Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman attend show though “V” protesters Anonymous a presence
By Matthew B. Zeidman
Protesters at Holmes-Cruise
NEW YORK (Hollywood Today) 9/19/08 – Katie Holmes’ first Broadway play, “All My Sons,” began in previews Thursday, and true to their word, members of the Internet-based group Anonymous picketed outside the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. According to the Associated Press, there were approximately 30 protestors in all.
Several of the demonstrators wore Anonymous’ trademark Guy Fawkes mask, inspired by the central character in the comic-book series and film “V for Vendetta,” and bore handmade signs with anti-Scientology slogans, such as “Save Katie, Keep Tom” and “Scientology Is a Cult.”
“We aren’t protesting Katie,” an unnamed individual at the scene told New York’s Daily News. “But Scientology is a cult, and once you become a member you can’t leave, and we’ve heard that Katie isn’t able to leave because of Tom Cruise.”
Earlier in the month, a representative for the Church of Scientology, Tommy Davis, told local daily AM New York that Anonymous posed a “credible threat,” alleging that Anonymous members had made death threats against church adherents in the past and that they were engaged in religious persecution.
Holmes, 29, converted to Scientology in 2005, shortly after she began dating her now-husband, “Mission Impossible,” “Risky Business” star Tom Cruise, 49, who has been a prominent member of the controversial religion for nearly 20 years.
Cruise, himself, attended the performance of the Arthur Miller work, which also included John Lithgow, as did acting great Dustin Hoffman. Cruise received an adulating reception from other ticketholders, who cheered when he and Hoffman greeted one another with a hug, according to AP,
Anonymous, which began its ongoing campaign against the Church of Scientology in January following a censorship controversy on YouTube, recently made news when the group took credit for the leaking of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s personal e-mails. The text suggested the Alaskan governor had been illegally conducting government business via her personal Yahoo! e-mail account.
12 responses so far ↓
1 koo // Sep 20, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I’m sorry, but your facts are wrong.
There was only one person who attacked Palins email account and it wasn’t even an attack. He simply reset her password. A Tennessee Politician has confirmed that it was his son, a U of Kentucky Freshman. You are confusing this group anonymous with the message board community /b/ on 4chan.org, where are a lot of crackers hang out and do stupid things…like break into accounts.
BTW, I know its already in the American lexicon, but hackers are people who support world wide web open source development, by creating, editing, modifying, bench testing and reporting on/with programs that fall under the international GNU license. Crackers are idiots who do illegal stuff.
A simple google search will reveal the facts about Palin’s cracked account.
2 nights // Sep 20, 2008 at 5:18 pm
The courts need to hand down to that Tennessee Politician’s son about a 25 YEAR HARD LABOUR SENTENCE, with no chance of parole. That would stop a lot of senseless hacking.
I haven’t heard if the politician whose is claiming his sn did it is republican or democrat yet but the hacker should be punish . that’s how you stop crime.
none of this crap of Hacker vs cracker. he’s a crook. that’s all. punish the idiot with about 25 yrs.
3 SumDumGuy // Sep 20, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Lol, “nights” is a real lover of blind authoritae. Even giving that UoK kid a death sentence won’t make a dent in the rate of cracking. For one thing, there are hundreds of millions of people on the internet who are outside the reach of the long-arm-of-US-law.
Plus, there is the entire issue with Palin using Yahoo for government business in order to avoid public disclosure laws – part of the checks and balances that make the US system of government work.
Which is a more serious crime — using a non-government email account in order to avoid accountability to the public, or cracking said email account in order to bring back accountability to the public?
4 Leg // Sep 20, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Repeatedly, spokespersons for the masked terrorist organization “Anonymous” have promised that they weren’t out to ruin the lives of individual Scientologists.
And yet, now they have announced their intent to disrupt Katie Holmes’ Broadway debut in All My Sons by protesting that a Scientologist should be allowed to take part in a Broadway show. These hateful psychotics have made it clearer than ever now that they hold anyone who is a Scientologist (or just married to one) to be “fair game” for destruction. Funny how the people who rant the most about “fair game” are the ones who are actually practicing it against innocent citizens.
Are we going to allow this gang of thugs to continue to harass innocent people over their religious beliefs? Can we allow people to have their safety jeopardized and careers ruined simply because they choose to believe in Scientology?
5 katie // Sep 20, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Leg is a scientologist spamming the boards covering this story.
