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Shocking Details: Allison Mack's Sex Cult Wife Secretly Working In Brooklyn Bar
Allison Mack’s NXIVM sex cult wife, Nicki Clyne, has been secretly managing a New York bar. RadarOnline.com has exclusive details about her behavior.radaronline.com
Smallville's Allison Mack Arrested for being in Sex Cult (Update HBO has a Documentary True Crime Series)
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‘Smallville’ Actor Callum Blue Reveals He Once Belonged To NXIVM
His ex co-star Allison Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering charges related to cult.
September 25, 2019 @ 9:59AM
Photo Credit: Shutterstock (2)
Allison MackOpens a New Window. apparently wasn’t the only former Smallville actor who became involved in the NXIVM sex cult, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a shocking clip of E!’s upcoming True Hollywood Story series, Dynasty star Catherine Oxenberg – who went on a pursuit to get her daughter India out of NXIVM in 2018 – revealed that Mack’s co-star Callum Blue joined Keith RaniereOpens a New Window.’s organization years ago.
At the time of Blue’s alleged involvement, he took an ESP course, which stood for Executive Success Program, which were focused on self-improvement. In the E! clipOpens a New Window. below, Blue, now 42, revealed he was not in a good place when he became involved in Raniere’s organization.
“At the height of my popularity, I went through some trauma. My father took his own life and I continued working and I was caught up in this spiral of chaos because Hollywood can be a chaotic and noisy place,” Blue said.
The actor added: “And that really opened me up to looking to the outside world to find the answers.”
Volume 90%
As Radar readers know, Mack pleaded guiltyOpens a New Window. to racketeering charges earlier this year and is currently on house arrest at her parents home in California awaiting sentencing. She is facing up to 40 years for the crimes.
Meanwhile, Raniere is currently housed behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He was found guilty of seven feloniesOpens a New Window. including child exploitation of a minor and sex trafficking for leading the cult’s inner sex ring known as DOS.
BRANDING BODIES & FILMED NUDITY: EX-NXIVM MEMBER EXPOSES ALLISON MACK’S CORRUPT BEHAVIOR IN NEW TELL-ALLOPENS A NEW WINDOW.
In August 2018, Radar confirmed that Catherine’s daughter India, 28, fled New YorkOpens a New Window. after leaving NXIVM.
Catherine released a memoirOpens a New Window. about her fight against NXIVM last year titled Captive: A Mother’s Crusade to Save Her Daughter from a Terrifying Cult.
In the tell-all, Catherine, who introduced India to the cult before knowing its dangers, claimed that Mack was a sadistic sex slave who called herself “Madam Mack” and “Pimp Mack.” Catherine claimed she was told that Mack instructed the women to not only have sex with middle-aged Raniere but the ex-TV star also “granted” the females permission to “enjoy” it.
NANCY GRACE BELIEVES ALLISON MACK DESERVES SAME SENTENCE AS NXIVM SEX CULT LEADEROPENS A NEW WINDOW.
In addition to Blue and Mack, ex-Smallville star Kristin Kreuk has also opened up about her former involvement in NXIVM years ago at age 23. She explained she got involved in NXIVM because it “helped” her overcome shyness. But she stressed she had no knowledge of the group’s secret sex circle.
“The accusations that I was in the ‘inner circle’ or recruited women as ‘sex slaves’ are blatantly false,” she told ElleOpens a New Window. in a statement this year.
this documentary BETTER do it JUSTICE!!!!
THANK YOU as always cuz
HBO Max Launches ‘Save for 12’ Promotional Offer
LOS ANGELES – Sept. 3, 2020 – HBO Max is kicking off Labor Day weekend by bringing back its popular “Save for 12” promotion. Beginning tomorrow, Sept. 4,
This shit is crazy but I'm not surprised. Whenever you have an organization or structure where you have one dude at the top with no checks and balances it's always a recipe for disaster.
Why NXIVM Went After ‘the Beautiful People’
By Dan Reilly
In advance of the fourth episode of HBO’s The Vow, Vulture has an exclusive clip that sheds light on how NXIVM members were recruited into the multilevel marketing scheme/sex-trafficking cult. As with any organization like this, the question outsiders always want to know is, “How could you let yourself fall for it?”
In the clip from this Sunday’s episode, “Building Character,” NXIVM escapee/whistle-blower Bonnie Piesse talks with former actress Catherine Oxenberg, who’s also the daughter of a former princess of Yugoslavia and a cousin to the British royal family. Oxenberg became involved with NXIVM and brought her daughter, India, into the organization’s Executive Success Programs, or ESPs, which promised a sort of spiritual growth to enhance members’ business skills. Piesse, meanwhile, was recruited into the organization by filmmaker Mark Vicente, one of the main focuses of The Vow. While Catherine, Vicente, and Piesse left the cult, India Oxenberg stayed loyal to its founder, Keith Raniere, whose initials were branded onto numerous women as they served as his sex slaves. India rose to the level of ordering other women to be branded, become “slaves” to others in the cult, and have sex with Raniere while providing photographic evidence that they’d completed their supposed mission of seducing him. Those photos, and sometimes videos, were then used as blackmail to keep the women from leaving NXIVM.
