Note: This post has been moved from Latest Picks due to length of extended updates.
Smallville actress Allison Mack arrested in New York sex cult case (telegraph.co.uk).
Reportedly having been recruited to the Vancouver chapter of the NXIVM cult (pronounced nex-ee-um) along with her Smallville co-star Kristin Kreuk in 2010 (Wikipedia).
Allison Mack, the actress best known for appearing in the Superman TV show Smallville, was arrested on Friday and charged with helping run a secret society that enslaved women and branded them with the founder’s initials, according to prosecutors.
Said “founder” Keith Raniere being a “self-help guru” who ran a network of “famale mentorship” workshops known as NXIVM to which Mack helped recruit, the whole thing seemingly being much more “Gorean” (dailydot.com, Mar. 2014) with a “slaves and masters” culture, collection of “collateral” such as damaging information, rights to assets, and nude photographs as potential blackmail, and horrifying acts of branding in the pelvic region with the co-operation of other women presumably at some higher rank but still submissively subservient to Raniere who was arrested last year after being tracked down to a Mexican resort.
Seemingly, Mack was one with such higher rank:
Smallville’s Allison Mack allegedly forced ‘slaves’ into sex acts after luring women into controversial group (people.com).
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney said in the statement that the case has “brought to light an inconceivable crime,” referring to NXIVM as a “pyramid scheme” at which Raniere stood alone at the top, with a level of female “slaves” underneath.
According to the statement [from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York], Mack was allegedly “one of the women in the first level of the pyramid immediately below Raniere.”
Updated 24th April 2018
Allison Mack tried to ‘recruit’ Emma Watson into alleged sex cult (metro.co.uk).
At least on Twitter, which should remind those spending much of the day checking their various social media feeds that anything they have said, will say, or even didn’t say but somewhat made someone else think that they did they did will indeed come back to unsocially bite them on the bum sometime down the line.
In 2016 the actress tweeted Emma Watson asking her to get involved in the “women’s movement” she was working on.
But “fellow change-maker” Em seemingly did not “dig” and she didn’t get a reply, prompting her to try again with more talk of “unique human development & women’s movement I’d love to tell you about” imploring her to let know if she’s “willing to chat”.
But although no “digging” of Mack’s “unique human development of a woman’s movement” was done many of Em’s fifty-something fans will already be heading to whichever ManOChat of choice to again fantasise about Em being made a sex slave.
Updated 28th April 2018
Allison Mack: Inside her journey from ‘Smallville’ to alleged sex cult leader (variety.com).
Mack, who was arrested April 19 in New York, is accused of being a leader and prime recruiter for a sorority-esque group of young women who were manipulated into serving as “slaves” for male “masters.” She is facing 15 years to life imprisonment on charges of sex trafficking, conspiracy, and conspiracy to commit forced labor.
With Variety wasting no time going into the juice details of initiations of those recruited to the secret society known as “DOS” or “the Vow,”:
The coercion went so far as to include a mutilation ritual in which some of the women were branded in their pelvic area with a cauterizing pen with a symbol that incorporated Raniere’s initials, according to prosecutors.
And telling that according to court documents Mack’s slaves were kept sleep-deprived and emaciated to the point where they stopped menstruating and that “during the ceremonies in which her slaves were branded, the defendant placed her hands on the slaves’ chests and told them to “feel the pain” and to “think of [their] master,” as the slaves cried with pain.
And more was said of the “collateral” they needed to suply, in the form of embarrassing photos or written testimonials which could be used against them if they tried to leave—reminding some perhaps of alleged antics to prevent desertion of another elitist alleged cult with Church and Scientology in its title.
She also “provided naked photographs of her slaves to Raniere and was aware of Raniere’s proclivity for having sex with multiple young women”, particular proclivities we learned more of:
Many DOS slaves were also groomed for sex with the defendant by (1) being ordered to adhere to very restricted diets (the defendant is known to sexually prefer extremely thin women), (2) being ordered to remain celibate (the defendant has taught that women should be monogamous but that men are naturally polyamorous), and/or (3) being ordered to stop waxing or shaving their pubic hair (the defendant is known to sexually prefer women with a lot of pubic hair).
He having no mere pubic hair fetishism but being Lord and Master of the Bush.
Updated 1st June 2018
And back to the branding that has caught the media and hence people’s attention:
Allison Mack behind ‘sex cult’ branding as more secrets of NXIVM revealed (metro.co.uk).
Now Mack has reportedly admitted she was responsible for coming up with the DOS—which loosely translates to “Master Over the Slave Women”—branding that was cauterised (burnt) into their flesh.
It has been claimed she felt a branding was potentially had more worth than a tattoo.
Saying to the New York Times “I was like: ‘Y’all, a tattoo? People get drunk and tattooed on their ankle ‘BFF,’ or a tramp stamp. I have two tattoos and they mean nothing.’” and suggesting it should be something “more meaningful, something that took guts’. Hence likely why she decided the branding should be on the pelvic region.
Mack had been charged with “using force, fraud, and coercion to recruit and maintain DOS slaves, and instructing those slaves to engage in sexual acts with Raniere, among other assignments”—such as growing bush like a fisherman’s beard and not masturbating—and is facing a minimum 15 years in prison if found guilty.
Updated 8th April 2019
And with cult leader Keith Raniere expected to go on trial before the end of the month (independent.co.uk):
Smallville star Allison Mack pleads guilty to racketeering in Nxivm case (theguardian.com).
With jury selection beginning at the federal case against a cult-like upstate New York group, the actor Allison Mack pleaded guilty on Monday to charges she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for the group’s spiritual leader.
Weeping as she wept as she admitted her crimes and apologized to the exploited women, saying that she believed Raniere’s intentions were to help people and presumably that the branding initiations she initiated would presumably assist.
The plea means Mack will avoid going to trial with Raniere, heiress Clare Bronfman and another member of Raniere’s inner circle, Kathy Russell. All have pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
Updated 20th April 2019
Heiress, philanthropist and former showjumper Clare Bronfman pleading guilty too:
Nxivm: Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman pleads guilty in ‘sex cult’ case (bbc.co.uk).
Bronfman, the 40-year-old heir to the Seagram alcohol fortune, was accused of using more than $100m (£77m) to fund the suspected sex cult Nxivm.
And telling the court that she was “truly remorseful” and that “I wanted to do good in the world and help people,” but that “However, I have made mistakes;.
Appearing at a court in Brooklyn, Bronfman admitted knowingly harbouring a woman brought to the US on a fake work visa in order to exploit her for labour.
And as part of her plea agreeing to forfeit $6m (£4.6m) and not to appeal any prison sentence of 27 months or less.
Next page: Alleged NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere’s trial begins.