Anti-Scientology Anonymous protestors has never made any threats against anyone. They have always been peaceful and have had no trouble with the police. Scientologists however have been arrested for assaults on anonymous protestors.
Before this protest, Scientologists surrounded Anons in the park and started to harass them as they were getting ready to leave for the protest. They revealed they had stalked and followed anons to their homes. This stalking involved the stalking of minors. See the crazy video of them acting like idiots, including one fool, Marcello Cosentino, the CHAPLIN of this religion, jumping up and down like yelling, “I’m on Prozac, I’m on Prozac”. They operate under the delusion that Anons are paid money by “Big Pharm(Pharmaceutical Companies) who, along with psychiatrists they believe are responsible for all the evil in the world. These fools tried to get Anons to fight them and delay/stop their march to the theater to protest. They failed obviously.
Then after the protest, many of the anons were followed by members of Scientology’s intelligence service, OSA(why does a “church” have an intelligence service”.
Scientology has tried to suppress criticism for years by harassing, intimidating, suing and having critics mysteriously die.
No one is scared of you. These anons have stepped into the belly of the beast and they are figuratively kicking its ass.
6 katie // Sep 20, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Here is the video of Scientologists trying to harass Anonymous and prevent them from getting to the protest. At one point, the “chaplin” even stands in the way of one guy and starts calling him a little baby, all in the hopes that the guy would hit him and there would be an incident.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geVVLnahmuE&eur
7 Jason // Sep 20, 2008 at 9:30 pm
These Halloween characters are an embarrassment to New Yorkers and the people that paid to see the play. These kids should be protesting the Federal Reserve or the war, or something important. I find their stories ridiculous.
8 pherebasedmessiah // Sep 21, 2008 at 3:07 am
jason either you are another clam/osa ronbot or you really need to do some fact checking, try finding out about operation snow white, operation freakout and rpf for a start. Also ask yourself after educating yourself about rpf, why does a church need its own internal prison?
9 Anonymous // Sep 21, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Jason, who’s to say that members of Anonymous do not take part in other forms of activism?
Besides, if Anonymous is not going to protest the Cult of Scientology, who will? It might not seem like a big deal, but when you’re scammed out of 200,000$ by a truly brainwashing cult, then you’ve suffered an injustice that must be stopped.
All citizens of “advanced” countries are subject to laws, so why should Scientology be allowed to go through with blackmailing, stalking, money-laundering, forcing people to sign documents under duress, kidnapping (Martine Boubil, anyone?), tearing families apart, and so on? Not to mention Scientology’s front groups, such as CCHR and Applied Scholastic, Crimanon, WISE, who are all trying to implement Scientology Tech into everone’s lives.
You’re allowed to believe in what you want, but it shouldn’t come to another person’s detriment. This is what Scientology does.
10 Ana // Sep 21, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Anonymous is a new organisation. Their role is to bring the injustices to the surface. Who sais they will not engage in other things too. I for once see hope in them, because they are not nihilists who don’t care like the rest of the society, they try to change things with no resources at their disposal.
11 anon // Sep 22, 2008 at 3:38 am
roflcopter
/b/ = terror!
12 anon7 // Sep 25, 2008 at 2:32 pm
to those people who want anons to protest against the war and other things…lurk moar.
we stand here fighting for your first amendment rights…
i believe its the freedom of speech which you all love to dish out.
we are fighting for that. in its core.
in doing so we have uncovered yet again the unfair inhumane and unjust practices of the cult of $cientology.
our first attacks on the cult have changed dramatically since the first.
we protest peacefully because that is the most effective in getting awareness out to the general public.
but know this…
a person who does an illegal act and claims to have done it for anonymous is not one of us.
the sarah palin crap that happened. it wasnt us.
but this is old news. you know our creed. you know damn well why we are out there rain or shine.
we are doing this so you can go home and not have to worry about a cult that would wipe out all other religions.
a cult that will take away your freedoms as a human being.
a cult that if it gained power in any government… would put anyone who disagreed or thought critically in concentration camps.
you people… enjoy your freedoms to disagree and enjoy your freedom to think differently.
enjoy all the things you have…
because we the members of anonymous… are fighting for the very things YOU people enjoy.
for what you people will ask…
some of us say lulz.
some of us say boredom.
some of us say because its the right thing to do.
We are anonymous
We are legion
We do not forgive
We do not forget
We are here…
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