“I’m trying to find a reason why. I thought she was the happiest, most-evolved, well-adjusted child imaginable,” Catherine Oxenberg says of India, wondering how she could become a victim of Raniere and his acolytes. Piesse says that’s exactly the point — NXIVM’s leaders sought wealthy, beautiful people to join so they could project an image of purity and prosperity.
“People keep trying to fucking tell me it’s because you’re deficient and you’re weird, and you’re damaged, and you’re vulnerable,” Piesse tells Oxenberg. “No, they go for the people who are successful, easy people to get along with, capable of doing things. That’s who they want to run their cult, especially if you’re trying to get credibility.”
Catherine Oxenberg eventually wrote a memoir about her ordeal with India, Captive: A Mother’s Crusade to Save Her Daughter From a Terrifying Cult, which was turned into a Lifetime movie. According to reports, India left NXIVM after Raniere’s arrest on sex-trafficking and fraud charges, and hopes to write her own book about it someday. Check out the clip from episode four of The Vow, airing this Sunday at 10 p.m. on HBO and available to stream via HBO Max, and be sure to keep up with Vulture’s weekly recaps of this gripping documentary series.
By Dan Reilly
In advance of the fourth episode of HBO’s The Vow, Vulture has an exclusive clip that sheds light on how NXIVM members were recruited into the multilevel marketing scheme/sex-trafficking cult. As with any organization like this, the question outsiders always want to know is, “How could you let yourself fall for it?”
In the clip from this Sunday’s episode, “Building Character,” NXIVM escapee/whistle-blower Bonnie Piesse talks with former actress Catherine Oxenberg, who’s also the daughter of a former princess of Yugoslavia and a cousin to the British royal family. Oxenberg became involved with NXIVM and brought her daughter, India, into the organization’s Executive Success Programs, or ESPs, which promised a sort of spiritual growth to enhance members’ business skills. Piesse, meanwhile, was recruited into the organization by filmmaker Mark Vicente, one of the main focuses of The Vow. While Catherine, Vicente, and Piesse left the cult, India Oxenberg stayed loyal to its founder, Keith Raniere, whose initials were branded onto numerous women as they served as his sex slaves. India rose to the level of ordering other women to be branded, become “slaves” to others in the cult, and have sex with Raniere while providing photographic evidence that they’d completed their supposed mission of seducing him. Those photos, and sometimes videos, were then used as blackmail to keep the women from leaving NXIVM.
“I’m trying to find a reason why. I thought she was the happiest, most-evolved, well-adjusted child imaginable,” Catherine Oxenberg says of India, wondering how she could become a victim of Raniere and his acolytes. Piesse says that’s exactly the point — NXIVM’s leaders sought wealthy, beautiful people to join so they could project an image of purity and prosperity.
“People keep trying to fucking tell me it’s because you’re deficient and you’re weird, and you’re damaged, and you’re vulnerable,” Piesse tells Oxenberg. “No, they go for the people who are successful, easy people to get along with, capable of doing things. That’s who they want to run their cult, especially if you’re trying to get credibility.”
Catherine Oxenberg eventually wrote a memoir about her ordeal with India, Captive: A Mother’s Crusade to Save Her Daughter From a Terrifying Cult, which was turned into a Lifetime movie. According to reports, India left NXIVM after Raniere’s arrest on sex-trafficking and fraud charges, and hopes to write her own book about it someday. Check out the clip from episode four of The Vow, airing this Sunday at 10 p.m. on HBO and available to stream via HBO Max, and be sure to keep up with Vulture’s weekly recaps of this gripping documentary series.
Actually, the Cultiest Part of The Vow Is the Night Volleyball
By Kathryn VanArendonk@kvanaren
With even a touch more context for what’s happening, the NXIVM volleyball situation goes from benign to overwhelmingly cultlike. Photo: HBO
There were so many explicitly cult-y things going on in the NXIVM cult, especially as described by the captivating HBO docuseries The Vow. A select group of women were literally branded with the leader’s initials, which is horrifying and violent and one element of why the founders should go to jail for a long time. At the upper levels, members of NXIVM were participating in master-slave relationships with their mentors. Women were encouraged to starve themselves for the sake of personal growth. Even at the entry levels, stuff at NXIVM was bizarre — the colored sashes, the stripe path, the insistence that the true intellectual hub of the world is Albany.
No question, the branding is horrific. The starvation is horrific. The sashes are weird. The Albany thing could be something to do with real-estate prices? As I see it, though, and as depicted in The Vow, a different aspect of NXIVM should’ve been the red line, the “this is obviously a cult” warning for its participants. Because long before anyone got to the point of branding, there was volleyball.
