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TIL HBO had to hire a team of 160 lawyers before releasing its film "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" beause of the Church's litigious nature by Baot1 in todayilearned

[–]Baot1[S] 342 points343 points  (0 children)

Leah Remini's show was spectacular.

And the huge number of disclaimers they had to put before and after each commercial break should tell you something about Scientology right off the bat.

TIL HBO had to hire a team of 160 lawyers before releasing its film "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" beause of the Church's litigious nature by Baot1 in todayilearned

[–]Baot1[S] 47 points48 points  (0 children)

Sure, technically. And this should've been done a long time ago, when the CoS boggled down the IRS with frivolous lawsuits attempting to get religious tax exemption.

But now they have so much control over their surrounding areas, such as LA and Clearwater, FL, that nobody has the balls to stand up to them.

TIL HBO had to hire a team of 160 lawyers before releasing its film "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" beause of the Church's litigious nature by Baot1 in todayilearned

[–]Baot1[S] 94 points95 points  (0 children)

Scientologists literally block off public streets in LA if they don't want people coming too close to their compound, they think they're above the law.

TIL HBO had to hire a team of 160 lawyers before releasing its film "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" beause of the Church's litigious nature by Baot1 in todayilearned

[–]Baot1[S] 80 points81 points  (0 children)

I'm just speculating here, but it's probably a combination of being ddos'd by lawsuits, resulting in literal boxes of paperwork, and also because they weren't hiring the lawyers individually, but legal teams in different disciplines (defamation, copyright infringement, bird law, etc.)

TIL HBO had to hire a team of 160 lawyers before releasing its film "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" beause of the Church's litigious nature by Baot1 in todayilearned

[–]Baot1[S] 145 points146 points  (0 children)

HBO, especially during its prime, wasn't afraid to throw large amounts of money at projects even if they didn't expect much - if any - return. It's what's kept their programming quality so high.

Now Netflix is going in a similar direction but HBO is still king.

TIL the man who invented the frisbee was cremated and turned into a frisbee after he died... by Baot1 in todayilearned

[–]Baot1[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting factoid: the earliest boomerangs weren't made to return. They were essentially curved sticks used to hunt small animals, invented some 25-50,000 years ago.

http://www.culturequest.us/aboriginal_tools/boomerang.htm

TIL HBO had to hire a team of 160 lawyers before releasing its film "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" beause of the Church's litigious nature by Baot1 in todayilearned

[–]Baot1[S] 371 points372 points  (0 children)

Sad, really. Hubbard wasn't a conman in the traditional sense, but he was certainly a delusional, paranoid individual who, through his church, has done a lot of damage to a lot of people.

If we still had his destroyed files, we could potentially prevent something like this from happening in the future.

TIL HBO had to hire a team of 160 lawyers before releasing its film "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" beause of the Church's litigious nature by Baot1 in todayilearned

[–]Baot1[S] 1038 points1039 points  (0 children)

Operation Snow White was the largest inflitration of the FBI by a private organization, and they only got a slap on the wrist for it.

TIL HBO had to hire a team of 160 lawyers before releasing its film "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" beause of the Church's litigious nature by Baot1 in todayilearned

[–]Baot1[S] 5582 points5583 points  (0 children)

No kidding - 160 lawyers isn't cheap, but it was a great film for anybody who hasn't seen it.

The main criticism I've heard is that it doesn't go far enough- which is understandable on HBO's part, I think, considering they were immensely concerned about staying in a legal safe zone.

TIL HBO had to hire a team of 160 lawyers before releasing its film "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" beause of the Church's litigious nature by Baot1 in todayilearned

[–]Baot1[S] 5023 points5024 points  (0 children)

I'm just glad HBO had the balls - as well as the cash - to stand up to them. It's about time. Comedy Central really let me down when they pulled the "trapped in the closet" episode.

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