On Wednesday, attorneys for Gawain and Laura Baxter and Valeska Paris asked Tampa federal Judge Thomas Barber for a clarification.
They indicated — and as far as we know it’s for the first time — that they do intend to go through with the “religious arbitration” that their labor trafficking lawsuit was forced into when Judge Barber granted Scientology’s motion arguing that the Baxters and Valeska didn’t have the right to sue over their horrific allegations of abuse working on the Freewinds, Scientology’s cruise ship, because they had signed contracts as Sea Org employees promising not to take the church to court.
Their attorneys had argued that those contracts were signed under duress, but Judge Barber said that past Supreme Court opinions prohibited him from considering those arguments. Complaining that his hands were tied, Judge Barber reluctantly agreed with Scientology that the lawsuit had to be put on hold until an arbitration can take place.
In their filing on Wednesday, Valeska and the Baxters indicated for the first time that they do apparently intend to go through such an arbitration, but they wanted to hear from Judge Barber about Scientology leader David Miscavige, a defendant in the case who had never on his own filed a motion to force it into arbitration.
Miscavige’s attorneys had already argued that even though he didn’t make a motion of his own, it was obvious that Judge Barber’s ruling should include him as well, and that the case should be entirely on hold.
But was Judge Barber really sure about that? Since Miscavige never filed a motion of his own, couldn’t the lawsuit proceed against him separately?
The next day, Thursday, Judge Barber made his position very clear:
Although the Court did not specifically compel arbitration as to Plaintiffs' claims against Defendant Miscavige because he himself did not move for that relief, the Court exercised its discretion to stay the litigation in its entirety. In the interest of judicial economy, the Court will not lift the stay to permit Plaintiffs to proceed against Miscavige in a piecemeal lawsuit.
So, even though Miscavige didn’t on his own move to force the case into arbitration, he gets to sit things out as these plaintiffs put themselves through the church’s kangaroo court.
Isn’t American justice grand?
Is Scientology the new landlord for the Muppets?
We want to thank all of the readers who forwarded us a story from a Disney parks-focused news blog that seems to report as fact that the Church of Scientology is the buyer for the Jim Henson Company Lot at La Brea and Sunset, and that the church will be the new landlord for the Muppets.
But that story is based on a posting by film writer Jeff Sneider, who says that “I’m told that the sale process is wrapping up now, and the word on La Brea Ave. is that the Church of Scientology is the lucky buyer. No word on its plans for the space, but stay tuned for official word…”
So until there is some official word on whether Scientology actually is the buyer for the studio lot, which was once Charlie Chaplin Studios from 1917 to 1953, we can only speculate why church leader David Miscavige would want the thing.
For decades all of Scientology’s film-making activity was centered at its Golden Era Studios at the secretive international management base, a 500-acre compound near Hemet, California that was also home for Miscavige.
But after it became public that the FBI came very close to raiding that base in late 2009, Int Base was essentially abandoned by Miscavige as it lost importance in the Scientology world.
As part of that change, Miscavige purchased the former KCET studios on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood in 2011, and then spent millions to transform it into “Scientology Media Productions.”
One of the reasons Miscavige coveted that parcel was that it had been studios where Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard had reportedly done some small amount of work during his own brief foray into Hollywood filmmaking in the 1930s.
SMP was opened formally in 2016, and two years later Miscavige debuted Scientology TV, the 24-hour channel on DirecTV that to this day pumps out unwatchable propaganda about the church.
Could Miscavige really need another studio as well, to keep up that kind of programming that no one watches? What other reason would there be for purchasing the Henson lot, which was put up for sale in June?
We try to keep in mind that everything Miscavige does tends to be in the service of impressing his big donors that Scientology is actually expanding, when the organization has actually been dwindling for decades.
If Dave has bought the Muppets’ studio, is it just to impress his big funders?
Well, we’ll wait first to hear if the sale is real.
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Arbitration needs some serious re-working in the legislative area.
Their Uber Driver Crashed. A Pizza Order Unraveled Their Injury Lawsuit.
A New Jersey couple sued Uber after a crash left them severely injured. An appeals court ruled that they had agreed to settle disputes out of court when they used the Uber Eats app.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/04/nyregion/uber-eats-car-crash-injury-nj.html
I don't understand why DM would buy more stages. Between Golden Era and the TV station, the Clampire has enough staging to put on many simultaneous productions of Battlefield Earth. Not that Kermit would be in that stinker.
More power to Gawain and Laura Baxter and Valeska Paris for not giving up. That takes a lot of courage. And who will be the lucky Scientologists who get to participate in the arbitration?
Regarding the Muppets Studio(The old A&M recording complex) there is no earthly reason Miscavige needs it.