14 DAY TRIAL // Screenwriter and director Paul Haggis is coming out with his story about his experience with the Church of Scientology, or Sea Org. Among other things, in a very lengthy interview with The New Yorker, Haggis also reveals Josh Brolin’s brush with the cult.
The actor, it would seem, came to Scientology at a time when things simply did not work out for him in his personal life.
However brief, his experience with members of the cult, all A-listers such as himself, was bizarre enough to convince him that he didn’t want anything to do with them.
For instance, he saw John Travolta “practice” some sort of healing ritual on late actor Marlon Brando, Brolin revealed to Haggis.
Brolin and Travolta were at a dinner party in Los Angeles when Brando arrived, somewhat late. He had a cut on his leg that he said he got from helping out an injured motorist on the Pacific Coast Highway.
Brando complained that he was in a lot of pain, Haggis alleges, which is when Travolta offered himself to help. He said he had the knowledge because he’d just reached a whole new level in Scientology.
Since he was in pain, Marlon accepted so Travolta reached out and touched his leg. And this is where things got really “bizarre,” Brolin said.
“I watched this process going on – it was very physical,” Brolin told Haggis, who’s now recalling the episode for The New Yorker interview.
“I was thinking, This is really [expletive]-ing bizarre! Then, after ten minutes, Brando opens his eyes and says, ‘That really helped. I actually feel different!’” Brolin added.
Contacted by The New Yorker for comment on this before the story came out, a rep for Travolta denied the episode ever happened, calling it “pure fabrication.”
Haggis, though, stands by his story. He is one of the most famous members to leave the cult, arguing that he made the decision after he saw how anti-gay slanted the Church was, especially since the orientation of some of his members was well known
For the full piece with Haggis for The New Yorker, please refer here.