Outspoken ex-Scientologist Leah Remini didn’t mince words in naming Tom Cruise and Scientology chairman David Miscavige as the two biggest reasons for her disillusionment with her old church, but she says one of their biggest problems with her may have had something to do with her good friend Jennifer Lopez. She says that, while attending Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ Italian wedding in 2006, she was kept separate from Lopez and her then-husband Mark Anthony, placed in separate cars and seated at separate tables. “I can only assume because they wanted to make Jennifer a Scientologist,” she told ABC’s Dan Harris. “Maybe I was barring that road for them?” The actress's interview with Harris aired Friday ahead of the Tuesday publication of her memoir, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology. Remini was quite upfront about where her problems with the Church of Scientology began. “I now see where the cracks are in our church,” she said of her mindset after the Cruise-Holmes wedding. “It’s David Miscavige, it’s Tom Cruise, they were bringing Scientology down.” Remini, who left Scientology in 2013 and has since been very public about her problems with the church, told ABC that what began as raised eyebrows towards Cruise’s behavior put her in the crosshairs of church officials. After Cruise’s couch-jumping appearance on Oprah in 2005, Remini recalls saying, “What the hell is this guy doing? We need to rein it in, we need to stop all this, and he just need to be an actor, and he needs to just [closed-mouth gesture]. I was immediately dealt with.” Remini has previously credited Lopez with helping her separate from the church. She [told Access Hollywood in July] (http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/6620427/jennifer-lopez-leah-remini-support-leaving-scientology) that Lopez was instrumental in helping her get into the mindset to leave the institution that had shaped her beliefs since childhood. For its part, the Church of Scientology gave a statement to ABC that said Remini’s accusations against the church are “not only untrue but ridiculous and stupid.”
Leah Remini Details Scientology's Role at Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' Wedding in 20/20 Interview
Remini’s new interview with ABC detailed her split from Scientology, her problems with Tom Cruise, and why she thinks the church saw her as an impediment to recruiting J-Lo.