KCET just confirmed that they are selling their production facility on Sunset between Los Feliz and Silver Lake to the Church of Scientology for “an undisclosed amount” that undoubtedly has many, many 0′s.  According to the LA Times’ article about potential deal, the Church now gets to add around 4.5 acres of property to its march towards taking over the world, one stress test at a time.

According to KCET’s official statement, the now-independently owned public television station plans to expand their programmingblahblah and currently are looking to relocate to other facilities.  After KCET officially vacates the premises, up to a year from now, will the Church repaint the buildings to movie set blue, like the giant building on Hollywood (above)?  Will you be asked if you would like to be outfitted with contraptions that look like they were pulled out of the The Twilight Zone‘s circa-1960s prop department in a box labelled “Space-y Looking Things” every time you try to go to Rudy’s for a haircut or to Tiki Bar for a tiki drink?  My answers: hopefully yes, and hopefully no.  In that order.

Update:  Thanks to the comments below for pointing me to the Church of Scientology’s news release on this.  They say the KCET facility ” is a perfect fit, in both size and location, for the expansion of the Church of Scientology’s production of religious and social betterment audiovisual properties, and we welcomed the unexpected opportunity to acquire it.”

Photo courtesy jasmined and used under a Creative Commons license.

The streets of Hollywood just turned up the wacky.

L. Ron Hubbard has reached from beyond the cosmos to release his new Fall line for local Scientologists and their brethren around the world. They are uniforms for the new Ideal Org churches, and Gawker takes a look:

These uniforms are manufactured by some sort of magical logistics pipeline called a “conveyor belt” for the “Ideal Org,” a purportedly superior new type of church, according to International Scientology News. The uniform is intended to unite staff on “six continents” and help them look the part of “emissaries of a new civilization.”

Red, white and black uniforms for a new civilization. I think I remember something similar from a history book.

Still, I have three very important questions about these new unis that I would like answered:

1. Is the men’s tie reversible, or is it a clip-on?
2. Does the cape have the Scientology “S” logo on the back?
3. Are other accessories available, like an engraved cigar case or alternate red pumps?

Way to go, Xenu. Only you can make us both tremble and giggle just by putting on a suit.

Basically what happened is the school posted a false grand opening date on their website, expecting protesters to show up, which they did. In what has become typical fashion representatives from Scientology were on hand to film the protesters and try to get personal information about them. What isn’t typical at all is that some of the people at the school who were ill informed about Scientology and Study Tech took interest in the protesters and invited them in for further discussions. And that’s where things get really interesting.

I was curious how this all went down. Did anonymous wear their masks throughout all of the conversations? How did the school representatives react upon hearing their arguments? I asked, and Anonymous answered. After the jump is a first hand account of the protest and discussion by Anonymous member Blvd Nights who was on hand for all of the festivities and conversations.

“During the first encounter, when we met the school staff, 3 out of the 5 of us, including myself, wore masks until we went onto the campus and had the meeting with the faculity. The discussion was very refreshing. The faculity, minus the Scientologists (of which their were 4), showed sincere signs of being informed and hearing our concerns. It was a little bit of a shame when most of the staff seemed to not know anything about Scientology beyond what their Scientologist peers had told them, one of the teachers hadn’t even heard of an e-meter. Throughout the meeting, whenever one of us mentioned having a better line of communication with the school than Scientology, the Scientologists would snicker or react in a upsetting way physically. At the end of the meeting only one of them came up to us and said thank you for coming.

As for Will, I believe he has only read some of the material on Scientology’s philosophy and therefore really isn’t a Scientologist. When we talked to him, we had mentioned the e-meter and what’s called a Purif Rundown, very elementary Scientology techniques and tools, and Will seemed confused by just the mention of them. When he said a while back, he was a student of all world religions, I know feel that statement has some credibility. Our only concern for the school was using Study Tech. The staff, facility, and Will himself have assured us that Study Tech is being “experimented” with at the school. They are trying to accomplish separating the Scientology/religious parts of Study Tech, and use the parts they feel are suitable for teaching.

During the first picket we also had a PI driving around the whole three hours we were there, filming us. I feel that since the two pickets at the school, Scientology has significantly picked up their fair gaming policy. This past Saturday, during our monthly worldwide protest, I had three different sets of Scientologist visit my residence, one of my parent’s residence AND my grandmother’s house. They came to my family’s house to tell them I was part of a “terrorist organization”. When they came to my place the two people (one man and one toad looking woman) began to film right on my street and lied about being independent filmmakers. I look inside their car, and saw they had a piece of paper with my name, address, my car’s license plate number and a description of what it looked like. During the protest later that day, one of their handlers began to describe my house and threatened to come to my house as well. That same protest they brought about between 15-20 of their people with most of them carrying signs. They had three different signs:

-Signs that read “Anonymous creates hate and destroys freedom”
-Signs that had Nazi symbos on them (the guys holding these signs claimed to be from 4chan, but it was clear later on they were not.)
-2 Signs had personal information and pictures of 2 Anons with their mask on and off.

One Scientologist, Tim Armer of Sylmar, was making physical threats against some Anons, including myself, and was passing out flyers with some of our faces on them and personal information of each individual.”

In LA we can make a religion out of anything. This is why people in other, more sensible parts of the world mock us (well that and the pot vending machines).

Let’s take Scientology: Never mind the creepy greed and cultlike actions of the LRon-ites, these people believe aliens live in their elbows and we are all descended from giant clams. Sadly, while one might expect that someone claiming that their head cold is a byproduct of body-colonization by space aliens might be directed toward some sort of psychotherapy or at the very least antipsychotic medication, in this town they are given lead roles in blockbusters and rockstar parking spaces.

In the other corner, we have Pinkberry, perhaps even greater evidence that Angelenos can turn anything into a creed. Scientology promises enlightenment, even perfection, Pinkberry on the other hand promises frozen yogurt. Five dollah frozen yogurt. Frozen yogurt that people speak with a reverence and fervor usually reserved for gurus and soccer matches. And like a holy spot where the Virgin Mary was sighted, Pinkberry pilgrimages clot the neighborhood. Hellishly snarled traffic and sidewalks clogged with crowds of cell-yapping Britneys whose every too-loud sentence ends in a rising intonation.

It’s a hard call folks. All I know is if PT Barnum were alive today, he’d be living in LA.

Poll closes Friday at 7pm.