It shows up first in The Vow’s second episode, and it’s presented as just another unusual thing about the organization. After all, once everyone has acclimated to a hierarchy based on colored silk sashes (sashes that have to be regularly ironed, by the way), a groupwide volleyball hobby doesn’t seem that odd. On paper, it seems sort of fun. It extends the summer-camp-like mood of some of NXIVM’s programming, that feeling where everyone spends tons of time together, all experiencing stuff that will never make sense to an outsider who wasn’t there in that moment. Many scenes in the docuseries were shot at a YMCA summer camp, in fact, where NXIVM would hold its annual weeklong retreat. You can see it in everyone’s faces as they traipse around this beautiful property. At heart, they are all camp kids who want to sit around a fire and talk about the meaning of friendship. So, yeah, it feels obvious that they’d also be really into their regular volleyball meet-ups.
When you see it, though, the volleyball is something else entirely. Okay, not entirely. It’s volleyball. There are nets, shorts, and sweat bands. It’s in an ordinary gym with bad fluorescent lighting. There’s a scene where a man (NXIVM founder Keith Raniere) shows a woman (Sarah Edmundson, one of the docuseries’s main subjects) how to serve correctly. It’s volleyball!
But with even a touch more context for what’s happening, the volleyball situation goes from benign to overwhelmingly cultlike. Volleyball only happens in the dead of night. As former NXIVM member Mark Vicente explains, Raniere never showed up at the gym before 10:30 or 11 at night, and volleyball would continue until possibly 7 a.m. And even if volleyball weren’t strictly mandatory for NXIVM members, it was highly encouraged for anyone who wanted to rise in the NXIVM rankings. Later, as Vicente describes his frustration that Raniere was withholding his one-on-one attention, he explains that Raniere would occasionally ignore Vicente’s requests and deflect. “‘Come to volleyball, come to volleyball,’” Vicente remembers Raniere telling him.
“I didn’t understand volleyball at first,” Vicente says in episode two, “but it became a big social event.” Vicente describes the scene: Keith and his crew show up at this gym late at night, and between volleyball games they’d sit around on the bleachers while NXIVM adherents gathered around to ask questions. It was, if you will excuse the pun, a place where Raniere could hold court.
While there’s plenty of recorded material about the most disturbing things that happened inside NXIVM — the brandings, the intense calorie counting, the mental intimidation — most of it does not appear as filmed footage in The Vow. There’s mountains of footage of other stuff, especially from all the NXIVM/ESP workshops led by Raniere, Vicente, and others. Those workshops, though, are designed to seem as anodyne and unthreatening as possible. The footage we see is usually of a few people standing in front of a presentation-size pad of white paper. They scribble on it with big markers. They hold enormous cups of takeout coffee while they talk about being your best self. They’re standing in rooms that look like badly lit, budget hotel meeting rooms. The workshops are modeled after the look and feel of middle-manager corporate America, and not even big, scary corporations that probably have a lot of money. That’s the point, of course. It’s definitely a cult, but it’s also indistinguishable from a regional insurance brokers’ conference.
The volleyball, though — the images of these gathered people, huddled adoringly around Raniere in the middle of the night, squeezing together on bleachers so they can be close to him. The Vow spends a lot of energy explaining just how much of NXIVM was a cult of personality with Raniere at the center, but it’s never clearer than in those volleyball scenes. In one moment from episode four, the actress Alison Mack meets Raniere for the first time at a volleyball night, and she goes from a calm and happy greeting to her eyes filling with tears as Raniere tells her that art is actually nothing and that she is responsible for all her unhappiness. She looks at him with awe, a stunned expression on her face. Meanwhile, Raniere sits on the bleachers looking like a minor character in a Danny McBride show. His long hair is tied in a ponytail, there’s a hideous terry-cloth sweatband around his forehead, and he has a look that says, “It’s so great that I’ve convinced all these idiots to listen to my nonsense in between 3 a.m. volleyball matches.”
Together these scenes comprise The Vow’s most unexpected and indelible motif, rendered even more so by the knowledge that it’s volleyball — volleyball, for Pete’s sake! Not even beach volleyball! Just regular volleyball! It’s a sport you’ve heard of, you know roughly what it’s about and someone likely forced you to learn it in school. But it’s also distinctly second-tier in the pantheon of American sports. It is, if we’re honest with ourselves, the Albany of sports.
That disconcerting combination is what makes the volleyball scenes the most unnervingly cult-ish material in the series. The essence of a cult is that the participants believe, even as people outside the cult cannot fathom how anyone could ever get swept up in something like that. Much of The Vow is about trying to break down that sense of mystery, to get inside and explain that NXIVM had massive appeal, that Raniere really was this powerful, magnetic presence. I don’t feel that appeal myself when I watch the volleyball scenes, but more than anywhere else in The Vow, that’s where his appeal is reflected in the faces of the NXIVM members.
