Since Scientology was mentioned in this thread, I wanted to bring The Internet’s warning to Scientology to this thread.

Please don’t be mistaken everyone, Anonymous is also behind the raid on the FLDS!!!

This is WAR!

Keri Russell (from the TV show Felicity and Mission Impossible: III) used to be LDS and attended church as a young woman.

Christina Aguilera: her parents were LDS and met at BYU (no info on whether they were active after she was born and if she was raised in the church).

Jewel: raised Mormon until she was eight (she was even born in Payson, Utah).

Alice Cooper: not LDS, but was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite), the Mormon church that Sidney Rigdon founded after Joseph Smith was killed. Alice’s grandfather was even an apostle. (I supplemented the info in the BYU article with info from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Cooper & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Jesus_Christ_%28Bickertonite%29)

Elvis Presley: No, he wasn’t LDS, but he participated in missionary discussions. From the article: “Of all stories, though, my personal favorite was when I heard that the King himself Elvis Presely, though he never was a member, did receive the discussions from Bobby Kauo, who is a high councilman for the BYU 9th Stake. Kauo confirmed that while Elvis was at the Polynesian Cultural Center filming “Blue Hawaii” (I knew there was a reason that was Elvis’ best film) Kauo taught him the discussions.”

If there is anything less-than-artful to the genre/industry of Christian Rock it more likely reflects on the culture that rewards it. I think it is distasteful to question the value and intent of the whole genre. Worship and uplifting entertainment can be accomplished with all sorts of instrumentation, vocal stylings, tempo, etc. And many performers, composers and artists strive to have a lyrical bent that is praiseworthy and sincere. (Now anything goes when it gets to their management, labels and agents *smile*) Remember, most Christian artists are coming from a worship tradition where praise is exactly that: it’s energetic, upbeat and more emotionally open and “out there” to either accept or reject. In other words, much of it is very “evangelical.” Much of the American Christian faith worship tradition is core to the roots of American gospel, R&B and rock from which much art has sprung.

There are many young artists like One Republic, some young really cool Christian kids, whose faith informs their art — though they’re not deliberately marketed as “Christian artists” — to established artists like John Legend, U2, Creed and Nickelback, whose faith really informs their art. There are all kinds of deliberate Christian artists, too, like balladeer Chris Tomlin or Jars of Clay, who produce uplifting, positive music that speaks to the listeners who embrace it — indeed I’d argue many of them create art, even if we consent it is commercialized.

To bring our threadjacking back around to the Hollywood aspect of this discussion, Tom Cruise (a Hollywood Scientologist) is Thomas Cruise Mapoðer IV (Maypower). He descends from a branch of the Árpád dynasty that settled in Co. Roscommon, Connaught, Ireland, in the 17th century. Tom Cruise recently bought his “ancestral” home and much land in the fifth of Connaught (not very ancestral if they only go back some 200 years, but, of course, the Arpads originally came from Ireland in the first place before going to continental Europe and Hungary in particular).

I have explained some of these connections to you in this thread:

http://mormonmatters.org/2008/01/16/%e2%80%9csorceries-and-witchcrafts-and-magics%e2%80%9d/

The Smiths and the Moores are members of Clan King, so I have discovered this information while studying my own genealogy. The Smiths are a bardic family, and the Moores are a princely family. The Smiths are really M’Gowans. Both families can trace their patrilineal descent to Adam through Japheth and Magog. Along the way to Ireland there are Scythian kings and Egyptian princesses.

Read about the Ó Maolconaire “Ollamh Síl Muireadaigh” families as another example of a more well documented bardic/ollam family.

The Smiths were ollamhs for the O’Connor family. The MacCrossanes (Macrossane/M’Crossane) and Cosbys were ollamhs for the Moore family.

Some of these families have maintained their pre-Christian oral traditions up until today. And in some of these families, the knowledge they maintained has died out. Those families which continue the practice are “underground” and most certainly wish not to be identified.

I will be happy to continue correspondence with you on these and other topics via email (I can be reached at derek.p.moore@gmail.com).

Since I am unable to post to you further about the Joseph Smith/Gaelic Bard connection that you claim on the other thread, please email me at ufoskeptic@gmail.com, and explain to me this thing and what you think is your evidence for it.

That said, I think a Christian Entertainment industry, like Christian Rock, where people use their talents to “uplift” would be deplorable. Bad art, bad religion.

Benjamin O. - I agree that the writing angle is interesting and similar. I admire Orson Scott Card for being as successful as he has been, although I find some of his stuff not to my liking (I do like some, though). He lost me in Rebekah of his Women of Genesis series. It started feeling too anachronistic and formulaic. The journey we make in life/the plan of salvation can be a little repetitive when fictionalized. This is one reason I have always considered “LDS Literature” to be an oxymoron.

Contrast that with an Ian McEwan or even a Frank O’Connor. Writers have to look into the abyss with great courage, and to some extent, you just can’t write about what you don’t know firsthand. It’s very hard to live as a writer anyway, but very difficult to reconcile with living LDS principles. As LDS, we don’t spend a lot of time staring into the abyss. In many ways, we don’t live as full a life as someone who is free-falling through it. We are far happier for that life we choose, but it’s not the full range of human experience. Did I just tick off every aspiring LDS writer out there?

