Blind Item #6 - Reader Blind - A Family Crime, Redux

I wrote a couple years back about this family film company that was, essentially, the original Netflix. They were doing the movies-by-mail thing 20 years before anyone else, and they kept doing it until several years back when they got sued out of existence by the government.

Let me now tell you about the man who ran this place, as it was told to me by people who knew him.

He put on the image of a pious, holy man. He was a significant mover and shaker in his particular faith, at least for a while. This was all a cloak, and a transparent one at that. If my sources are to be believed, this man was the Harvey Weinstein of his particular corner of things.

He eventually developed his own self-professed “branch” of his faith, which maintained its traditional belief in polygamy. He did this by claiming to “reform” drug addicts and prostitutes, acting in the role of a divine messenger. He would employ their services and then attempt to “save” them by paying them to leave prostitution - setting them up with credit cards and in some cases even homes, to get them dependent on him. Effectively, he made them his harem of mistresses, and could often be seen in full view of the public hooking up with them in the back of his Lamborghini. He paid off the main body of his faith for years, but was finally excommunicated over these activities.

His de facto wife lived in his $5 million mansion (which buys a lot where he lived) and had a large cabinet full of collectible figurines. He would buy her one every time she caught him cheating on her.

If it’s any consolation, I was told by a former business associate of his that he now lives in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere, having lost everything. Cue the Breaking Bad theme.