By Kathryn VanArendonk@kvanaren
With even a touch more context for what’s happening, the NXIVM volleyball situation goes from benign to overwhelmingly cultlike. Photo: HBO
There were so many explicitly cult-y things going on in the NXIVM cult, especially as described by the captivating HBO docuseries The Vow. A select group of women were literally branded with the leader’s initials, which is horrifying and violent and one element of why the founders should go to jail for a long time. At the upper levels, members of NXIVM were participating in master-slave relationships with their mentors. Women were encouraged to starve themselves for the sake of personal growth. Even at the entry levels, stuff at NXIVM was bizarre — the colored sashes, the stripe path, the insistence that the true intellectual hub of the world is Albany.
No question, the branding is horrific. The starvation is horrific. The sashes are weird. The Albany thing could be something to do with real-estate prices? As I see it, though, and as depicted in The Vow, a different aspect of NXIVM should’ve been the red line, the “this is obviously a cult” warning for its participants. Because long before anyone got to the point of branding, there was volleyball.
It shows up first in The Vow’s second episode, and it’s presented as just another unusual thing about the organization. After all, once everyone has acclimated to a hierarchy based on colored silk sashes (sashes that have to be regularly ironed, by the way), a groupwide volleyball hobby doesn’t seem that odd. On paper, it seems sort of fun. It extends the summer-camp-like mood of some of NXIVM’s programming, that feeling where everyone spends tons of time together, all experiencing stuff that will never make sense to an outsider who wasn’t there in that moment. Many scenes in the docuseries were shot at a YMCA summer camp, in fact, where NXIVM would hold its annual weeklong retreat. You can see it in everyone’s faces as they traipse around this beautiful property. At heart, they are all camp kids who want to sit around a fire and talk about the meaning of friendship. So, yeah, it feels obvious that they’d also be really into their regular volleyball meet-ups.
When you see it, though, the volleyball is something else entirely. Okay, not entirely. It’s volleyball. There are nets, shorts, and sweat bands. It’s in an ordinary gym with bad fluorescent lighting. There’s a scene where a man (NXIVM founder Keith Raniere) shows a woman (Sarah Edmundson, one of the docuseries’s main subjects) how to serve correctly. It’s volleyball!
But with even a touch more context for what’s happening, the volleyball situation goes from benign to overwhelmingly cultlike. Volleyball only happens in the dead of night. As former NXIVM member Mark Vicente explains, Raniere never showed up at the gym before 10:30 or 11 at night, and volleyball would continue until possibly 7 a.m. And even if volleyball weren’t strictly mandatory for NXIVM members, it was highly encouraged for anyone who wanted to rise in the NXIVM rankings. Later, as Vicente describes his frustration that Raniere was withholding his one-on-one attention, he explains that Raniere would occasionally ignore Vicente’s requests and deflect. “‘Come to volleyball, come to volleyball,’” Vicente remembers Raniere telling him.
“I didn’t understand volleyball at first,” Vicente says in episode two, “but it became a big social event.” Vicente describes the scene: Keith and his crew show up at this gym late at night, and between volleyball games they’d sit around on the bleachers while NXIVM adherents gathered around to ask questions. It was, if you will excuse the pun, a place where Raniere could hold court.
While there’s plenty of recorded material about the most disturbing things that happened inside NXIVM — the brandings, the intense calorie counting, the mental intimidation — most of it does not appear as filmed footage in The Vow. There’s mountains of footage of other stuff, especially from all the NXIVM/ESP workshops led by Raniere, Vicente, and others. Those workshops, though, are designed to seem as anodyne and unthreatening as possible. The footage we see is usually of a few people standing in front of a presentation-size pad of white paper. They scribble on it with big markers. They hold enormous cups of takeout coffee while they talk about being your best self. They’re standing in rooms that look like badly lit, budget hotel meeting rooms. The workshops are modeled after the look and feel of middle-manager corporate America, and not even big, scary corporations that probably have a lot of money. That’s the point, of course. It’s definitely a cult, but it’s also indistinguishable from a regional insurance brokers’ conference.
The volleyball, though — the images of these gathered people, huddled adoringly around Raniere in the middle of the night, squeezing together on bleachers so they can be close to him. The Vow spends a lot of energy explaining just how much of NXIVM was a cult of personality with Raniere at the center, but it’s never clearer than in those volleyball scenes. In one moment from episode four, the actress Alison Mack meets Raniere for the first time at a volleyball night, and she goes from a calm and happy greeting to her eyes filling with tears as Raniere tells her that art is actually nothing and that she is responsible for all her unhappiness. She looks at him with awe, a stunned expression on her face. Meanwhile, Raniere sits on the bleachers looking like a minor character in a Danny McBride show. His long hair is tied in a ponytail, there’s a hideous terry-cloth sweatband around his forehead, and he has a look that says, “It’s so great that I’ve convinced all these idiots to listen to my nonsense in between 3 a.m. volleyball matches.”
