The weirdness continues, and this time it involves a hot women, darkened SUV’s and suspicious persons in mid-town Manhattan.

I got a rather panicked call from Ian Halperin yesterday. Ian, as you may remember, is the NYTimes best-selling author and filmmaker who did a documentary for his newly released book, Hollywood Undercover. Glosslip was invited to the film premiere of His “Highness Hollywood”, which chronicled the chapters in the book. A portion of the movie focused on Halperin’s undercover persona “His Highness” going into the Church of Scientology under the guise of checking it out for his “wealthy royal Israeli uncle.” What Ian uncovered was racism, homophobia and a dangerous, secretive organization designed to make large sums of money from its followers.

Since the release of the book and now the film, Ian has been the target of harassment, including: a barrage of phone calls and hang ups, threatening messages to “keep his f*cking mouth shut” or something bad will happen, was almost hit by a car, his film premiere was sabotaged (which I witnessed) and now, he’s got another strange incident to report:

“I received another ten hang-ups in the last two days, and while I was out on Saturday evening, well past midnight, I was approached by a beautiful, but mysterious woman who tried to pick me up. I was waiting for my friend who was in the drugstore at the time, when a huge Cadillac Suv pulled up along side me. She said, “Hey, you want to come hang out with me?” I told her I was waiting for my friend and heading home, but she persisted. “Awww, come on, lets go get a drink and have some fun.” At this point I peaked into the darkened windows of the SUV and saw a man sitting back in the shadows, hiding his face. I slipped back and the young woman said, “Hey aren’t you that undercover writer? I’ve seen you before, you make films right.” This set off major red flags as I am NEVER recognized on the streets, especially since I usually am “undercover.” I moved away from the car and by then my friend came out of the store. When I turned back around the SUV sped off.”

Ian asked Glosslip to help him make a public appeal to legendary mega-selling author Jackie Collins for protection. Collins, voted Halperin’s best-selling undercover book on the world of modeling, Bad and Beautiful, book of the year in 2002. Despite having hired a security guard, Ian feels the only way he can keep himself protected is to reach out through the media.

“I have to start reaching out to my most powerful contacts in the business for protection. And the most powerful contact I have is Jackie Collins. So Jackie, if you’re reading this, please contact me, I need your help. I can be reached through my coordinates or Glosslip.”

Halperin made a point of stressing to me he doesn’t know WHO is harassing him at this point, simply because, Hollywood Undercover, has stirred controversy in both the Church of Scientology and Hollywood executive circles. He managed to raise the ire of all sorts of people with his revealing inside look at these two sometimes sinister groups.

“Jackie, again I am not sure who exactly is harassing me, it could be the Church of Scientology, or Hollywood higher-ups who are pissed off at the contents of the book, but whoever is behind it, I am asking you to step in and help.”

While paranoia runs deep when dealing with these elements, I expressed healthy skepticism and asked Ian why he’d be worried about some hot chick wanting to hang out with him. He acknowledge that it wasn’t just the woman, but a string of coincidences which set him off.

“The prospect of recognizing an undercover author in mid-town Manhattan is equivalent to finding a real set of breasts on Robertson Blvd.”

As I’ve hinted at lately, the Church of Scientology has become very agitated (enturbulated in Scio-speak) and I have noticed a dramatic change in their strategy and on-line efforts. They are not to be underestimated. That said, we don’t know WHO is harassing Ian Halperin, but hopefully reaching out to an industry heavy-weight like Jackie Collins will help.

Page Six is reporting Nicole Kidman’s wants her two children, Isabella and Connor, from her marriage to Tom Cruise, out of the Church of Scientology based on reports from undercover writer Ian Halperin:

JASON Beghe isn’t the only former Scientologist who wants nothing to do with the church. Nicole Kidman , a Catholic, has limited contact with her adopted kids by Tom Cruise, Isabella and Connor, who are deeply entrenched in Scientology. At the New York premiere of Ian Halperin’s film, “His Highness Hollywood,” a Scientology insider told Halperin that Kidman “wants her kids out of the church.” Halperin beat up on the faith in his book, “Hollywood Undercover,” and said he wasn’t surprised when, during the premiere, “the projector had been sabotaged.”

