The body of notorious cult leader Charles Manson, who died earlier this week at age 83, is currently languishing at the Kern County Coroner’s office in California, and if his next-of-kin doesn’t show up to claim it in the next week, its fate is up to prison officials. His grandson says he doesn’t have the cash to come…
What would it take for me to get married inside a Planet Fitness? I think that even if all that was left on Earth was me, another person, wedding stuff, and a Planet Fitness, I would just play with the wedding stuff outside. There’s simply no amount of pizza on the first Monday of every month that could convince me…
According to a new investigation by reporter Jim DeRogatis, who first broke the story on singer R. Kelly’s alleged abuse of underage girls in 2000 and was sent the videotape that led the musician to be charged with child porn, Kelly is running an abusive “cult” as it has been labeled by parents and former members of…
Sweet Angel Divine, the widow of a major 1930s religious leader who attracted legions of adoring women followers, has died at 91- or 92-years-old. Known to her followers as “Mother Divine,” Sweet Angel was married to the Rev. Major Jealous Divine, who was the leader of the eccentric International Peace Movement, and…
Journalist and Scientology expert Tony Ortega published a lengthy report on his personal website Thursday claiming Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, has been spotted twice in the past year in Crestline, CA, a small town just miles away from a Scientology compound known as the Church of…
A Minnesota cult leader who took advantage of young girls has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two of his teenage “followers.”
Even the funniest, most shocking celebrity stories—the ones that hit you like a wrecking ball when first reported—can quickly fade from your memory like a disappointing pop single after a week or two. You gasp. You laugh. You forget. Former teen icon Andrew Keegan’s “spiritual community” in Venice, CA is one of those…
Today Broadly introduces us to a segment of humanity so perverse I almost flopped straight off my fainting couch: Fruitarians, whose most extreme practitioners eat almost nothing but raw fruit. That’s fucking terrible.
The Spirit Weavers Gathering, a women-only “celebration of cultures past” in the idyllic redwoods of Mendocino County, CA, was founded in 2013 by Amy Woodruff, whose photo of herself breastfeeding while doing a naked headstand went viral a few years earlier. Judging by a recent Harper’s Bazaar write-up by Marissa…
Victor Arden Barnard, head of a Minnesota cult that preyed on young girls that he called “maidens,” was extradited from Brazil over the weekend and is expected to appear in Pine County District Court on Monday. He face 59 counts of first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct for rape and sexual abuse.
A few years ago, as Ashley Cantley will tell you plainly, she was in a pretty bad place. She was unemployed, her relationship with her boyfriend was strained, and she had no one to turn to for advice.
Lana del Rey portraying a California cult leader in her latest music video—administering acid as communion, literally drinking the kool-aid—isn’t really outside her purview, as this is a persona she’s been lightweight constructing from the beginning.
Andrew Keegan, cult leader and 90s teen heartthrob, was involved in an illicit kombucha bust. Yes, you heard that right. The former child actor, known for his roles in Ten Things I Hate About You and Seventh Heaven, and lesser-known for roles in Camp Nowhere (co-starring Christopher Lloyd) and something called Teenage…
This week's issue of New York Magazine includes an interview with former teen heartthrob Andrew Keegan, who recently co-founded a "community spiritual center" called Full Circle. I've never been more jealous of a writer in my life.
Perhaps you noticed wild-eyed, Spandex-clad society types roaming the streets of New York City this weekend, hungry for EXERCISE. Those would be SoulCycle obsessives whose workouts have been thrown into chaos, absolute chaos by renovations to one of the company's downtown Manhattan outposts.
In 1979, Paul-Julien Robert was born into a commune in Austria, in which free love and communal property and childcare were encouraged, but family relationships were not allowed. In 1991, the commune fell apart after its leader Otto MĂĽhl was convicted of child molestation.
Last month, Leah Remini announced that she was leaving the Church of Scientology. She plans on writing a tell-all memoir about her experiences in Scientology, including "everything that's taboo to talk about." And now, word is the actress has filed a missing person report for Shelly Miscavige, the wife of the church's…
When future humans look back at the era of gender normative child-rearing, when parents watched their girls stumble around a dance studio and watched their boys try to decapitate a tee-ball stand, they’ll probably draw misguided conclusions, conclusions distorted by a preponderance of archived Dance Moms clips. “Wow,…
The world has become increasingly aware in the last decade or so that Scientology isn't just part of a punchline about closeted homosexual celebrities, but an actual cult that believes that humans are reincarnated aliens and uses mind control, physical abuse, and indentured servitude to not only keep its members in…