Together these scenes comprise The Vow’s most unexpected and indelible motif, rendered even more so by the knowledge that it’s volleyball — volleyball, for Pete’s sake! Not even beach volleyball! Just regular volleyball! It’s a sport you’ve heard of, you know roughly what it’s about and someone likely forced you to learn it in school. But it’s also distinctly second-tier in the pantheon of American sports. It is, if we’re honest with ourselves, the Albany of sports.
That disconcerting combination is what makes the volleyball scenes the most unnervingly cult-ish material in the series. The essence of a cult is that the participants believe, even as people outside the cult cannot fathom how anyone could ever get swept up in something like that. Much of The Vow is about trying to break down that sense of mystery, to get inside and explain that NXIVM had massive appeal, that Raniere really was this powerful, magnetic presence. I don’t feel that appeal myself when I watch the volleyball scenes, but more than anywhere else in The Vow, that’s where his appeal is reflected in the faces of the NXIVM members.
I've been here I just don't comment as much as I did in the past.
Keith Raniere, leader of the alleged sex cult known as NXIVM, sentenced to 120 years in prison
Raniere was the leader of the alleged sex cult known as NXIVM, whose followers included millionaires and celebrities. He had previously been found guilty for charges that included sex trafficking and child pornography. He was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday after over a dozen of his victims gave testimonies about how he sexually abused them.
Raniere was the leader of the alleged sex cult known as NXIVM, whose followers included millionaires and celebrities. He had previously been found guilty for charges that included sex trafficking and child pornography. He was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday after over a dozen of his victims gave testimonies about how he sexually abused them.
Which NXIVM Docuseries Is Right for You?
By Kathryn VanArendonk@kvanaren
So you’ve decided you want to learn more about NXIVM… Photo-Illustration: Vulture, HBO and Starz
Keith Raniere, the founder of misogynistic pyramid scheme/nightmarish sex cult/baffling late-night volleyball club NXIVM, was sentenced this week to a whopping 120 years in prison. Raniere’s sentencing comes at a moment when it feels like everyone you know is suddenly interested in NXIVM, and that surge in fascination is because there’s not one, not two, but several different documentary projects currently fueling the NXIVM curiosity. Two of them are very recent or currently running docuseries, The Vow and Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult, and although you might reasonably assume they present similar pictures of the organization, they’re surprisingly different depictions of exactly what Raniere and his followers believed.
It’s not just that they come at the question from different angles — it’s that the choice of what to emphasize in the NXIVM story radically shifts your understanding of Raniere’s crimes. That sense of how the story can shift becomes even clearer if you dig a little further back and check out the Escaping NXIVM season of the CBC podcast Uncover.
The odds are good that if you find yourself particularly gripped by NXIVM, you’re going to check out more than one of these. And unlike the competing Fyre Festival documentaries, if you’re fascinated by the story, it’s worth watching or listening to more than one. And fear not: Keith Raniere’s strange obsession with volleyball will show up regardless of which docuseries you pick.
The Vow (HBO and HBOMax)
How long is it? It’s a roughly nine-hour docuseries, but HBO recently announced that The Vow has been renewed for a second season, which puts some real pressure on that thin line between docuseries and reality show.
Who made it? The filmmakers Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer, who became interested in NXIVM after Noujaim herself took classes in the organization and became close with some of its members. Noujaim’s previous work includes the documentaries The Square and The Great Hack.
Who are the main characters? The Vow features accounts from many voices, including the actress Catherine Oxenberg and one woman who describes her experiences but prefers not to provide her name. But the central figures are Mark Vicente, his wife Bonnie Piesse, and Sarah Edmondson, all former high-level NXIVM members who have left the group.
What’s the major appeal? The Vow is an artsy, dreamy production, a series that deliberately feels very different from your standard true crime documentary. It’s much more invested in emotion and tone than in narrative clarity. The Vow’s biggest strength is in recreating the kind of slowly unfurling realization that the former NXIVM members themselves would’ve experienced. Rather than present all the facts in an orderly, chronological way, The Vow takes viewers on a winding journey. It holds back the worst moments until later in the season, in a way that mimics NXIVM’s own confusing, compelling pathway into the truly dark stuff at the center. Chief among The Vow’s appeal, though, is the sheer tonnage of archival material it has to work with, much of it recorded by Vicente, who is himself a filmmaker.
What’s the biggest drawback? That winding pathway? It’s beguiling but it’s not particularly up front about how NXIVM worked, what any of its mysterious subgroups were, or what founder Keith Raniere’s ideology even is. There’s a persistent sense that things inside NXIVM were clearly bad, but The Vow leaves enormous holes where you’d think some of the story’s most fascinating details would go. It glosses over Raniere’s past and ignores his number two Nancy Salzman as well as the mysterious Bronfman sisters who apparently provided much of the money. The Vow also spends quite a while on the guilt of its former members, and much less time on what they’re actually guilty about: there’s remarkably little attention, for instance, on Raniere’s violent misogyny.
Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult (Starz)
How long is it? The series is four episodes long, with each episode clocking in at an hour or longer.
Who made it? It’s executive-produced and directed by Cecilia Peck, whose previous documentaries include Brave Miss World and Shut Up & Sing. One of its other executive producers is India Oxenberg, who is the main character at the center of the series.
Who are the main characters? While The Vow tries to take a more sweeping look at NXIVM, Seduced focuses quite narrowly on India Oxenberg, a former high-level NXIVM member. In some ways it feels like a sequel to The Vow — significant chunks of the HBO series are dedicated to Catherine Oxenberg trying to drum up public awareness so she can get the cult shut down and force India to leave. Seduced is India’s own story of her involvement, told from the perspective of finally leaving the group.
What’s the major appeal? All that clarity and forthright directness missing in The Vow? You can find it in Seduced, which is much more explicit and direct about exactly how bad it was for members of DOS, a secretive women’s group inside NXIVM. Many of the questions raised by The Vow are still unanswered (Nancy! Where are the details about Nancy!), but Seduced goes a long way toward rectifying The Vow’s wishy-washiness about the sexual power dynamics with Raniere and with other figures in the organization, including Allison Mack. Footage The Vow fails to notice — especially of some of Raniere’s more obviously disgusting teachings — gets much more emphatic focus. Seduced also makes an effort to put NXIVM’s operation into cultural context, with more footage of interviews with cult experts and trauma specialists.
What’s the biggest drawback? If the artful production values and mountains of archival footage are compelling draws for you, Seduced won’t hit in quite the same way. It relies more on animated re-enactments, and in general has a more familiar, blunt documentary style. As a series centered on one woman’s experience, its scope is also necessarily more limited, and it doesn’t have the sense that the story is unfurling in front of the cameras. It’s a retrospective, and it feels held at more of a remove.
Uncover Season 1 (produced by CBC)
How long is it? Uncover is a seven-season podcast to date, with the first season dedicated to NXIVM. That season is eight episodes long, with three additional bonus episodes. In total it runs about six and a half hours.
Who made it? It’s produced by CBC (which is like the Canadian version of NPR!), and the host is a journalist named Josh Bloch. Bloch is an interesting host figure for a NXIVM series because he is childhood friends with Sarah Edmondson, one of the most public former NXIVM members.
Who are the main characters? Bloch found the NXIVM story after reconnecting with Edmondson, someone he once knew fairly well when they were both in school. Edmondson is Bloch’s primary figure, but Uncover also includes interviews with several significant figures from Raniere’s past, with Edmondson’s husband Nippy, and with other experts who help Bloch contextualize both Raniere’s behavior and cults more broadly. Most notably, Bloch has a long conversation with Raniere’s defense attorney, and includes more coverage of Raniere’s trial.
What’s the major appeal? Uncover is really the best of all worlds, NXIVM-wise. It feels personal in much the same way The Vow and Seduced do, but Bloch’s presence as an interlocutor for Edmondson means that he can guide listeners through the information. Both Seduced and The Vow struggle to do this in a way that feels natural, and Uncover manages it smoothly, while also incorporating useful expert input. Bloch is transparent about his connection to the story, but he also uses his relationship with Edmondson to really push her on her participation in the cult, something The Vow shies away from. Maybe best of all, Uncover has the most thorough information on Raniere’s background, and also gets into some very weird details of his belief system that don’t show up on any of the other series.
What’s the biggest drawback? It’s a podcast, which means you lack all the visual punch of seeing Raniere decked out in his volleyball sweatbands. Without the visuals, you also lose some of the key textures of NXIVM’s strange intensity — the sashes, the summer camp vibes of their annual retreat, the bland corporate look of the intro classes. It was also produced earlier than the other docuseries, so much of it was made before major events like Raniere’s arrest and the larger collapse of the cult, although the bonus episodes address much of this.
By Kathryn VanArendonk@kvanaren
So you’ve decided you want to learn more about NXIVM… Photo-Illustration: Vulture, HBO and Starz
Keith Raniere, the founder of misogynistic pyramid scheme/nightmarish sex cult/baffling late-night volleyball club NXIVM, was sentenced this week to a whopping 120 years in prison. Raniere’s sentencing comes at a moment when it feels like everyone you know is suddenly interested in NXIVM, and that surge in fascination is because there’s not one, not two, but several different documentary projects currently fueling the NXIVM curiosity. Two of them are very recent or currently running docuseries, The Vow and Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult, and although you might reasonably assume they present similar pictures of the organization, they’re surprisingly different depictions of exactly what Raniere and his followers believed.
It’s not just that they come at the question from different angles — it’s that the choice of what to emphasize in the NXIVM story radically shifts your understanding of Raniere’s crimes. That sense of how the story can shift becomes even clearer if you dig a little further back and check out the Escaping NXIVM season of the CBC podcast Uncover.