As Glosslip reported the day after the event Halperin’s film premiere was besieged with technical difficulties which resulted in 2 hours of lost time and the final film being scrapped and instead, showing an unready version to the impatient crowd.

Not surprisingly, Ian and the crew at the National Arts Club confirmed sabotage was the root cause of the malfunctions and there’s been open speculation the Church of Scientology may know something about it. Ian told Glosslip exclusively he has hired a private security firm and the harassment he’s endured since the release of the book has increased in recent days. Halperin stated he would be taking extra precautions, especially at future premieres.

For anyone who wants to downstat the Church, go buy Ian’s book. I’m reading it now, and I recommend it highly.

Video featuring Pattinson from His Highness Hollywood

Sunday’s two-hour Glosslip Radio program was FANTASTIC and if you missed you can catch it here (look over to the right at the little BLOGTALKRADIO widget). We had two great guests, ex-Scientologists Michael Pattison and Chuck Beatty. More on these two gentlemen here.

During the show, NYT best-selling author, Ian Halperin, who featured interviews with Michael Pattinson for his film His Highness Hollywoodcalled in to the show and relayed his experiences at his film screening three weeks ago. As we reported exclusively on Glosslip, Ian’s film premiere was sabotaged and despite valiant efforts by his crew and the fine folks at the National Arts Club, those in attendance never saw the finished film.

While investigating the technical glitches, the NAC tech folks discovered someone had tampered with the settings on the film equipment and somehow 12 (two more were found after our previous report) viruses had been downloaded on the laptop used to play the film. Ian asked Michael his thoughts on this sabotage, and about the warnings Pattinson had issued about the Church of Scientology to Halperin the summer before when they were making the film. Pattison said:

“It could very well have been sabotage by Scientology’s covert operations divison known as the Office of Special Affairs (OSA). They could very well have done something like that. I’m not saying that they did it, but it’s something that would be typical them [CoS]…I did warn you.”

I was also informed that Halperin had received another threatening phone call yesterday and several hang ups over the last week. Halperin is considering hiring private security. Might be a good idea. I bet OSA is working overtime these days.

Ian center, with fashion babes, girl on Ian’s right was engaged in PDA with guy sporting a faux-hawk all night. Just sayin’.

If you been following Glosslip for the last couple weeks you know we ventured to New York to cover the film premiere for His Highness Hollywood, a documentary filmed by Ian Halperin as a compendium for his new book, Hollywood Undercover.

When we attended the premiere at the National Arts Club in Manhattan in late March, the entire event, while tremendous fun, was plagued with technical difficulties (as result of sabotage) and we ended up only getting to see the unedited version of the film.

Glosslip has received updates on the investigation and the nature of the sabotage. We also reported Ian and his team were already planning a second screening, but this time with a security detail.

As we promised, we have the information on this second screening, but sadly can’t give the location (for obvious reasons). But we will have exclusive video and pictures to post after the event.

Ian will be a guest speaker this evening at the NY Women’s Book club where he will be discussing his NYT bestselling books (Fire and Rain: The James Taylor Story, and Celine Dion: Behind the Fairytale, as well as a number of exposés on the modeling industry. He coauthored Who Killed Kurt Cobain? with Max Wallace.) and will be screening the finished, edited version of His Highness Hollywood, albeit with several security guards present .

Also, we have good news to report, Hollywood Undercover, which sold out in its first week and was unavailable for weeks, is back in print. The second printing is now available. Books are now available to order on amazon.com.

I received the last copy at the screening and I’ve had several inquiries on where to get the book. I haven’t finished it yet, but I am half-way through and I recommend it. Very engaging, first-person account of how Ian penetrated the industry, with many sordid tales along the way with A-listers, porn stars, inside look at the Church of Scientology, and of course, sex — all told with a genuine sense of humor. One other very cool detail to this book is it the first YouTube compatible book. Check those out here.

