Leah Remini’s Scientology burn book Troublemaker is filled with a lot of weird stories about Tom Cruise, but more than that, it’s a look at the coercive power of Scientology itself. Remini was first introduced to the organization through her mother’s boyfriend Dennis when she was 9 years old. Scientology gave her family structure and community, but more pressingly, it cost a lot of money. “I had watched my whole family struggle to move up the Bridge,” she writes. “They were $250,000 in debt at this point.” Inevitably, Remini talks about cost, and the sheer amount of money required to be a believer in Scientology. Herewith is Troublemaker by the numbers:
9: The age Remini was when she was first introduced to Scientology by her mother’s boyfriend Dennis.
$15: The amount of money she earned per week working 14-hour days as a housekeeper at the Fort Harrison Hotel (the flagship building at Scientology’s Florida headquarters) — known simply as the “Flag” — as a teenager.
$5,000: The amount she spent on marriage counseling at the Church of Scientology for her eventual husband Angelo and his then-wife.
$40,000: The amount she was fined after she admitted that she used to sneak hamburgers and chocolate cake from the Flag when she worked there.
$100,000: The amount of money she donated for a detoxification regime for first responders at 9/11, which she was told “flushed poisons out of the body by employing an intense combination of multiple hours in and out of the sauna, high doses of niacin, jogging, and other elements.”
$50,000: The amount she donated for a special mission of Scientology Volunteer Ministers to take supplies to victims of Hurricane Katrina, spearheaded by Kirstie Alley. When she asked to see evidence that her money was being put to good use, she got the “runaround” and a pamphlet instead. She writes, “Give me a picture of somebody from Scientology Volunteer Ministers handing out a fucking bottle of water in New Orleans, not a booklet about our beliefs.”
$100,000: The amount required to buy books for the Inglewood Org to be considered a church.
10: The number of Armani seamstresses on hand to fix Leah Remini’s dress when she accidentally ripped it on her way to the ceremony for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’s wedding.
$2,000: The cost of making a “picture box” for Katie Holmes as a mea culpa for ruining her wedding in Rome.
$300,000: The cost to get “reprogrammed” after she was accused of ruining the Cruise-Holmes wedding.
$1 million: The amount of her first major donation after the International Association of Scientologists (the IAS), the Church’s fund-raising arm, kept harassing her.
$250,000: The amount of debt her other family members owed.
$2 million: The overall amount she spent on services, courses, and auditing.
$3 million: The overall amount of donations she made to the Church.
2006: The last year she saw Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, at a Scientology event.
2013: The year she filed a missing person’s report with the LAPD for Shelly Miscavige and officially left the Church.
