'Battlefield Earth' screenwriter spills Scientology secrets

"Battlefield Earth," the dreadful movie starring John Travolta and based on a story by his hero, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, won a Razzie for the worst movie of the decade this month.

So tell us something we don't know, right? Well, this latest honor prompted the amused screenwriter J.D. Shapiro to write a formal apology and explanation to the NY Post. Here's how it went down:

Shapiro says he read in "Premiere" magazine that the Scientology Center was a "great place to meet women," and there met a woman who was, at the time, president of the center.

One thing led to another and he ended up not only writing the ill-fated screenplay, but also dipping his toe into the Scientology pool.

"I took a few courses, including the Purification Rundown, or Purif. You go to CC [Celebrity Center] every day, take vitamins and go in and out of a sauna so toxins are released from your body. You're supposed to reach an "End Point." I never did, but I was bored so I told them I had a vision of L. Ron. They said, "What did he say?" "Pull my finger," was my response. They said I was done."

The movie turned out to be much different from his script which he claims was darker and grittier with richer characters. Until John's camp started requesting changes.

What his screenplay did not have but was in the final film? "Slow motion at every turn, Dutch tilts, campy dialogue, aliens in KISS boots, and everyone wearing Bob Marley wigs."

As for Scientology helping his score with women?

"No way do you get any action by boldly going up to a woman and proclaiming, 'I wrote Battlefield Earth!,'" he wrote. "If anything, I'm trying to figure out a way to bottle it and use it as birth control."

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Photo credits: Warner Bros.