Click here to order.

“His Highness Hollywood”, Andrew Morton, and some chick

I have some additional information in the ongoing investigation of equipment tampering which took place during the March 25, “His Highness Hollywood” premiere in New York at the National Arts Club.

Ian Halperin, author of Hollywood Undercover, and filmmaker reported that the NAC detected TEN viruses loaded onto the NAC laptop used during the viewing of the film. If you will recall from my earlier report, Ian and the team at NAC did a scan just prior to the film’s screening and the laptop used came up completely clean of viruses. In the wake of the screening fiasco, the NAC launched an official investigation into the apparent sabotage which took place and were able to identify at least one of the malicious programs as a trojan.

The NAC is also having the laptop dusted for fingerprints. Hopefully they will be able to isolate the ones responsible, although with the number of people at the event, this may prove difficult. Ian also informed me that a NEW screening of the film is scheduled to take place soon (I can’t reveal the location or the date because of increased concerns about additional tampering) and that they have already assigned a team of four security personnel to guard the equipment at the next event.

Glosslip will have full exclusive coverage of that event. We will keep you posted.

Clip from “His Highness Hollywood” interview with ex-Scienologist Michael Pattinson

After an exhaustive investigation into the tech nightmare author Ian Halperin endured on the opening of his new film, “His Highness Hollywood,” a representative from the National Arts Club, Greg Singer confirmed the film’s equipment was tampered with just prior to the opening of the movie.

Singer, the tech official on duty that evening for the NAC, had this to say about the circumstances which led to the final version film being scrapped after three failed attempts:

“It [the tampering] was a professional job. Someone tampered with the screen projection system. All the settings were changed and the laptop was inspected before the screening. There was a system check for viruses, and the computer came back 100% clean. When we investigated the laptop after the screening, there was a virus infecting the laptop. Someone was definitely out to sabotage the evening.”

I asked Ian how many people he invited to the premiere and he estimated about 30, including select members of the media. Ian said he was keeping the numbers small and exclusive out of concern for any possible attempts by groups targeted in the film, namely the Church of Scientology, from preventing the screening of the film.

As stated in Glosslip’s earlier post on the event, there were 200 people at the screening, with at least 70 turned away. Ian said he didn’t know how word got out, but was initially thrilled at the turn out. I did some checking on my own and saw on the NAC’s website the event listed on their calendar of events. So really, anyone in the public could have been privy to this information.

Prior to the book’s release Ian did some publicity for his projects, plus there are several excerpts of the film available on YouTube with Ian going in undercover at the ScientologyCelebrity Center in, and the most damaging part is Ian’s interviews with ex-Scientologist Michael Pattinson. Pattinson has attempted to sue the Church for damages related to spending close to $500,000 on auditing and spiritual training to cure him of his “homosexuality.

Scientologists believe “homosexuality” to be an aberration within humans. L. Ron Hubbard spoke specifically of it within his writings, especially in his popular book Dianetics.

“The sexual pervert (and by this term Dianetics, to be brief, includes any and all forms of deviation in Dynamic II [i.e. sexuality] such as homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc., and all down the catalog of Ellis and Krafft-Ebing) is actually quite ill physically… he is very far from culpable for his condition, but he is also far from normal and extremely dangerous to society…

On something called the “tone scale,” homosexuality is at the top of the undesirable chart at -40 -1.1, referred to as “total failure.”,

“At 1.1 on the tone scale we enter the area of the most vicious reversal of the second dynamic. Here we have promiscuity, perversion, sadism, and irregular practices.”

I give Hubbard credit for suggesting homosexuals weren’t completely “culpable” for their condition. In some ways that’s quite generous to most other religious opinions. But most religions don’t sue people for leaving, threaten and harass their critics, have special arrangements with the IRS, or tell their members who they can or can’t have in their lives.

Between my interview, Ian’s threatening phone calls, Defamer’s and Queerty’s publicizing the details and the general air of hostility between the Church of Scientology and the public, anything is possible.

