tude.
Adam talks about his family and their non-fun self-deprecation and general malaise, Adam says the only good part of his parents is that he always analyzes his role and doesn’t jump to blaming the external.
BB mocks the “But I’d have to kill you” guys and Adam mocks the TMI guys and jokes about carbuncles before they take a call.
Q and Ace
1st Caller Mac, he is an aspiring standup comedian and tells them about his background in sports before comedy, he shares a funny one liner that he then degraded by breaking down the thought process of it.
Mac shares another joke and reveals he’s a double amputee, BB has a killer “barely a standup comedian” one liner and they ask him how he lost his legs but he throw out another joke.
Adam talks about meeting crazy people in alleys when he used to work on his car, he says if you putz around on your car in an alley you see the “certain breed of cat” who travel via alleyway, they like it in the shadows.
Adam tells them about a quick draw champion who showed up with two casts on his arms, asking for $5 and BB cites the specific details and how that leads one to believe a person.
They give him some practical advice about using his circumstances to further his career, steer into the amputee stuff.
2nd Caller Reese, he just passed the bar exam and he’s scared of going out and starting his own practice, Adam jokes about being a former D.A. and
Adam suggests he call into ‘Reasonable Doubt’ and BB asks him about his overhead and Adam says he wasn’t good at much too early, he needed to learn on the jobsite and become a valuable asset.
Adam waxes poetic on learning how to work and how important that is and Gina cites internships.
3rd Caller Vince, he’s asking about EDM when exercising, if that’s an acceptable time to listen to the robot fucking music.
Vince asks about booking Sam Harris on the podcast, he explains who he is to Adam who is drawing a blank, Adam jokes about being viewed as having “radical thoughts on Islam” and he brings up the simple logic behind it.
Adam talks about the new era and having things like Uber, at one point in time the whole world owned slaves, that was then, now we know what we know, we need to move ahead.
Adam is making a great point about gay marriage and he cites all of the founding fathers owning slaves, he says that was the society they lived in, future generations will be laughing at us, understood, let’s fast forward to modern day and address the issues in front of us.
Gina asks when the debate has solved anything, the historical “sins of the fathers” slippery slope.
Vince further promotes booking Sam on the podcast, Adam is sure he would make for a good guest and be well versed in his expertise.
Adam is making a point about historical and cultural evolution and the progress we’ve made so far and how much more we can do if we move forward.
Adam is setting up a clip from Classic Loveline #548 (feat. Kennedy) From November 4th 1997, he references Classic Loveline #551 from 3 days later where Leah actually guested for the first time and the very letter being brought up now and on #548 was mentioned and the topic was moved past after Leah revealed she herself was a scientologist.
Adam comments on her being on the next night (3 nights later) and they move on.
Life Lock – Unclear if Phil E. Cheesesteak has it edition
Adam gives out some live show plugs, he talks about a guy who observed that Adam and Mike got along so “good” and they all comment on his “particular” form of driving.
They head to break.
They’re back from break with Leah making her ACS debut, she was never on the morning show and only did that single episode of Loveline, Adam and Drew did guest star on her 90’s sitcom ‘Fired Up’ but the episode never aired until syndication and was never digitized until very recently, it was a search of over 15yrs to get a copy, Adam and Drew both still have never seen it.
Adam says he always smiles when he thinks of Leah Remini and he sets up the Loveline clip of Adam discussing the letter from Scientology in 1997 with Kennedy and Dr. Drew.
Adam jokes about Kennedy no longer being a virgin, Adam apologizes for the pitch and the clip sounds like someone tried to do some post processing to an existing clip instead of asking me for the raw file or to repair it, I do not approve of this modification the pitch has shifted too far and Adam sounds sped up.
Adam is now talking about the brazen nature of the scripted apology and Leah explains how that thinking worked, she is not surprised and she says it was a different time and information wasn’t as freely available.
Leah tells them about the policy’s and tactics of Scientology, Adam plugs her show on A&E and shares his love for the series, he says his wife loves it too.
Adam asks her about the membership statistics and if they’ve dwindled over the years, she shares their PR statement, the church’s. She gives her own take and mentions OT Level 8, she explains how scientology is every day, 2.5 hrs. per day of work.
Leah explains that mankind is at stake to the people who have been brainwashed by reading ‘Dianetics’ and Adam talks about the egregious family element and Gina brings up the stuff that is similar from the Jewish community.
Leah points out the big difference and she comments on the hate filled website aimed at former members and she says they cannot even keep up with the former members who have come out against the church and contacted them.
Adam is now sharing a funny discussion he had with his wife last night, Adam was asking if Lynette could see Sonny not speaking to her because of a religious dispute, she said no way but was on the fence about the girl, hilarious!
Leah is making a great point about families and how the church takes over certain duties, Gina is about to comment and Leah stops to let her finish, they talk about the Sea Org and rules regarding children.
Adam is asking about L. Ron Hubbard and how he’s perceived, Leah explains how they indoctrinate the members and credit L. Ron with ideas and inventions that he’s not responsible for.
Adam asks if she has had any run ins with the Jenna Elfman types of the celebrity/scientology world and she explains they cannot speak to her as she is now labeled a “suppressive person” and she explains how other celebs flee form her presence at parties and such, she reveals to Adam that he also shares that label and it’s why he couldn’t get Tom Cruise for his documentary about Paul Newman.
Leah as some interesting stats about actual celebrity involvement in the church and how they want to appear more intertwined into Hollywood than they actually are.
