{"id":883,"date":"2007-03-06T11:34:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-06T11:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2007\/03\/scientology-is-hollywoods-new-kabbalah.html"},"modified":"2007-03-06T11:34:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-06T11:34:00","slug":"scientology-is-hollywoods-new-kabbalah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/03\/scientology-is-hollywoods-new-kabbalah.html","title":{"rendered":"Scientology is Hollywood’s New Kabbalah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just as fashion magazines regularly christen every color of the rainbow to be “the new black” for the season, Hollywood A-listers seem to be saying so long to last season’s Kabbalah and hello to Scientology. “Scientology is the Kabbalah of 2007,” Jared Shapiro, news and entertainment director for Life&Style Weekly, told FoxNews.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Though this religion and its interest in proselytizing to celebrities predate last year’s Hollywood fancies for Kabbalah, Scientology<\/a> gained new prominence from its association with Tom Cruise, whose bizarre couch-jumping behavior translated into tabloid coverage that was at times gushing and other times aghast.<\/p>\n

“Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes <\/a>are a huge celebrity couple <\/a>practicing Scientology, so add J-Lo and David and Victoria Beckham, and you’ve got the new celebrity religion,” adds Star Magazine senior reporter Suzanne Rozdeba.<\/p>\n

And while J. Lo’s camp denies that she is a practicing Scientologist, she certainly is keeping up with the Cruises by attending their wedding and talking about her father being a Scientologist.<\/p>\n

And who wouldn’t want to be a Scientologist over a Kabbalist? Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher? Soooo five minutes ago. Madonna and Guy Ritchie? Too much into being a pseudo-Brangelina. Besides, wasn’t Britney into Kabbalah <\/a>for, like, five minutes? And Paris Hilton into it for two?<\/p>\n

But Posh and Becks, J. Lo and Marc Anthony (who is not a Scientologist but doesn’t seem to be stopping his wife from flirting with it)–these are of-the-moment celebrity power couples!<\/p>\n

“What’s less cut-and-dry,” notes the Fox News piece, “is whether Scientology really does have a kung-fu grip on Tinseltown’s jugular, and if this is a dangerous thing.”<\/p>\n

Scientology’s secrecy, controversial techniques, and unusual beliefs certainly are cause for alarm for most. But Hollywood’s choice of holiness is fickle and cyclical, and Zoroastrianism may be the next big craze. Remember, Kabbalah was the new Tibetan Buddhism at one point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just as fashion magazines regularly christen every color of the rainbow to be “the new black” for the season, Hollywood A-listers seem to be saying so long to last season’s Kabbalah and hello to Scientology. “Scientology is the Kabbalah of 2007,” Jared Shapiro, news and entertainment director for Life&Style Weekly, told FoxNews.com. Though this religion…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrities","category-scientology"],"yoast_head":"\nScientology is Hollywood's New Kabbalah<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/03\/scientology-is-hollywoods-new-kabbalah.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scientology is Hollywood's New Kabbalah\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just as fashion magazines regularly christen every color of the rainbow to be “the new black” for the season, Hollywood A-listers seem to be saying so long to last season’s Kabbalah and hello to Scientology. “Scientology is the Kabbalah of 2007,” Jared Shapiro, news and entertainment director for Life&Style Weekly, told FoxNews.com. 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