Scientology posts photos from IAS gala, and three new TV ads!

On the weekend of October 25-27, Scientology celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the founding of its membership organization, the International Association of Scientologists, with its annual three-night gala at its UK headquarters, Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, England.

We had numerous reports of what was going on outside the event with the protests organized by former London staffer Alex Barnes-Ross. But now, we’re getting a look at what happened inside the gala as Scientology has posted its expected press release and slide show.

As usual, it features numerous looks at church leader David Miscavige, who on Friday night opened proceedings with his customary three-hour address to the audience in a giant tent — an audience, we note, whose size was not estimated by the press release.

“Tonight we celebrate our Ruby Anniversary. And, in so doing, we have arrived at a place that was unimaginable 40 years ago,” said Mr. David Miscavige, the ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion. “But here we are and what a view it is—our Churches and Missions encircling this planet, our Technologies at work in almost every land on Earth, our horizons boundless, our future infinite and we, ourselves, universal.”

In past years, Scientology would regularly claim to have 7,000 people or more under the big tent, but their own photos tend to indicate the real number is less than half that. So we think it’s interesting that they didn’t claim any specific number at all this year.

Dave is 64 years old now, and as usual was decked out in a tuxedo and his pompadour was as high as ever. We understand that any new image of him will kick off speculation about his condition (we think he looks healthy for his age), and we also know what else people look for in his photos.

And yes, he was wearing his wedding ring.

Here’s one of the overall shots of the Friday night crowd, taken from behind some rows at the back that were only sparsely filled with people.

We had noted leading up to that night that Scientology had held back the actual date of the gala until the very last moment, and it then got the word out with what appeared to be some desperation. It’s surprising to see any empty seats in a photo put out by Scientology itself. Was it a smaller crowd than in past years?

We know that our eagle-eyed readers will do their best to put together an accurate count. Here you go…

As for Dave’s big Friday night speech, it was the usual thing judging by the press release. It began with an overview of IAS history in the last 40 years, hitting on numerous historical highlights.

— The 1985 Portland Crusade, when Scientologists rallied to protest a jury verdict that had found Scientology’s processes to be harmful.

— A 2013 ruling by England’s Supreme Court that declared Scientology’s organizations to be places of worship.

— Ending Germany’s 1990s crackdown and a 2016 prosecution in Belgium.

And of course, most important milestone to Miscavige, his 1993 victory of tax exempt status in the United States.

“If ever there was an example of flourishing and prospering in the face of suppression, this is it. Moreover, it emphasizes the fact that, to one degree or another, every IAS Anniversary is a victory celebration.,” Miscavige said.

He gushed over the new Ideal Org opened in Paris back in April, extolled the efforts of Citizens Commission on Human Rights to battle the psychiatric profession, and the work by Scientology’s other sneaky front groups to spread propaganda around the world.

And Friday night’s big announcement is always the revealing of who will be taking home this year’s Freedom Medals. The winners this time were Giovanni Citterio of Milan, who pushes Narconon in Italy; Vincenza Palmieri, a CCHR advocate in Rome; and Antónia and Ferenc Novák of Budapest, who distribute copies of The Way to Happiness to school kids there.

We got a real kick out of this photo of Citterio, which to us had a throwback Time/Life feel to it…

For Saturday night, the second night of the gala, the floor is rearranged to take out many of the chairs so large tables can be put in for a dinner and the Patrons Ball.

This is the night when Scientology’s big donors are honored with new trophies, and it will be a while yet before another new issue of Impact magazine reveals who they were. But we did get this overall shot of the hall, and again we’ll be interested to see an estimate of the crowd from our readers…

We know that Tom Cruise attended the Saturday night dinner, because a photo of him gladhanding some other attendees showed up on social media the next day. But Tom was not to be seen in the slide show posted by Scientology, and he wasn’t mentioned in the press release.

In one shot of the front row from Friday night, the only celebrities we saw were actors Jenna and Bodhi Elfman, big donor Trish Duggan, and Simpsons voice actress Nancy Cartwright.

It was a pretty anemic showing by Scientology’s celebrities.

Last year, Jenna Elfman was emcee for the Sunday night concluding event, the annual charity concert.

This year, Nancy Cartwright did the honors as the crowd was treated to performances by the usual suspects, including longtime Scientologists Stanley Clarke and Mark Isham.

You can see Nancy here with the recipients of this year’s charity donations by the church to local groups, which the press release listed as the Bluebell Railway, the East Grinstead Sports Club, the East Grinstead Rugby Club, the Crowborough Athletic Football Club and the Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex.

So, all in all, a pretty standard IAS gala. The three-hour Miscavige speech. A few celebrities. Some empty rows in the back. The fancy dinner for donors. A concert for the locals.

But there was one real surprise, at least for us. And that was Miscavige unveiling three new TV ads!

Will one of them end up being this year’s Super Bowl commercial? We don’t know. But the first spot he revealed was somewhat unusual and more creative than the usual thing the church puts out. It’s even a bit cheeky.