SHOWBUZZ - all the latest showbiz gossip from Britain and the US.

8:37 Friday 12 May 2000

BROADWATCH

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Controversy is swirling around JOHN TRAVOLTA's new film, Battlefield Earth, because anti-cult organisations claim it uses subliminal messages to recruit filmgoers to the Church of Scientology. The film, in which Travolta plays a nine-foot alien, is based on the 1982 novel by L RON HUBBARD, the founder of Scientology. Travolta has made no secret of his affiliations to the church.

Several anti-cult Internet sites have posted warnings about the film, also claiming that it was secretly financed by Scientology and that Scientology plans recruiting efforts to coincide with its release. The makers and distributors claim Battlefield Earth has nothing whatever to do with the Church of Scientology and is intended to be nothing more than a big summer adventure film, devoid of subterfuge.

Scientology spokesman Marty Rathbun said: "The only things I know about the movie are what I read." he said the Church of Scientology has no financial interest in it and had nothing to do with the making of it.

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