Hmmmm, Leah and Mike?

[cjemaggie]

First: I think Leah is smart, funny, beautiful, and is brilliant and brave to do what she (and others,) are doing. She's a hero, and I salute her! Totally off that subject: Beside the wonderful on-air collaboration with Mike, I'm wondering if they have developed some "feelings" for each other? She's admitted that she's a flirt, but in one episode she touched (his face?) in a way that only a woman in love would. I know he's married, and I although he obviously cares for her deeply, I'm not sure that I see the same look in his eyes, that I see in hers. Honestly, I am NOT judging her in the least!! I understand how easily two people who have shared the same nightmare as they have, would connect on an intimate, emotional level that could lead to developing feelings for each other. Please understand, I'm not trying to be disrespectful, I just wondered if I'm totally off base here, or do other fans see what I see?

[FairyDusted]

Hmmm....Well I haven't given it a thought because she is after all an actress. Not saying she isn't authentic here. I feel she was. I think they spent a lot of time together bonding through the common pain. I imagine they spent a whole lotta time together so I gave her a pass on giving a friend comfort.

But hey, ya never know!

[dirtydi]

She loves to touch people's faces.  I saw it a lot on DWTS.

Edited February 2, 2017 by dirtydi
wrong word

[Dahlia]

I thought I "saw"/"felt" things pass between them. Very flirty to start with but then some looks and a few times those looks conveyed more than words could say   I thought I was alone so  .....Yes!  Hmmmmm is right 

[CofCinci]

She's a flirty person. Check out her interview with Joe Rogan. 

[DangerousMinds]

Oh, FFS. I don't believe anything is happening between them . They are coworkers with similar histories and are close friends.

[JenMcSnark]

In one of the shows (maybe the 2nd reddit ep) she said something about him being a father figure.  And she seems very friendly with Rinder's wife, so I think it's just her flirty personality.  

[cjemaggie]

After reading all these replies, I'm thinking that "DangerousMinds" is probably right! Maybe I "see it" because I want to see it. They've been through sooo much together, and after the hell that Angelo has put Leah through, I want her to find love with someone who really understands her, and what this whole nightmare has cost her...

[Rlb8031]

I think that she and Angelo are very happy together and that he's very clear on what its cost her because he's been there through a significant portion of it. 

[DangerousMinds]

Leah seems very happily married.

[spiderpig]

Agree that they have a special friend relationship - but as someone with Aussie relatives, I can appreciate his native charm.

Edited to add special platonic friend relationship.  I've had  many cases of special bonds at work where we'd refer to each other as "work spouses" because we knew we had each others' backs.

[FairyDusted]

Oh wow. I didn't watch her reailty show. Did Angelo step out on her or something? 

[AZChristian]

I see the relationship between Leah and Mike as similar to loving siblings who shared a horrendous childhood.

[Wings]

There is a simultaneous truth here.  Leah is in love with her husband despite the hell she went through with his cheating.  Rinder loves his wife, she was the port in the storm when he left.   I do see the love Rinder and Leah have for each other and it is deeper than friendship.  I doubt they will act on it but I see a poignant, star crossed love between them.  They would never leave their families to act on that but I bet they have fantasized about it plenty.  You can love two people at the same time.    

Edited February 9, 2017 by wings707

[MrSmith]

On 1/31/2017 at 2:50 PM, cjemaggie said:

First: I think Leah is smart, funny, beautiful, and is brilliant and brave to do what she (and others,) are doing. She's a hero, and I salute her! Totally off that subject: Beside the wonderful on-air collaboration with Mike, I'm wondering if they have developed some "feelings" for each other? She's admitted that she's a flirt, but in one episode she touched (his face?) in a way that only a woman in love would. I know he's married, and I although he obviously cares for her deeply, I'm not sure that I see the same look in his eyes, that I see in hers. Honestly, I am NOT judging her in the least!! I understand how easily two people who have shared the same nightmare as they have, would connect on an intimate, emotional level that could lead to developing feelings for each other. Please understand, I'm not trying to be disrespectful, I just wondered if I'm totally off base here, or do other fans see what I see?

I think they're just very close friends. You can do things like that with a close friend that you wouldn't otherwise do with anyone except your spouse. I had a friend like that years ago.

[cjemaggie]

I saw an article not too long ago about his (in her words,) "serial cheating." I guess I should have read the article instead of just the headline! Duh...

[Evil Queen]

My husband was watching one of the episodes with me and was thinking something was up because of a scene with them in the car. I can see how it might look that way. Which it could just be they are very close friends that feel like family more than anything because of all they have gone through or its something more. I have no clue. I just can see how some could take that away from it though but can see the other side of it as well from them being close from the crap they went through. 

 I had no idea about Leah's husband cheating. I never watched that reality show of her's. She had actually pissed me off way back after seeing her in an interview on Rachel Ray, I think it was. The way she was being about her daughter at the time disgusted me. I have no clue if it was she was so wrapped up in the crazy cult she just let the parenting slide to someone else for the most part or what it was.

[green]

I'm sorry but this thread is disturbing to me.  This is exactly the type of stuff the Scientology minions that comb the internet look for then copy and paste into anti-Leah and anti-Mike articles.  Or they would start a thread exactly like this to cast smears and doubts about these two.  I know you guys don't mean that but that can well be the result of a thread like that.  You are just helping them unknowingly I feel.

[cjemaggie]

I would never, never, never have even thought of that as a possibility - yikes, you are right!!! I just want to see Leah happy, unburdened, and at peace! (And of course, Mike too!!!)

