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6
In Service to the Stars
In 1986, the same year that L. Ron Hubbard died, Paul Haggis appeared on the cover
of the church’s Celebrity magazine, marking his entry into the pantheon of the
Scientology elite. The photo shows Haggis sitting in a director’s chair, holding a
coee cup. He’s clean-shaven, with glasses, wearing a herringbone jacket with a pocket
square in the breast pocket and pleated linen slacks, looking like a nerdy Hollywood
executive with a lot of money to spend on clothes. The article took note of his rising
inuence in Hollywood. He had broken free of the cartoon ghetto after selling a script
to The Love Boat, then ascended through the ranks of network television, writing movies
of the week and children’s shows before settling into sitcoms. He worked on Diff’rent
Strokes, Who’s the Boss? and One Day at a Time. He was now the executive producer of
The Facts of Life, a top-rated Saturday night staple. Celebrity noted, “He is one of the few
writers in Hollywood who has major credits in all genres: comedy, suspense, human
drama, animation.”
In the article, Haggis said of Scientology, “What excited me about the technology was
that you could actually handle life, and your problems, and not have them handle you.”
He added, “I also liked the motto, ‘Scientology makes the able more able.’ ” He credited
the church for improving his relationship with his wife, Diane. “Instead of ghting (we
did a lot of that before Scientology philosophy) we now talk things out, listen to each
other and apply Scientology technology to our problems.”
Haggis told the magazine that he had recently gone through the Purification
Rundown, a program intended to eliminate body toxins that form a “biochemical barrier
to spiritual well-being.” For an average of three weeks, participants undergo a lengthy
daily regimen, spending up to eight hours a day in a sauna, interspersed with exercise,
and taking massive doses of vitamins, especially niacin. In large amounts, niacin can
cause liver damage, but it will also stimulate the skin to ush and create a tingling
sensation. The church says that this is evidence of drugs and other toxins being purged
from the body. Although many in the medical profession have been hostile to the
Purication Rundown, citing it as a fraud and a scam, Hubbard thought he deserved a
Nobel Prize for it.
In the Celebrity interview, Haggis admitted that he had been skeptical of the
procedure before going through it—“My idea of doing good for my body was smoking
low-tar cigarettes”—but the Purication Rundown, he said, “was WONDERFUL. I really
did feel more alert and more aware and more at ease—I wasn’t running in six directions
to get something done, or bouncing o the walls when something went wrong.” He
mentioned the drugs that he had taken when he was young. “Getting rid of all those
residual toxins and medicines and drugs really had an eect,” he said. “After completing