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Jason Lee in 2015. (Getty Images)
In an interview with The Dentonite, which seems like a hipper version of LAist for the Denton, Texas set, judging by its font choices, actor Jason Lee casually dropped that he's no longer a member of the Church of Scientology. After being asked about his stake in a new brewpub in town, and possible plans to own more businesses in Denton, Lee said:
If [wife] Ceren and I had an idea for a business, it certainly wouldn't happen at the cost of someone else's. And being that we don't practice Scientology, and that we aren't particularly interested in opening religious centers in general, we have no plans to open a Scientology center.
Ummm, wait, whaaa? Instead of following up on this juicy nugget, interviewer Sarah Button just lets that slide and moves on to asking Lee about some skatepark.
The fact that Lee is no longer a Scientologist, and has vocalized it to the press, is surprising, considering the gold mined from this wonderful Gawker (RIP) piece by Lee's ex-wife Carmen Llywelyn, published last year, that really puts a fine point on Lee's once-rabid enthusiasm for Xenu, et. al. She writes:
Eventually, I started to feel like he was forcing Scientology on me, past the point where I didn’t want to go any further. He would never stop talking about it. It became a source of contention and I realized that unless I accepted Scientology the way he did and the way he wanted me to, we would most likely cease to know each another.
After she left Scientology and divorced Lee, Llywelyn said her life was ruined for awhile, as she was hounded by members of the church, her family was targeted, writing, "Anything Jason did after our marriage ended is truly none of my business. But his participation in what happened to me and my family after our divorce is unforgivable." Yikes.
We don't know the reasons why Lee left the church, and are incredibly curious! He's just the latest celebrity to publicly defect from Scientology, although he's done it much more quietly than someone like Leah Remini, who published a memoir last year detailing her creepy experiences with the church. Or writer/ director Paul Haggis, who has been an outspoken critic of Scientology since leaving in 2009.
Now that Lee is considered a Suppressive Person, we can only assume that his friendship with Giovanni Ribisi is toast.
R.I.P. thetan bromance (Michael Bucker/ Getty Images)
Related:
Woman Sues Scientology For Allegedly Forcing Her To Have An Abortion
