Scientologists plan Hollywood TV studio

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Scientologists plan Hollywood TV studio

By Grover and Baertlein | Reuters – Wed, Jul 11, 2012 22:12 BST.

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People walk past the building where television station KCET used to be housed in

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(Reuters) - The Church of Scientology, the religion whose followers include

actors Tom Cruise and Travolta, plans to start a religious broadcasting

centre to promote its teachings over TV, radio and the Internet.

The centre, located near the church's West Coast headquarters in Hollywood,

would occupy the nearly five-acre studio property the church bought last year

from Los Angeles public TV station KCET for $42 million. The station would

elevate the public profile of a religion that has mostly relied on pamphlets and

books by its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, to proselytize for new members.

" The church plans to establish a central media hub for our growing world network

of churches and to move into the production of religious television and radio

broadcasting, " said Karin Pouw, a spokeswoman for Church of Scientology

International, in an email.

She said there is no timetable for when operations would begin.

Scientology TV could be similar to Pat on's Christian Broadcasting

Network or the Trinity Broadcast Network. Trinity creates Christian programming

at a production centre in Irving, Texas, and airs it on TV stations and cable

channels, said Rick Ross, whose non-profit Rick A. Ross Institute in Trenton,

New Jersey, maintains an online archive of data on cults and controversial

movements.

" Hollywood is a major hub for creative talent and some of them are

Scientologists, " said Ross. " They'd have a lot of talented folks who could

produce shows and stars like Tom Cruise who would appear on them. "

Elayne Rapping, a pop-culture expert and professor of American studies at the

University of Buffalo, told Reuters she is not surprised by the church's move.

" Having their own TV is a good idea since they can spin things their way, " she

said. " They are after good PR which they can control to offset the bad publicity

surrounding them in other media. "

Former members of the 60-year-old church accuse it of being a cult and have

alleged that it abuses members and separates parents from children, among other

things. The church denies such accusations.

The celebrity of controversial members like Cruise and Travolta is a

double-edged sword for the church, Rapping said.

Cruise is one of the world's biggest movie stars, but his divorce from actress

Holmes has fuelled speculation that the couple disagreed on raising their

6-year-old daughter, Suri, as a Scientologist and sparked a flurry of news

coverage about the church.

Travolta was recently sued for libel by a Los Angeles man who wrote a book

about his alleged homosexual encounters with the " Saturday Night Fever " and

" Pulp Fiction " star.

The Hollywood studio would complement the church's existing production facility,

Golden Era Productions, near Hemet, California, which produces DVDs and " other

audiovisual materials that comprise a large part of the Church's religious and

educational materials, " Pouw said.

Scientologists are likely to buy time on local TV stations to air shows as other

religions do, said Bill Carroll, vice-president of Katz Television Group, which

advises TV stations on programming.

They could create their own cable channel, he said, but could also get a license

from the Federal Communications Commission to operate a broadcast channel by

adhering to FCC rules on children's programming, news and other regulations.

The church took physical control of the broadcast centre, located on Sunset

Boulevard near Hollywood, in April when KCET employees moved TV station

operations to a rented facility.

(Editing by Milliken and Prudence Crowther)