Celebrity Religion is Big Celebrity News

God takes many forms in Hollywood, all of them fairly strange. There are, of course, many traditionally religious celebrities who keep their God opinions to themselves. For every zany Jesus freak with a crack addict zeal, like Stephen Baldwin, theres Tom Hanks with a personal and private relationship with Christianity, or the late Dennis Weaver who practiced Buddhism, and many other celebrities on any number of other spiritual paths.

Religion in old Hollywood was strict and uniform. It was just understood that one participated, at least by giving the world the impression they did. These days, fundamentalist religion in Hollywood seems to attract out-of-control celebs who thirst for an authoritarian religion to contain them (which they insist everyone else who can behave must also embrace) because they cant do it themselves. Kelsey Grammer, Stephen Baldwin and Jon Voight come to mind.

More recent religions often pre-fabricate their own little celebrity recruiting systems. The Mormon Church has high-profile adherents like the Osmonds, and more recently Stephenie Meyer. Mormon folk are known to lure people to church with promises of meeting celebrities. The Jehovahs Witnesses have (although they probably wish they didnt at this point) the Jackson clan. Jimmy Stewart was another Witness, though a much quieter and more dignified one.

And then theres the religion that Charlie Manson studied for several weeks and then rejected as too crazy. Its the religion that the Church of Satan has requested stop using CoS as a nickname due to negative associations. Its the church of Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and tons of other well-known and less-well-known stars. Even Jerry Seinfeld played the Thetan game for awhile. Scientology is a hugely powerful religion and, like all hugely powerful autocracies, it is immensely paranoid. Everyone knows about that. That's no big celebrity news. And really, the religion is no more or less ridiculous than some others.

L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology, once remarked, If you want to get rich, start a business. If you want to get really rich, start a religion.

Actor/singer Della Reese didnt start a religion, but she did found her own church, the Understanding Principles for Better Living Church in Los Angeles, CA. On Sundays, she becomes Pastor Della to her faithful following.

Far less benign and more secretive, we come to the Holy Family Chapel in the rural Santa Monica area. It is 9310 square feet and sits on around twenty acres off Mulholland Drive in Agoura, CA.. The Holy Family Chapel, although Catholic in essence, is not affiliated with the Catholic Church. Holy Family Chapel prefers to use a doctrine that is pre-Vatican II. A priest is flown in every weekend to serve Mass, which is always in Latin. The church is run by the mysterious A.P. Reilly Foundation. The foundation becomes less mysterious, though, when you find out that A.P. Reilly was the late wife of a man named Hutton Gibson. She and Hutton had eleven children including a son they named Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson.

It seems Hutton Gibson is of the opinion that the Second Vatican Council of the 1960's was a Jewish-led Masonic plot to take over the church. He also privately expresses the opinion that the Holocaust didnt happen. Apparently, Mel was able to persuade his church that his twenty year marriage didnt happen either. It was recently annulled, after numerous children were born.

Mels church is carefully screened for the unfaithful so be sure to show your God card at the door. Mel is probably also watchful for the occasional low-flying Mason. It is said he can be heard during most Sunday services singing very, very loudly and rarely on-key. There are a couple of hundred regular worshippers.

Actor Gary Busey also created his own church -- and really his own religion. He just kind of created it by himself. He has a private Sunday morning service which is held inside his own home. Church begins promptly at 5 AM. Surprisingly, there are about as many Church of Busey parishioners as there are guests at your sister-in-laws crystal party. Still and all Busey has made something of a career resurgence out of his street preacher maniac persona. It may be real, the result of brain damage caused in the long-ago motorcycle crash that very nearly killed him. Or it may be a useful idiot image. Either way, at least hes funny and strangely charming in his more lucid moments.

If only the same could be said for Mel Gibson.

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