| Celebrity Centre | |
|---|---|
Scientology Celebrity Centre on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, California |
|
| Formation | 1955 |
| Type | Scientology recruitment |
| Headquarters | Riverside County, California, USA |
| Chairman of Religious Technology Center | David Miscavige |
| Website | Scientology.org/ |
Celebrity Centres are Church of Scientology facilities that are open to the public but serve mostly artists and celebrities and other "professionals, leaders and promising new-comers in the fields of the arts, sports, management and government", as "those are the people who are sculpting the present into the future". The Celebrity Centre International was established in Hollywood, California, in 1969 by Yvonne Gillham, a Sea Org member who worked with L. Ron Hubbard. Since then, other centres have been established in New York, London, Paris and a number of other cities across the world.[1]
The Church often quotes L. Ron Hubbard as saying that A culture is only as great as its dreams and its dreams are dreamed by artists, citing this as the reason that Celebrity Centres were established — to create a good environment for "artists". Critics of Scientology point to Hubbard's launch of "Project Celebrity" in 1955 to recruit celebrities into the church, and that the centres were established as an extension of this initial purpose.[2][3] The church denies the existence of policy to actively recruit high-ranking celebrities.[4][5]
The head of the Los Angeles Celebrity Centre is Tom Davis, the son of actress and Scientologist Anne Archer.[6][7][8]
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On November 23, 2008, Mario Majorski wielded dual samurai swords and attempted to injure multiple Los Angeles Celebrity Centre guards. His attempt was thwarted by security guards at the location, and he was later pronounced dead at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. Police regard the guard's actions as justifiable. Majorski was a Scientologist in the early 1990s; however, he left the group fifteen years prior to the incident, according to Tommy Davis.[9][10]