We require a major lifestyle adjustment that is not compatible with the standard Hollywood lifestyle among the rich and famous. BTW, that represents a small minority of those that actually work in the industry.

The behind the scenes folks can be perfectly happy and comfortable as a Mormon in Hollywood.

But then he stops you in your tracks with his insight and say, yes, this guy is very spiritual. He knows the gospel, and he’s really making things happen. I’m pretty certain that becoming a good actor is tough, but becoming a great actor is, like everything else, more than just ability–it’s connections, which happen not just by being good, but also by meeting the right people, and that means hanging out in the right places, and whatnot. Generally, that means drinking together, being social in ways that Mormons generally won’t or can’t do, and frequenting parties that members often have trouble with.

Is it possible to make those connections happen without all that? Certainly. Is it possible to be so good that you don’t need all that lifestyle? Absolutely, but even looking at someone like Jennifer Garner, who isn’t Mormon (that I know of), but simply decided to spend more time with family. She had a lot of great roles, was doing well, but the moment she decides to spend time with family, she’s forgotten. I respect her for that, but she’s going to have a hard time getting back into the business, I suspect. I hope not, because I find her VERY watchable. But Hollywood doesn’t like people who aren’t constantly on the ‘in’ scene. They want people who are ‘hot’ and ‘fresh’ and they want ‘new’. They have a perception that people are always changing and fickle, so they hope to grab attention with something new–glitz and glam.

What they fail to grasp is the power of role-models that have morals, and people that are stable. They power of an actor whose personal life is admirable. There are so few, and have been so few, that they don’t have much of a sample size. Therefore they count it as a fluke. But I think they would find that if they had more that those actors who were more stable would be a bigger draw. I know I tend to put more stock in actors whose lives are more stable. I do the same with politicians. Why? Because I like that. I respect it. I like talent, and I like talent even more when it’s managed effectively by someone who is managing other areas of their life as well.

Anyone can manage ONE area of their life, but to balance their entire life is what makes you a successful human being, which is what I want to see on screen (or the Oval Office, for that matter).

Well said! I wish we could be more inclusive.

The scientology angle is interesting. Obviously, it’s popular in Hollywood, but there is also a very high attrition rate, even though scientology will (apparently) blackball you if you say anything negative about them. Many leave scientology but don’t do so publicly. Since it’s not really a church, it’s easy enough to leave. But there are several crossover links from scientology to Mormonism: 1) if they can pay for these $15K audits to cleanse themselves, they won’t find tithing that hard to swallow, 2) scientology is about progression in seven key life aspects, so it’s kinda like perfecting the saints and our principles of progression, 3) there’s a lot of open-mindedness for “out there” thinking like the nature of the universe and spirit matter.

jjackson - very interesting about Rick Schroeder. Frankly, that actually really bolsters my faith to hear that. I love it when people stand for their principles. So few do.

I’m interested to see what’s next for Jon Heder. We just watched Blades of Glory again last night (HBO), and it’s pretty close to the line. Now that gross-out comedies are back in style, there will be more pressure to get even raunchier. Blades of Glory crossed over a few times into “oh, I probably shouldn’t be laughing at this” territory.” A movie starring Will Ferrell and a Mormon. Strange combo.

Rated R Movies = Oscars
Cussing essential
Garment Lines

So does that mean that you have to abandon your upbringing like Ryan Gosling and others listed above to make it in that industry? If you decide to “become” really mormon, is the demise of your level of fame imminent?

I had a wonderful boss once who had been a TV movie exec at a major network in a former life. One day, he was going over the budget for a made-for-TV movie and something jumped out at him in a way that he simply couldn’t deny any longer. He told me that he had ignored (overlooked) it up until that moment, but that as he looked at the budget numbers this time he simply couldn’t do so any longer. He put down the budget, walked out of his office and changed industries the next week.

The issue: Many of the line-items in the budget had been padded just enough to provide “perks” for the lead actors (male and female). Those perks included drugs and “escorts”. At that moment, he simply couldn’t deny his place in funding those activities - of enabling and even encouraging that lifestyle.

There are plenty of actors who avoid the worst of the Hollywood “perks” and live good, moral lives, but they are so prevalent that I doubt practicing Mormons ever will be a significant portion of the population. Musicians, perhaps, might become a disproportionately large percentage, but actors - not likely.

(On a personal note, one of our “sons” is an actor in college, and the lure of the lifestyle is hard for him to resist - even at that level. It’s hard for him to feel the Spirit, particularly since he wasn’t raised with it, amid what goes on around him.)

Take Katherine Heigl, for example. I read an interview where she said she would like to raise her children in the church. That is a good idea, but first, Kathrine, dear, you’ve got some “s’plaining to do.”

On the other hand, you have the Osmonds, who were in Hollywood for a while, but actually lived in the Valley and a few attended my old high school. They made out ok, other than Marie, who seems a bit off.

Then you have Loraine Day. She was in Hollywood during the “bombshell” heyday. But she remained a faithful member and was a Temple worker in the LA Temple until her recent death.

The most faithful members of the Church, who happened to have jobs and careers in Hollywood, are never heard from. They just live their life and their faith and don’t make a big deal about either.

It is we, the public, who look for trouble.