Lisa Marie Presley Removes All Mention of Scientology From Her Official Website (UPDATED)

After the jump: Less than 30 minutes after we pointed out one last CCHR mention on her website, Lisa Marie scrubbed it!

Yesterday, the Voice revealed the lyrics to the song “So Long” on Lisa Marie Presley’s new album, Storm and Grace, which seem to confirm what she was saying in her advance single, “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” — that Lisa Marie has very much “blown” the Church of Scientology.

Some of our readers, however, noted yesterday that there were still links all over Lisa Marie’s official website to Scientology entities, such as the notorious anti-psychiatry front group, Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). As of this morning, those links are gone, and if you try to go to a gallery of Lisa Marie at a CCHR event which previously appeared on her site, you get the screen above.

Tomorrow, Presley’s album officially comes out, and she’s going on a major publicity push that will have her at Good Morning America and American Idol this week.

We doubt that the entertainment “reporters” that she’ll run into will ask her about this stuff, but just in case they have the temerity to, here’s what they might bring up with her.

The lyrics to her single, “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet”…

You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet

Lay down the law, don’t make a sound
Just critical, just going down
I don’t belong, I’ve lost the plot
Not gullible, can’t be what I’m not

You can think that I’m evil and I’m off the rails
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet

If I don’t get with your system then I’m sure to fail
Well you ain’t seen nothin’ yet

Lay down the truth, don’t make a sound
Just a piece of fruit who’s hit the ground
I don’t respond, I’ve lost the plot
Unethical, not what I thought

You can think that I’m evil and I’m off the rails
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet

I’m a bit transgressive and suppressive as well
Well you ain’t seen nothin’ yet

Am I a disruption to your corruption?
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet

You can think that I’m evil and I’m off the rails
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet

If I don’t get with your system then I’m sure to fail
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet

No longer elated, now you’re frustrated
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet

You can think that I’m evil and I’m off the rails
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet

If I don’t get with your system then I’m sure to fail
Well you ain’t seen nothin’ yet

You can think that I’m evil and I’m off the rails
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet

I’m a bit transgressive and suppressive as well
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet

As we explained last month, no Scientologist in good standing would ever describe themselves as “a bit suppressive.” (See our previous post to understand why.)

We then obtained the lyrics to the rest of Lisa Marie’s album Storm and Grace from her label, and wrote that after looking at the lyrics of the song “So Long,” there’s really little doubt that she’s walking away from the church…

So Long

This here is a city without lights
Those are all the people without eyes
Churches, they don’t have a soul
Soup for sale without a bowl
Religion so corrupt and running lives
Farewell, fair weathered friends
I can’t say I’ll miss you in the end

Chorus:
So long, seems that I was so wrong
Seems I wasn’t that strong
Dead wrong, and now I’m long gone
Wrong side, I’ve been sleeping on the wrong side
Stains all over my soul I can’t hide
Nothing’s more clear than goodbye

These roads they don’t lead to anything
These people they talk, they say nothing
Actors who don’t have a part
Heartfelt people with no heart
I’ll find a new crowd
Make a new start
Farewell, fair weathered friends
I can’t say I’ll miss you in the end

(Chorus)

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, say nothing at all if you’ve nothing nice to say

In yesterday’s post, former Scientologists Jefferson Hawkins and Jason Beghe explained how clear the message in this song is to other people who have left the church.

After our story yesterday, reader Paul Jay Salerno asked, if she’s left the church, why are there still links to Scientology all over her official website?

I answered to Paul that perhaps she hadn’t seen the site in a while — a common thing for celebrities.

Then, this morning, I noticed that Scientology was completely wiped from her website.

Well, that’s very interesting.

I want to give a quick thanks to Celebitchy, who credited us for breaking news of the “So Long” lyrics. Perez Hilton, on the other hand, just swiped them from us without even giving us a link. (And yes, I know he took them from us, because I made a couple of small grammatical corrections to the lyrics which the label sent me, and the corrections are in Hilton’s post.)

UPDATE: It looks like there is at least one mention of CCHR still on her website. Salerno had pointed out that CCHR links were all over the place on the website just yesterday, and they seem to be gone. But in her “Overview” page, there is still one CCHR mention, as Jim Little pointed out to me. She refers to CCHR as one of several groups she works with in her philanthropic efforts. But any mention of CCHR (or other Scientology entities) has disappeared from her “philanthropy” page itself.

SECOND UPDATE: SHE’S NOW SCRUBBED CCHR FROM THE “OVERVIEW” PAGE! Less than a half hour after we noted that there was one last CCHR mention on her website, Lisa Marie (or her web master, obviously) removed it from the page! I guess someone is looking at our stories, eh?

Um, wow.

AND NOW IT’S BACK. Wow, this Overview page is really getting a workout. She’s also restored CCHR to the Philanthropy page — which was not there just a couple of minutes ago, as well as a CCHR page of its own. (Someone must have got a call from OSA!)

**********
Tony Ortega has been the editor in chief of the Village Voice since March, 2007. He started writing about Scientology in 1995. You can catch his alerts at Twitter (@VoiceTonyO), at his Facebook author page, on Pinterest, a Tumblr, and even this new Google Plus doohickey.

New readers might want to check out our primer, “What is Scientology?” Another good overview is our series from last summer, “Top 25 People Crippling Scientology.” At the top of every story, you’ll see the “Scientology” category which, if you click on it, will bring up all of our most recent stories.

As for hot subjects we’ve covered here, you may have heard about Debbie Cook, the former church official who rebelled and was sued by Scientology. You might have also heard about the Super Power Building, Scientology’s “Mecca,” whose secrets were revealed here. We also reported how Scientology spied on its own most precious object, Tom Cruise. (We wrote Tom an open letter that he has yet to respond to.) Have you seen a Scientology ad on TV lately? We debunked some of the claims in that 2-minute commercial you might have seen while watching Glee or American Idol.

Other stories have looked at Scientology’s policy of “disconnection” that is tearing families apart. You may also have heard something about the Sea Org experiences of the Paris sisters, Valeska and Melissa, and their friend Ramana Dienes-Browning. We’ve also featured Paulette Cooper, who wrote about Scientology back in the day, and Janet Reitman, Hugh Urban, and the team at the Tampa Bay Times, who write about it today. And there’s plenty more coming.