We have no way of knowing who was involved, all that remains clear is someone did not want Ian’s film watched that evening.

[Editor's note: correction made to tone scale rating on homosexuality]

Authors Ian Halperin and Andrew Morton

Ian Halperin, best-selling author and documentarian, took every precaution to make sure the premiere of his new film “His Highness Hollywood” went smoothly. The film, which chronicles Halperin’s investigative foray into the world of Hollywood, is a side-by-side, chapter-by-chapter look at his experiences writing the book, Hollywood Undercover.

Ian and I first communicated with each other back in January during the blitz of media coverage surrounding the release of Andrew Morton’s Tom Cruise biography and the leaking of a video featuring an unhinged Cruise extolling the “virtues” of Scientology. Ian’s book, much like Andrew’s, deals with the inextricable link between Hollywood, Celebrities and the Church of Scientology.

Simply put, they are two sums of a whole part. Not only does Scientology present an imposing physical presence in Hollywood, with their gothic-style Celebrity Center nestled comfortably on Hollywood Blvd, but they have a stable of stars which would make any organization envious. As Tom Cruise says, “it’s KSW” and the CoS has Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Nancy Cartwright, Kirstie Alley and many, many more, who are doing their part to “keep Scientology working.”

Switching coasts, I find myself invited to Ian’s premiere, held at the prestigious National Arts Club in Manhattan. While Glosslip has been fighting tooth and nail to carve a niche for ourselves in fly-over country, in no way was I going to let a little thing like distance keep me from attending this premiere. Eric, my husband and the publisher of Blogcritics.org, was supposed to go with me, but alas the timing was not right for us both to be gone, so with his blessings and support I was told to go forth and represent.

But wait, there’s more…

Tech problems plagued the exciting premiere for Ian Halperin’s new documentary, “His Highness Hollywood,” including the live radio show I did for Blog Talk Radio on Glosslip Radio.

Fortunately, I videoed the interview and so the parts that were cut off during the radio show were captured live. I will be posting a review of the premiere, which includes appearances by Andrew Morton, a tampered with projector (dun.dun.DUN), Blogcritics Theatre Editor Jon Sobel and many great moments.

Second part is on it’s way. Stay tuned for full review tomorrow.

Update - Second part up now.

Also, BIG PROPS to k for not only carrying the site and doing the Shaun Daily show all by her sick self while I out of town, but she did so all while suffering from the flu AND she also saved the day at the last minute and helped me out with a technical issue.

Glosslip would NOT exist without k, so my eternal gratitude is offered for her excellence.

No we haven’t been intercepted by the Church of Scientology, nor are we being held at Gold Base, yet.

Instead, one of us is on our way to New York for a special invent, where we get to interview Ian Halperin, NYT best-selling author, whose book Hollywood Undercover is being released here in the US this week, in person. For those who’ve been following Glosslip for the last couple months, you will have noticed an increased coverage on the Church of Scientology - and the Anonymous protests against them.

This subject was spawned by an interview we did on our BlogTalkRadio show, Glosslip Radio back in January. It was from this HUGELY popular show (close to two thousand listeners) that we had our first introduction into the bizarre, perverse and sinister nature of the Church of Scientology.

I encourage anyone who hasn’t heard the show to listen. Go here for the archive.

In the days leading up to the interview Ian received several threatening phone calls, read here and here for a retelling, and narrowly missed being run over by a car in NY.

Ian and I discussed this on the show, and clearly there was no way to pinpoint who was responsible, considering the history of the CoS, our suspicions were raised.

Tonight, March 25 beginning at approximately 7:00 pm (or shortly thereafter) we will be interviewing Ian Halperin again, live from NY. I will be asking him about any “issues” he may have had coinciding with the release of the book, and what if any precautions he’s had to take, and what he thinks about the new movement by Anonymous to expose the Church’s many abuses. To listen to this special broadcast, click here.

