Leah Remini, Lisa Marie Presley Warring Over Scientology, Friendship Over?
Leah Remini and Lisa Marie Presley’s friendship appears to be no more and the two have Scientology to thank for it.
The New York Post reports the two are now locked in a bitter feud over the religion they grew up together a part of that the 46-year-old Remini has been castigating ever since walking away from three years ago.
On her A&E channel documentary Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, the former King of Queens star has accused church leaders of brainwashing its members and lording over them with an iron fist.
“Leah and Lisa Maria were good friends,” a source told the Post. “They grew up together. Lisa Marie has been going through a hard time in her life, and has been battling addiction, and Leah tried to convince Lisa to leave Scientology and join her in trying to bring the church down.”
Instead, sources report Presley has now cut off all communication with Remini after becoming convinced that she was being used as a pawn in her ongoing dispute with church leaders.
Presley is also in the process of divorcing her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood, and has been separated from her twin 8-year-old daughters as part of a lingering custody dispute.
Meanwhile, sources close to Remini are insisting she has never tried to convince Presley to appear on Aftermath and had come to feel that Presley had grown to be supportive of her decision to leave the church.
The Hollywood feud isn’t the first Remini has found herself in the crosshairs of since leaving the church and making her resentment of it publicly known.
She and Saving Private Ryan star Giovanni Ribisi recently had a running war of words when the lifelong Scientology member took offense with certain things she had to say and what he felt her motivation for doing so might be.
“There’s a lot of money behind it,” Ribisi charged in a recent radio interview. “It’s turned into such a controversy to where you go out, you make a documentary about it. You know, the person who’s doing that is making money off it.”
Ribisi went on to declare the church “works” for him and recommended others give it a look, finally prompting a response from the outspoken Remini.
Remini has also had harsh words for fellow Scientology members Tom Cruise and John Travolta, claiming both could get away with murder in the eyes of fellow church members.
More recently, to coincide with the premiere of the second season of Aftermath, she ridiculed Mission Impossible star Cruise as “diabolical” and “not a nice person.”
[Featured Image by Jesse Grant/Getty Images]