Adam is asking follow ups and he wonders if they try and protect Tom Cruise from the public and the possible risk of him doing anything, there is little reward to him being in the doc but if he goes off on a rant then it could lead to damage.
Adam asks about his publicity team working in concert with scientology, Adam shares his historical take on the religion and attitude of “live and let live” before he knew about the money and exploitation going on.
Leah says it’s not about a belief system, it’s about a lie that is disguised as a belief system, it’s damaging to others and the people involved.
Leah begrudgingly plugs her book and Adam steps in gives the title, she shares how by the book she was with her faith and how seeing corruption and hypocrisy lead to her calling it out, she was seeing behavior out of line and she wanted to correct it.
Leah talks about the missing wife of David Miscavige and how bizarre things became, she brings up the Tom Cruise wedding to Katie Holmes and her post ceremony interrogations.
Adam has her tells the story as many listeners might not be familiar, Leah describes the wedding and events with J-Lo and Marc Anthony.
Leah has a great “I had sex with someone in the bathroom” line that BB could make into a choice drop, Leah shares how she bailed from the church after they interrogated her many times and destroyed her faith by exposing their corruption.
Adam is bringing up Katie Holmes and Leah shares how she was in opposition to Katie who had filed a report on her, she was actually sent to hub in Florida and now explains how she has evolved in her thinking, she even reveals she thought she was a superior scientologist to Tom, more faithful to the work.
She says they are told that Tom is singlehandedly saving the planet and the rule about not being allowed to speak to any ex scientologists and how she worries about reaching out or extending an olive branch to her now, she doesn’t want to screw her over or cause her trouble.
Adam is feeling her energy and the internal social justice warrior inside of her, it’s commendable but can lead to a difficult life.
Leah shares how she wanted to be more than what she was and how the church taught her to be more than she was, she used to think she was kind and caring only because of her faith, she didn’t know she was a good person and the church only tapped into what she already had inside of her.
Leah explains how she was trying to get other people to look into the missing person case of Shelly Miscavige and she shares the mysterious follow ups and vague statements from the local law enforcement, the detective had been hired to speak at the celebrity center, about human trafficking.
Leah shares her struggle to find out if Shelly is alive, Gina quotes a letter Leah got about it not being in Arrowhead, Leah comments on the “unfounded” term and how that is used legally vs. how the church is using that term on the hate website aimed at her.
Leah name drops the website ‘The Underground Bunker’ and Adam asks Leah about her relationship to Shelly, Leah got her ready for a gala event, they hung out and were acquaintances.
Leah has a funny take on what she told her mom if her husband ever refused to let anyone see her, suspect murder and check the freezer right away.
Adam has Leah tease what happened to her family after she left and he goes into a live read.
Smart Mouth – Adam does donuts in his Lambo, no sample sized Lambos edition
The get Leah a sample of it, awesome!
Leah explains how lucky her situation was and how her family all left together, Adam says he never saw the follow up if the adult son got back in touch with his mom, she reveals he did not and it went much worse, he made a video denouncing his mother.
BB asks Leah about family legacies in the church and how celebrities are brought in, Leah explains what motivated her and Gina has a Facebook question asking if Leah fears for her family’s safety and Leah comments on the modern era of information and social media.
Adam says there is safety in numbers and safety in information, he uses gay marriage to make a point and comments on his own brave statement from 20yrs ago, which they just played.
Leah says he was courageous and she shares a very intelligent follow up, she says she’s anti bigotry in all forms and Adam asks if Scientology has lost their grip as they head down the other side of the mountain.
Leah explains what she would like to happen and Adam asks about a class action lawsuit, he cites Mark Geragos and BB jokes about him shying away from the press.
Leah says someone has to address this and Adam says he’ll bring it up with Mark, Adam feels like this is not a bizarre hypothetical, they could be facing some real consequences.
Leah mentions Xenu and the jokes about the church and gets to the real damage being done and how much people are being harmed, she even says scientologists aren’t evil people, they live below their means to pay for the church.
Gina brings up the Sea Org level of scientologists, do they ever move up in the world and get a better life, Leah shares they will do anything they are asked to do, Leah used to clean the hotel rooms for rich scientologists when she was involved.
Adam talks about not having a lot of TV shows in common with his wife but this they agree on and he asks her about a possible season two.
Leah shares her apprehension and desire to do real meaningful work to help things, to make some waves and not just provide entertainment or repeat what they’ve already done.
Adam talks about how emotionally taxing it must be for Leah to witness these events, he cites his time hosting ‘Catch a Contractor’ and how he would be affected by their horrible living circumstances.
Adam says it can depress you, Leah agrees and shares how her empathy kicks in and how she never knew that these suppressive people were just regular folks, she hints at the abuse in the Sea Org with children and the stuff she couldn’t even imagine.
Leah is really being honest and pouring her heart out, BB asks about the documentary ‘Going Clear’ which she said she loved as it was factual, instead of simply mocking the faith.
Leah says she thinks HBO cleared the path for A&E to do something like this, Adam says “you’re welcome” and Leah agrees with his joke about him playing a role in this dialogue being opened up.
Leah says they probably clipped the letter and they air it internally.
Geico – Adam gives the standard WAM read for 2017 edition
Adam plugs his new show on Spike and asks for people to submit some questions for the show.
Adam plugs Leah’s stuff and she has a very kind and almost emotionally thank you for the gang and the opportunity to come share.
BB closes the show with Adam’s “my crotch is on fire” line form the earlier discussion about his mom and her “then it must not have been very important” refrain that haunted his childhood.
Leah crushed it, I hope she comes back on very soon! Great guest!