The odds are good that if you find yourself particularly gripped by NXIVM, you’re going to check out more than one of these. And unlike the competing Fyre Festival documentaries, if you’re fascinated by the story, it’s worth watching or listening to more than one. And fear not: Keith Raniere’s strange obsession with volleyball will show up regardless of which docuseries you pick.
The Vow (HBO and HBOMax)
How long is it? It’s a roughly nine-hour docuseries, but HBO recently announced that The Vow has been renewed for a second season, which puts some real pressure on that thin line between docuseries and reality show.
Who made it? The filmmakers Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer, who became interested in NXIVM after Noujaim herself took classes in the organization and became close with some of its members. Noujaim’s previous work includes the documentaries The Square and The Great Hack.
Who are the main characters? The Vow features accounts from many voices, including the actress Catherine Oxenberg and one woman who describes her experiences but prefers not to provide her name. But the central figures are Mark Vicente, his wife Bonnie Piesse, and Sarah Edmondson, all former high-level NXIVM members who have left the group.
What’s the major appeal? The Vow is an artsy, dreamy production, a series that deliberately feels very different from your standard true crime documentary. It’s much more invested in emotion and tone than in narrative clarity. The Vow’s biggest strength is in recreating the kind of slowly unfurling realization that the former NXIVM members themselves would’ve experienced. Rather than present all the facts in an orderly, chronological way, The Vow takes viewers on a winding journey. It holds back the worst moments until later in the season, in a way that mimics NXIVM’s own confusing, compelling pathway into the truly dark stuff at the center. Chief among The Vow’s appeal, though, is the sheer tonnage of archival material it has to work with, much of it recorded by Vicente, who is himself a filmmaker.
What’s the biggest drawback? That winding pathway? It’s beguiling but it’s not particularly up front about how NXIVM worked, what any of its mysterious subgroups were, or what founder Keith Raniere’s ideology even is. There’s a persistent sense that things inside NXIVM were clearly bad, but The Vow leaves enormous holes where you’d think some of the story’s most fascinating details would go. It glosses over Raniere’s past and ignores his number two Nancy Salzman as well as the mysterious Bronfman sisters who apparently provided much of the money. The Vow also spends quite a while on the guilt of its former members, and much less time on what they’re actually guilty about: there’s remarkably little attention, for instance, on Raniere’s violent misogyny.
Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult (Starz)
How long is it? The series is four episodes long, with each episode clocking in at an hour or longer.
Who made it? It’s executive-produced and directed by Cecilia Peck, whose previous documentaries include Brave Miss World and Shut Up & Sing. One of its other executive producers is India Oxenberg, who is the main character at the center of the series.
Who are the main characters? While The Vow tries to take a more sweeping look at NXIVM, Seduced focuses quite narrowly on India Oxenberg, a former high-level NXIVM member. In some ways it feels like a sequel to The Vow — significant chunks of the HBO series are dedicated to Catherine Oxenberg trying to drum up public awareness so she can get the cult shut down and force India to leave. Seduced is India’s own story of her involvement, told from the perspective of finally leaving the group.
What’s the major appeal? All that clarity and forthright directness missing in The Vow? You can find it in Seduced, which is much more explicit and direct about exactly how bad it was for members of DOS, a secretive women’s group inside NXIVM. Many of the questions raised by The Vow are still unanswered (Nancy! Where are the details about Nancy!), but Seduced goes a long way toward rectifying The Vow’s wishy-washiness about the sexual power dynamics with Raniere and with other figures in the organization, including Allison Mack. Footage The Vow fails to notice — especially of some of Raniere’s more obviously disgusting teachings — gets much more emphatic focus. Seduced also makes an effort to put NXIVM’s operation into cultural context, with more footage of interviews with cult experts and trauma specialists.
What’s the biggest drawback? If the artful production values and mountains of archival footage are compelling draws for you, Seduced won’t hit in quite the same way. It relies more on animated re-enactments, and in general has a more familiar, blunt documentary style. As a series centered on one woman’s experience, its scope is also necessarily more limited, and it doesn’t have the sense that the story is unfurling in front of the cameras. It’s a retrospective, and it feels held at more of a remove.
Uncover Season 1 (produced by CBC)
How long is it? Uncover is a seven-season podcast to date, with the first season dedicated to NXIVM. That season is eight episodes long, with three additional bonus episodes. In total it runs about six and a half hours.
Who made it? It’s produced by CBC (which is like the Canadian version of NPR!), and the host is a journalist named Josh Bloch. Bloch is an interesting host figure for a NXIVM series because he is childhood friends with Sarah Edmondson, one of the most public former NXIVM members.
