Rebecca Minkoff’s Scientology involvement in the news, thanks to ‘RHONY’
We want to thank the numerous readers who sent us links to news breaking out all over the place about Rebecca Minkoff, her Scientology upbringing, and Real Housewives of New York.
It was Deadline that first broke the news on Tuesday afternoon that as the Housewives franchise has been filming for its 15th season in New York City, Minkoff has been included as a possible friend to the main cast.
It’s been quite a few years since we’ve indulged in a marathon of Housewives messiness, but the method appears to be to bring in such figures to see which ones gel with the main cast and produce some drama and spats, or whatever, and it’s too soon to know how much of a role Minkoff will have in the episodes of the new season that actually air.
Deadline’s piece first mentioning that Minkoff was taking part told readers that she was well known as a handbag designer, and that she had established her fashion brand with her brother, Uri Minkoff. It also pointed out that she had appeared on Project Runway in the past, another Bravo series.
Later that evening, People magazine joined the party, saying they had confirmed the news, but basically repeating the things Deadline had said.
An hour later, at about 7:11 pm, Page Six jumped in, and appears to be the first to add that Minkoff is a longtime Scientologist, and they even posted this rather unfortunate photo of the fashion icon with an old friend, fellow Scientologist celebrity and now imprisoned convicted rapist, Danny Masterson. Page Six said that the photo is “already being texted among show insiders.”
Whoops. Page Six also credited Minkoff with being “willing to talk about” Scientology, and then included some totally not revealing quotes about the organization and her role in it.
New York magazine then added to the scrum, and quoted a 2021 New York Times profile of Minkoff where she said there was “horrific misinformation” about Scientology among the public.
So, at this point, the press is anticipating some sparks flying on Real Housewives as a Scientology celebrity who has defended the church in interviews may end up in a messy fight about it. “Is RHONY about to get its first Scientology story line?” New York asks.
Here at the Underground Bunker we’ve been writing about Rebecca Minkoff’s actual involvement and activity for the Church of Scientology for years and years.
She and her brother Uri, for example, are the children of David Minkoff, the notorious quack physician who lost his medical license for a year after his involvement in the 1995 death of Scientologist victim Lisa McPherson.
What got David Minkoff into trouble is that when Scientologists had checked McPherson out of a hospital and tried to deal with her obvious extreme mental breakdown in a cabana room at the Fort Harrison Hotel, they would call Minkoff, who was working out of a hospital 45 minutes away, to ask him about giving McPherson sedatives. He told them what to give her without actually seeing the patient.
Later, after 17 days of confinement in the hotel room and when it was clear that McPherson was dying, her Scientologist caretakers put her in a van, and instead of driving her to the nearest hospital drove the 45 minutes so Minkoff could see her. By the time they got there, Minkoff knew right away that she had already died.
It was for prescribing the sedatives without actually seeing McPherson that caused David Minkoff to lose his license for a year, and he was fined $10,000. We know some of you are probably shocked at the thought of such a thing as a physician who is a Scientologist (a physician should know better, after all), but Minkoff not only got his license back after a year, he’s still pushing quack therapies today. In 2016, Rod Keller wrote a story for us outlining some of the pseudoscience therapies that Minkoff pushes at his Lifeworks Wellness Center in Clearwater, Florida. And a check of the center’s website shows that he’s offering the same woo to patients today.
Now, if your father was well known as a major Scientology quack who was involved in the Lisa McPherson tragedy, you might think that someone like Rebecca Minkoff, with her own high-profile career in fashion, might keep her Scientology affiliation a bit on the back burner, right?
But that’s why we were surprised to see she was doing the opposite.
A few months after Rod’s piece for us about what a quack David Minkoff still is, we reported in June 2017 that his daughter Rebecca had showed up in a big way for Scientology’s sneaky front group, Foundation for a Drug Free World, for an annual awards event it holds in New York.
This is, of course, the New York operation run by Scientology Freedom Medal winners Bernard Fialkoff and his daughter Meghan, who have spent years and years getting bogus L. Ron Hubbard materials about drugs into New York city schools, with the help of the New York Police Department.
And there was Rebecca, showing up to lend her celebrity to the cause.
For that story, we talked to “celebrity whisperer” Quailynn McDaniel, who had known Rebecca and especially Uri Minkoff when she was in the church.
“Rebecca’s involvement has increased over the years,” Quailynn tells us. “She wasn’t active until she got famous. Now the church has her deep in their pocket, but she didn’t start that way. Her brother Uri Minkoff came on as her CEO. He’s been a long time spy for OSA, trying to make up the damage his dad caused the church.”
After that, we noticed that Minkoff kept up her support for the Fialkoffs and Drug-Free World, including their stunt opening NASDAQ one morning in September 2017.
But perhaps the biggest sign of Rebecca Minkoff’s hardcore dedication to Scientology and her willingness to lend her image and celebrity to the cause occurred two years later, in 2019, when the whole Minkoff family showed up to receive a new trophy from church leader David Miscavige.
This particular ceremony recognizing Scientology’s big donors had taken place in Clearwater (again, where David Minkoff has his quack palace) and the occasion was the 2019 celebration of founder L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday, which is on March 13, the holiest day on the Scientology calendar.
We believe the photos were taken at the Flag Building across the street from the Fort Harrison Hotel, and among the big donors we were pretty surprised to see David Minkoff along with his famous daughter as they picked up a trophy for donating a cumulative amount of $5 million to Miscavige’s legal slush fund, the International Association of Scientologists.
Now that’s commitment to the cause.
We have a feeling, though, that the things that Rebecca Minkoff should be asked about — her efforts to help Scientology infiltrate New York City’s schools, her father’s quack medical practices that helped kill a Scientologist in Florida, her friendship with convicted rapist Danny Masterson and the testimony in his trials about how his victims were punished by Scientology — won’t come up in the Housewives show, or in any press interviews she gives about it.
But we can dream.
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Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:
Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history
Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea
Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time
Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology
Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain
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While TonyO and other less respected media may talk about the $cieno connection, be certain that very little will be said about it in the show. Rebecca Minkoff may say a few nice things about the Clampire, but the rest of the cast will jump on that with both feet. The Real Housewives franchise is built on social interactions that boarder on the absurd, nasty and fake dramatic. Becky (may I call you Becky?) would not be on the show unless terms about her $cieno experience were carefully scripted. Otherwise Dave Misavige might want his bowling trophies back.
It is heartening to see anyone with a clear $cientology connection having that connecting come to light. Clams can't hide and Becky's work on Drug Free World need to be outed and the truly bad advice given by DFW needs to be debunked early and often.
I love how all of the volunteer researchers and corespondents keep turning over the rocks and finding the hiding clams.
Great coverage Tony, regardless of some comments to the contrary.