[Diane Mars]

Never forget that they're both survivors of ...the same "war"...

[Glade]

Yeah, scientology salivates at the idea of being able to portray Leah and Mike as craven adulterers using their sham show to cover up an illicit affair.  In very church-like behavior, they even tried to make an attractive young scientologist seduce Mike Rinder's current wife when he was out of town.   

[CofCinci]

Wish $cientology would pay that dude to seduce me. 

[MrSmith]

7 hours ago, CofCinci said:

Wish $cientology would pay that dude to seduce me. 

LOL!

[film noire]

21 hours ago, Diane Mars said:

Never forget that they're both survivors of ...the same "war"...

I agree, they know each other in a way nobody else can, having been through the same hellish journey. (And I find their energy very comrade in arms, with a sarcastic bite on her end that screams "non-sexual" to me; it's not the flirty/teasing kind of sarcastic, it's the kind of sarcastic you let loose on your brother.)

Edited February 15, 2017 by film noire

[Glade]

Scientology would never pay it's members to do anything!  This young man was paying scientology to blackmail and bully and exploit him so that he could stay in the church.

[Wings]

On 2/14/2017 at 11:20 PM, Glade said:

Yeah, scientology salivates at the idea of being able to portray Leah and Mike as craven adulterers using their sham show to cover up an illicit affair.  In very church-like behavior, they even tried to make an attractive young scientologist seduce Mike Rinder's current wife when he was out of town.   

I am listening to more of these Nick Lister interviews now.  Compelling and fucking gorgeous man! 

Cruise kicked his 13 year old niece out of COS with the clause that she could work her way back in.  She was cut off from her family and on her own at that age going from LA to St Louis and eventually Clearwater; Nick befriended her.  What was her crime?   She made out with a boy on Tom Cruises' property!  Oh the horror.  Wonder what Tom was doing with girls or boys as a young teen?  Something, that is for sure.  

I like what Nick has to say and his style of his recounting. He is solid and speaking from a place of personal power and wit.

[druzy]

@wings707 thanks for that post! I'll be spending part of my day watching these videos. Amazing interview and Nick is very easy on the eye!

[Wings]

I am in love with Nick.  I hope more get onto these vids.  This link and this discussion is in the wrong thread. I am too busy cleaning as I listen to move it to another. 

[smorbie]

On 2/9/2017 at 1:38 PM, cjemaggie said:

I saw an article not too long ago about his (in her words,) "serial cheating." I guess I should have read the article instead of just the headline! Duh...

Well, that IS how she got him, after all.  I like her and love what she's doing with this show.  But she helped set those rules for her marriage, so, you reap what you sow.

[msrachelj]

On 8/10/2017 at 1:31 PM, smorbie said:

Well, that IS how she got him, after all.  I like her and love what she's doing with this show.  But she helped set those rules for her marriage, so, you reap what you sow.

once a cheater, usually always a cheater. you are always on your guard when you marry someone who cheated on their spouse with you. i love her also but don't have a lot of sympathy for those who put their wives or husbands through the pain of infidelity. 

[Teenybop29]

** just for clarity. i was originally responding to a user named Mrs. Smiths who commented this:  "..I'm wondering if they have developed some "feelings" for each other? She's admitted that she's a flirt, but in one episode she touched (his face?)...".***

***i dont know much about her . i was just wondering what that "communication style" is about. 

to mrs smith: Omg! THANK YOU for stating your thoughts. I was thinking the same thing when she touched his face ( I had to google if they were both still married) and the way she jokes or complement him sometimes. you're not delusional. She comes off flirty. I wouldn't be comfortable with her touching my husbands face intimately like that .she may not notice how weird it is if it's just her personality. maybe she's got so much love for him that she sees him as a grandfather figure. maybe its a grandpa kind of endearment, but for me as a wife....touching my man like that would be unacceptable.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Teenybop29

[Kromm]

Leah's no saint, but I don't see it. She's always performing, at least a little bit, even when she's sincere.  She's one of those people who tend to want to be the center of attention, so that's all that's going on.

I've finally gotten to the point where I can forgive, if not forget, how viscously she used to go full on against Scientology critics (anyone who really doubts that REALLY has to look up the Howard Stern Show she did where he first asked her about CoS), because this show certainly did some good, but that doesn't totally change who she is.  The Scientology defenses against her that she's doing this to make money are kind of real and vastly overstated/used as a distraction at the same time.  She is.  She's making money off this. And she's feeding her ego a tad.  But she's not putting out invalid information the way the Scientology creeps are pretending she is.  She clubbing them over the head with the truth about their freaking cult, that's all.  And if she happens to be touchy/feely with people, especially Mike, again that's just her communication style. Extreme extrovert.  It's the same reason she talks over people so often.

The important thing is that even with her faults and foibles, that does nothing to change who the bad guys are here. The cultists.  With the caveat that she and Mike didn't used to be that, but pretty effective versions of it.  If we want to say it's the system they were in, fine.  We'll say it.  But the same way I see ex-Scientologists often want to be sensitive about casting blame on the people still inside in fear of getting those folks defensive and/or feeling too guilty to leave out of fear of accepting blame, we can't just erase that blame.  At the very least, David Miscavige belongs in Prison.  And heck, I'll say it.  Tom Cruise.  Anyone posing him as a sucker, a victim in this, or just hoodwinked is being insulting to our intelligence.  Cruise is garbage in human form.  

Edited December 11, 2020 by Kromm