I was a Scientologist for eight years. Although I identified as one I didn’t really understand what actually being a Scientologist fully entailed until after a couple of years of being heavily indoctrinated. The reality of Scientology is deceptively hidden and cleverly disguised. When I look at Scientology today, I have to forgive myself for not seeing through the manipulation sooner. I’ve spent the last 13 years keeping Scientology out of my life. It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve realized that the religion is built on a foundation of violence. I’m proud to add my voice to the many who, despite fear of retribution and humiliation, have come forward to tell of our experiences. This is my story.

Everyone's favorite fantasist has gone and made a stealth film. Also today: Melanie Griffith gets a new gig, so does Jenna Elfman, and E! embarks on a terrible new journey.

Regis Philbin walking with a cane following surgery to replace his hip recently ... Amy Adams leaving ABC after an appearance on Good Morning America ... Pete Wentz pushing baby Bronx in a stroller in SoHo and Ashlee Simpson getting coffee with Bronx and a friend ... Sarah Jessica Parker leaving a salon in the meatpacking district ... Ludacris walking with his new girlfriend, Fab ... Jenna Elfman posing for photos outside the Late Show with David Letterman ... and Hugh Jackman getting in an SUV outside his apartment building in the West Village.

Queens' very own Fran Drescher turns 52 today. Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard is turning 34. Jenna Elfman is 38. Monica Bellucci is turning 45. Phish's Trey Anastasio turns 45. Elie Wiesel, the Nobel-winning author and Holocaust survivor, is 81. PR veteran Bobby Zarem is turning 73. Money manager Marty Whitman turns 85. Hedge fund manager Israel Englander is 61. Actor Eric Stoltz is 48. Lacey Chabert (Party of Five, Mean Girls) is 27. And former professional tennis player, Martina Hingis, turns 29 today.

In a rather extraordinary effort to crack down on the Church of Scientology's obsessive policing of its online public image, Wikipedia has banned all IP addresses owned or affiliated with Scientology from making edits to entries on its website.

John Turturro giving an autograph to Mario Batali's sons Leo and Benno outside Bar Pitti ... Elle Macpherson leaving lunch at Le Bilboquet on the UES... Ed Westwick walking in Soho ... Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds entering his hotel in Midtown ... Tracy Morgan leaving an event at Town Hall ... Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong walking with wife Adrienne in Soho ... Matthew Broderick riding a scooter with son James in the Village ... Shawn Johnson arriving at the Gramercy Park Hotel ... Jenna Elfman posing for pictures outside an SUV ... and Lindsay Price leaving the London Hotel on West 54th Street.

Celebrating birthdays today: Veteran publicist Bobby Zarem (left) is 72. Legendary money manager Marty Whitman is 84. Hedge fund billionaire Israel Englander is 60. Elie Wiesel is 80. Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard is 33. Actress Lacey Chabert is 26. Fran Drescher is turning 51. Jenna Elfman is 37. Phish's Trey Anastasio is 44. And former tennis star Martina Hingis is 28 today.

Judging by the ensembles worn by the Scientologist-heavy crowd at one of LA Fashion Week's recent shows, all those interrogations via E-meter and "detox programs" required to be a full-fledged Clear do not include any lessons on how to dress oneself. At Smashbox Studios yesterday, Giovanni Ribisi's sister Marissa debuted her Whitney Kros clothing line, and all a whole smattering of outed B and C-List Scientologists showed up to support the Scientologist designer. There was good ole Tom Cruise Rejectee Erika Christensen dressed in a shapeless fiery muumuu, Juliette Lewis in Hammer shorts, and Jenna Elfman wearing some kind of '80s era sweater that looks like it was hoisted from the Breakfast Club wardrobe department. More pictures, and our ideas on why the "A-List" Scientlebrities weren't there to support the cause, after the jump.

• Jenna Elfman will play a book publicist who's "intensely loyal to her clients," as opposed to the book publicists who hate their clients, in a new sitcom produced by Darren Star. We're sure it'll be just as realistic about the book publishing industry as Sex and the City was about the life of an alt-weekly columnist. [Galleycat]
  

We continue our morning tour of crazy British gossip picked up by media outlets desperate for copy during the holiday slowdown, we pass along this Australian Daily Telegraph item about fledgling studio mogul Tom Cruise's supposed efforts to harness English tabloid-cipher Victoria Beckham's acting talent for a prospective film project sure to surpass the staggering box office grosses racked up by Battlefield Earth:

Yesterday's LAT audited FX series Nip/Tuck's attention-grabbing decision to have two of its characters respond to emotional enturbulation by seeking solace in the welcoming bosom of L. Ron Hubbard*, an instantly controversial storyline that creator/provocateur Ryan Murphy and network executives insist is rooted in a genuine curiosity about the religion, not a cynical attempt to court publicity or for e-meter-related gag potential. (Accordingly, their choice to cast Tom Cruise nemesis and postpartum antidepressant street-drug prescribee Brooke Shields as a psychiatrist was purely coincidental, based solely on the fact that the actress had always "felt psychiatristy" to Murphy.) But for someone who's obviously taking great public pains to present Scientology in a non-judgmental, unbiased light, FX's president still sounds a little spooked by the Church's possible overreaction to their ecumenical explorations:

We've received a couple of reports from operatives who were briefly inconvenienced by a bomb scare at the Scientology Celebrity Centre last night, which managed to snarl traffic on the streets around L. Ron Hubbard's Hollywood mothership while the threat was contained. Luckily for all in the vicinity, Celebrity Centre personnel allowed the proper authorities to handle the situation, avoiding the potentially catastrophic mistake of dispatching on-call OTR-III Explosives Tech Jenna Elfman to shout accusations of baby rape at the possible bomb until it was shamed into defusing itself and enrolling in a pricey self-actualization course, and disaster was averted. The first report:

TMZ reports on a Sunday incident in which one of Scientology's second-tier celebrity adherents fiercely lashed out at a man whose t-shirt glibly called into question the sexual preference of two of her religion's higher-profile champions:

We thought we were joylessly slogging through yet another "Are you (or is your current character) exactly like/nothing like you (or your last character)?" story, this time about Jenna Elfman and her new sitcom, Courting Alex, when we came across this passage about Elfman's level of involvement in the project: