The Female Tom Cruise

SOLVED!

UPDATED!

[Blind Gossip] This actress is probably best known for her role on a TV series that ran for many seasons starting in the early aughts.

She has supposedly been spending a lot of her time working her way up to a leadership position in some organization that holds “self-improvement” workshops.

She is like the female version of Tom Cruise at [the organization]. She is a celebrity who worked her way up the chain of command and now is one of the controlling members. She recruits new members who are almost all female. If she recruits them, she gets to brand them with her initials.

Say what now?

It turns out that there are some crazy rumors out there that the “self-improvement” workshops allegedly lead to sex slavery pyramid schemes and blackmail and branding women in their private parts. Allegedly!

Some have called the organization “a cult.”

Sounds like a case for Leah Remini!

Similar: And Another One’s Gone

Actress:

[Optional] Has anyone ever tried to convince you to join a cult or religion or pyramid scheme?

SOLVED!

Actress: Allison Mack from Smallville

This one is so creepy that we are going to skip the usual chatter and point you to three other resources.

The New York Times just published an article about a cult known as NXIVM (it’s pronounced Nexium). Here’s a blurb:

Inside a Secretive Group Where Women Are Branded

…Each woman was told to undress and lie on a massage table, while three others restrained her legs and shoulders. According to one of them, their “master,” a top Nxivm official named Lauren Salzman, instructed them to say: “Master, please brand me, it would be an honor.”

A female doctor proceeded to use a cauterizing device to sear a two-inch-square symbol below each woman’s hip, a procedure that took 20 to 30 minutes. For hours, muffled screams and the smell of burning tissue filled the room…

You can read the entire article here, but we will warn you that it is disturbing.

There have been several celebrities associated with the cult. One of them is Allison Mack, who formerly starred on Smallville. Her own website bio confirms her involvement with the founder of the cult, whom she calls her “mentor,” and her role as president of one of the divisions.

We would not be surprised if she now tries to distance herself from them, so, before that happens, here’s a screengrab from AllisonMack.com.

A quick online search will help you find the other celebrities who have been affiliated with the cult.

Finally, The New York Times article cites a source named Frank Parlato. He is a former member of the group who is now working to expose their practices. Frank Parlato is to NXIVM what Leah Remini is to Scientology. You can find Frank’s blog here.

We are now going to step away from this weirdness.

Congratulations to Sabrina325 for being first with the correct response!

UPDATE!

When Blind Gossip first told you the story of this cult five months before everyone else, we did not know if the story would ever go mainstream. Now, multiple outlets are covering it. Thus, we can provide you with a little more information.

Are you curious about the brand that members of this cult are given?

Well, if the member is recruited by founder Keith Raniere, they receive a “KR” brand. If the member is recruited by Allison Mack, they receive a “AM” brand.

If you are having trouble seeing the “AM” in the above brand, this should help.

Frank Paralato, a former member who first exposed the cult, describes Allison Mack as being both a victim and a perpetrator. However, it may be difficult to find a lot of sympathy for someone who is recruiting, starving, and branding other women.

Since more information about the cult is being disclosed each day, we can also now tell you that other celebrities who have been named for taking classes, recruiting members, or financing the organization include Clare and Sara Bronfman (of the Seagram’s liquor empire), India Oxenberg (the daughter of Dynasty actress Catherine Oxenberg), actress Linda Evans, mogul Richard Branson, and actress Kristin Kreuk (Smallville).

Please note that this does not necessarily mean that these people are or were in leadership positions like Allison Mack. However, it would certainly be a worthwhile endeavor for law enforcement to interview these people.

So, where does NXIVM get the money to run their organization?

“Without the Bronfman’s money, there would be no slaves, no branding, no blackmail,” Parlato claims. “Bronfman money funds the whole horrifying cult.”

Edgar Bronfman and Catherine Oxenberg now see the organization as a cult and are trying to extricate their family members from it.

From Today:

You may know Catherine Oxenberg from her starring role as Amanda Carrington in the ’80s soap “Dynasty.”

But the actress is now living a real-life drama that she never imagined would be her reality. She alleges that her daughter India has been brainwashed, and literally branded, by a group called Nxivm.

“This is my last resort, going to the media,” Oxenberg said during an appearance on Megyn Kelly TODAY. “I feel that her life is in danger.”

The group, founded by Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman, states that its mission “is to help transform and, ultimately, be an expression of the noble civilization of humans.” How, exactly? By “raising human awareness, fostering an ethical humanitarianism, and celebrating what it truly means to be human.”

Not so, said Oxenberg. A report in the New York Times quotes a former member who stated that some women in the group were branded with a cauterizing device; former members told the Times that they had to share private and sensitive information with the group to ensure their loyalty. Oxenberg said she believes India has been branded, too.

Ironically, six years ago, it was Oxenberg who first introduced her daughter to Nxivm (pronounced Nex-e-um), by taking her to a session. India loved it. Now, Oxenberg said she’s going public as a last resort.

“I love her to the end of the world. I’m only doing this to bring awareness,” Oxenberg said.

Oxenberg said she has begged her daughter to leave Nxivm, to no avail. NBC reached out to Nxivm for comment but has not received a response.

“I lost my mind,” said Oxenberg, when she learned of what her daughter could be going through. “I did an intervention with her at the end of May and I failed.”

But her daughter wrote on Facebook that she’s absolutely fine, and Oxenberg said India is angry with her. “I would never put myself or the people I love into any danger,” India wrote on Oct. 19.

Of course. All cult members are “fine.”

We wish Catherine Oxenberg well in her quest to bring her daughter home!