Hollywood cluelessness about Buddhism

Buddhism is rumoured to be popular in Hollywood, but the people in Hollywood often seem to be quite ignorant of it. Two stories today on that theme.

Actress Sharon Stone is missing the Venice Film Festival, ostensibly so that she can meet with the Dalai Lama:

The 'Basic Instinct' actress has reportedly pulled out of the prestigious event this weekend, where she was supposed to be promoting her latest film 'Bobby'.

Stone's representatives have so far been vague about the reason behind the star's absence and only revealed she will be meeting the Buddhist spiritual leader in Los Angeles.

Her representative, Cindi Berger, said the 'Casino' star "never committed" to the festival and is "doing something with the Dalai Lama in Los Angeles" instead.

However, rumours are rife the Stone decided to pull out of the festival because organisers' refused to accommodate her diva-like demands.

I wonder if the Dalai Lama will accommodate her diva-like (or should that be "deva"-like) demands?

Meanwhile, another Hollywood actress, Penelope Cruz, defends Tom Cruise's adherence to Scientology by comparing it with Buddhism:

"Tom and I are good friends and in many ways he's shown me to have a kind heart.

"Scientology is positive. When you read a book of Buddhism, you could apply it to your life in any way you need to, so with a book of Scientology it's the same thing.

"I think we should respect all religions."

For respect to be meaningful, it must be earned. To respect everything equally is to respect nothing at all. It is well-documented that Scientology was created by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard to make money. Scientology treats Hubbard's science fiction as fact and teaches, among other things, that humans are biologically descended from clams and are possessed by alien entities. The website Operation Clambake exposes Scientology in detail. While I believe in respecting a person's right to believe in Scientology if he so chooses, I cannot see why Scientology itself should be respected.

L. Ron Hubbard also claimed that the Buddha had attained only a low level of enlightenment and that he himself was, naturally, much more enlightened than the Buddha (see here, here, and here for some examples). Scientology is itself disrespectful of Buddhism. All religions make claims to truth, claims that are often mutually exclusive between religions. So how is one to "respect all religions" when most religions don't respect each other, and couldn't do so without compromising their core truth claims?

Instead of respecting all religions, which is both silly and impossible, we should instead respect and uphold each person's right to choose his religion (including the choice not to have a religion).

南無阿彌陀佛