Just to remind you, Ian went undercover as a wealthy, gay aspiring actor and was able to infiltrate the Church of Scientology, including FILMING INSIDE the Celebrity Center in Hollywood, as the Church promised to cure him of his “gayness.”

If only they could help Clay Aiken.

Also in Hollywood Undercover are rollicking tales of Ian’s foray into the seedy underbelly of Hollywood. I can’t wait to finally read this.

Some site news:  k, who is gracious enough to once again fill in for me while I slack off, is under the weather, so show her love and please listen in to our daily Glosslip segment on BlogTalkRadio with BTR Today show host, Shaun Daily. Our segment begins at 3:00pm EST, but the show starts at 2:00 - if you have the time give it a listen because the whole show is a great source of interesting world news - and then a splash of tabloid goodness.

I admit, I am a bit of a “paranoid.” On the surface, as we skim and meander through our mundane world, picking up groceries, getting our morning coffee, dropping our kids off at school, there exists subversive elements who carry out their own agenda hidden from our oblivious gaze.

Whether that agenda is one person’s desire to cause malevolence against another, or a group’s efforts to pervert justice - I know these people exist and it’s my job to avoid them. But, I also am driven by my deep-seated desire to seek out the truth, the knowledge of the what, where, when and how and most importantly - why.

I have a highly anticipated interview with author Ian Halperin on my show this evening, something we’ve been working on feverishly for a couple of weeks now. Not only am I interested in talking to Ian about his experiences investigating the gritty and often sleazy world of Hollywood, but I am most interested in getting to the bottom of what he knows about the Church Of Scientology. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO INTERVIEW, 10:00PM EST, Sunday Jan. 27. Join us in the chatroom, call in to ask Ian a question at (646) 478-0139.

I sent Ian a couple of emails a few days ago and heard nothing until this morning. After finally getting in touch with me, Ian informed me what was going on and why he was incommunicado

just got it - I’ll be calling you from a remote location. big new - i received several threats and I’m in hiding till it all dies down. A day after i went into hiding Andrew Morton also went in hiding. My story all started on Thursday night when I was almost run over by a taxi cab when a camera crew approached me coming into my building. Then, I received two threatening phone calls - my lawyer advised me to skidaddle for a while until it all calms down.

Ian updated me shortly there after with this response:

here’s the latest. Morton apparently is not in hiding - several people sent me messages and links about rumours of him going into hiding. As for myself, I’m just laying low until this all dies down. I can’t prove that Scientology made those threats against me. It could have been some freak.

Ian fully admits this could have been a prank, someone playing on the media’s reports of the intimidation tactics the COS have used in the past to quiet those who’ve threatened to expose their inner world. I know from my perspective, I received a rather cryptic email a couple of weeks ago when I first reported on the Andrew Morton Tom Cruise/COS expose, from a local representative of the COS which ultimately suggested they stop by my house and give me some info on the COS.

My response was one of both paranoia (they knew where I lived and what I’d written about COS in the past) and curiosity. I will be honest, they were very friendly and good-natured and tried to assuage me of any concern I had, explaining point by point how they had kept tabs on me and my husband’s COS coverage of the years and merely wanted to give us information on the rich history of Scientology. Nothing threatening, but I must admit, I found it vaguely eerie how aware they were of my comings and goings.

When searching for some corroborating data to Ian’s assertions, I found Defamer’s post on the subject on Friday, and I discovered the exact same thing had happened to author Andrew Morton when his book was on the verge of being published here. Those stories can be found here.

I have seen several websites devoted to exposing the corruption and illegal activities of the Church of Scientology. Too many to list. Just Google, Scientology, scare tactics and see for yourself. Above is an over-the-top, but frightening account of how dangerous the Church may be. I have no proof any of what is alleged in the video is true, but the saying of “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” may be prophetic in this case.

Don’t forget, check into Glosslip Radio tonight, 10:00pm for an special 90-minute segment of the show when Eric Olsen of Blogcritics.org and myself will attempt to get an inside look at COS through the eyes of someone who’s been there.

Call in number (646)-478-0139.