What Goes on Inside Will Smith's School? (ABC News)11 September 2009, 7:10 amABC News
The New Village Leadership Academy Allegedly Mimics Some Scientology Teaching Methods
Like many modern celebrity power couples, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith are not satisfied with just being actors.
The couple, who met on the set of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" in 1995, have had a lot of different roles over the years, most recently founding the New Village Leadership Academy (NVLA), a private elementary school in Calabasas, Calif., which opened its doors this week for the start of the 2009-10 school year.
But as Oprah Winfrey famously discovered when she started The Leadership Academy School for Girls, for celebrities, getting involved in an educational venture can be a road fraught with controversy.
Coupled with the long-time "secretly Scientologist" rumors that have surrounded the Smiths, the school's opening has attracted curiosity.
While they're close friends with actors Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, arguably the world's most famous Scientology couple, Smith has said that he is a not a member of the church.
"I've talked to Tom about it. [There's] lots of incredible, wonderful concepts [but my wife] Jada and I don't necessarily believe in organized religion. I was raised in a Baptist household, and my grandmother would get up out of her casket [if I became a Scientologist]," Smith told the World Entertainment News Network, a news wire, in 2006.
Also creating questions are reports that tax returns for 2008 from the Smith's charitable foundation show that the couple gave a combined $122,500 in donations to groups affiliated with the Church of Scientology. The Smiths reportedly donated a total of $1.3 million to a variety of religious, civic and arts groups that year. Smith's biggest single contribution was to Yesha Ministries of Philadelphia. He gave the Christian-based organization run by the Rev. James Robinson $250,000. Another $200,000 went to a Christian ministry in Los Angeles called "Living Waters." The foundation also donated to a Los Angeles mosque, as well as the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Center and other religious groups. When asked about the donations, Will Smith's publicist, Pat Kinsley, told ABC News.com that her client doesn't comment on his philanthropic work.
In an interview with Ebony magazine earlier this year, Pinkett-Smith said that the NVLA was not tied to Scientology: "All I can say is it is not a Scientology school," she told the magazine. "Now, If you don't trust me, and you are questioning my integrity, that's a whole different matter. That is straight evil to think that I would bring families into that educational institution and then try to get them to convert into some religion."
Despite such statements, skeptics continue to raise questions about whether the Smiths have ties to Scientology, especially when it comes to the NVLA.
L. Ron Hubbard Teachings
The suspicions stem largely from the NVLA's use of Study Technology, a teaching methodology developed by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology.
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