LA Weekly - Scientology Chia Pet 01/08/2000

Scientology's CHIA PET

Scientology's relentless self-promotion is no secret to readers of OffBeat, which last year reported on the church's campaign to flood newspaper quote-of-the-week sections with camera-ready if incomprehensible bons mots from founder L. Ron Hubbard. Now, a new Scientology PR controversy has erupted, this time concerning the church's millennial celebration at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

The Washington Post reported that Scientology took several photos off its Web site after being accused of doctoring crowd-scene photos to inflate the head count at the event. Ex-Scientologist Arnaldo Lerma, who currently runs an audio-video and computer business in Arlington, Virginia, said images of attendees were cloned and used to fill in empty seats in panoramic photos of what the church claimed to be an SRO crowd of 14,000.

The touchup work left one crowd member without a head, and caused a bald man to miraculously grow hair, Lerma charged. Scientology spokeswoman Janet Weiland at first insisted there was no intent to edit the photos, but later told the Post that someone had made an "aesthetic" decision to fill in crowd holes around the camera crew.

Church PR operatives also said in a press release that President Clinton was "among those sending congratulations" on the church's "half-century of spiritual leadership." That turned out to be true. In a December 22 letter of "warm greetings," Clinton thanked Scientologists for "all your efforts to promote [religious freedom] and to build just communities united in understanding, compassion and mutual respect."

Scientology was also in the news in connection with a court case in Arlington, Texas. A veterinary clinic there agreed last month to pay $150,000 to six employees who claimed they were unlawfully pressured to subscribe to beliefs of the Church of Scientology, the Law News Network (www.law.com) reported. The employees' lawsuit was backed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. We wonder if any of the employees were in the gro-hair photos.