Who are the main characters? Bloch found the NXIVM story after reconnecting with Edmondson, someone he once knew fairly well when they were both in school. Edmondson is Bloch’s primary figure, but Uncover also includes interviews with several significant figures from Raniere’s past, with Edmondson’s husband Nippy, and with other experts who help Bloch contextualize both Raniere’s behavior and cults more broadly. Most notably, Bloch has a long conversation with Raniere’s defense attorney, and includes more coverage of Raniere’s trial.
What’s the major appeal? Uncover is really the best of all worlds, NXIVM-wise. It feels personal in much the same way The Vow and Seduced do, but Bloch’s presence as an interlocutor for Edmondson means that he can guide listeners through the information. Both Seduced and The Vow struggle to do this in a way that feels natural, and Uncover manages it smoothly, while also incorporating useful expert input. Bloch is transparent about his connection to the story, but he also uses his relationship with Edmondson to really push her on her participation in the cult, something The Vow shies away from. Maybe best of all, Uncover has the most thorough information on Raniere’s background, and also gets into some very weird details of his belief system that don’t show up on any of the other series.
What’s the biggest drawback? It’s a podcast, which means you lack all the visual punch of seeing Raniere decked out in his volleyball sweatbands. Without the visuals, you also lose some of the key textures of NXIVM’s strange intensity — the sashes, the summer camp vibes of their annual retreat, the bland corporate look of the intro classes. It was also produced earlier than the other docuseries, so much of it was made before major events like Raniere’s arrest and the larger collapse of the cult, although the bonus episodes address much of this.
Vancouver actress who exposed NXIVM cult reacts to leader’s prison sentence
Former NXIVM member Sarah Edmondson says she’s breathing easier after the cult’s leader, Keith Raniere, was sentenced to 120 years in prison this week.
bc.ctvnews.ca
Jen Kirkman and Sara Schaefer Want You to Pick the Right NXIVM Documentary
By Anne Victoria Clark@annevclark
If you have some time today, sitting down for this conversation with Sara Schaefer and Jen Kirkman will help you sort through a lot of those loose thoughts you’ve been having but haven’t had time to Google. The comedians reconnected on Vulture’s Instagram show Two Friends: A Nice Time Hanging Out With People Who Know Each Other Well to discuss Schaefer’s memoir and Kirkman’s Christmas Zoom comedy show, and they also helped sort through all the issues the pandemic and the election made you forget you had. Questions like: Are there bears in the Grand Canyon? What is “Edinburgh”? What did we fail to appreciate about Nanette? And, finally, do we really need to watch multiple NXIVM documentaries? Apparently, the answer to that last one is a resounding yes, with Schaefer even reiterating her tweet from last week about how important watching Starz’s Seduced is for anyone who has seen The Vow.
“What you can tell by watching Seduced after watching The Vow is that The Vow is not telling you the whole story,” Schaefer said. “[With] The Vow, you have no idea that Keith Raniere was a pedophile,” Kirkman added. “Who was preaching that it’s okay to be one!” Also, an entirely separate but fun fact: A young Lifetime temp named Jen Kirkman used to have to regularly go to the Oxenberg family’s home in Malibu for her work on the reality show I Married a Princess and has fond memories of little India running around. What we’re saying is, she’s invested!
If you enjoyed this episode, follow Vulture on Instagram, and join us next week on November 17 when Dulcé Sloan and Fortune Feimster will be reconnecting live.
@fonzerrillii
www.hollywoodreporter.com
Allison Mack Speaks Out Days Before Sentencing: “This Was the Biggest Mistake and Regret of My Life”
The former 'Smallville' actress addressed "those who have been harmed by my actions" in her letter on Saturday.
BY TRILBY BERESFORD
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JUNE 26, 2021 3:16PM
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In a letter addressing “those who have been harmed by my actions,” which accompanied sentencing guideline recommendations from her attorneys and was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Mack wrote: “It is now of paramount importance for me to say, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry.”
“I threw myself into the teachings of Keith Raniere with everything I had,” she continued. “I believed, whole-heartedly, that his mentorship was leading me to a better, more enlightened version of myself. I devoted my loyalty, my resources, and, ultimately, my life to him. This was the biggest mistake and regret of my life,” Mack added.
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Her letter referenced “those harmed by the collateral damage of my destructive choices,” in which Mack wrote that she is dedicated to spending the rest of her life working to make amends and become a more compassionate woman.
A memo from Mack’s attorneys asked for no jail time on the consideration she has recognized that she has “committed grievous wrongs and that she has earned her punishment.”
The letter stated, that Mack has “publicly denounced Raniere (and her own prior association with Raniere) in the strongest possible terms.”
Her attorneys continued: “That is made clear by Ms. Mack’s plea allocution, her decision to cooperate completely and fully with the government, and is further underscored in her letter to this Court as well as her efforts to demonstrate her remorse to the public generally and more specifically to those she harmed. There is thus no need to impose an additional sentence of incarceration on Ms. Mack to achieve specific deterrence.”
Mack was arrested in 2018 and charged with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy. She pleaded guilty to charges alleging she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for Raniere, who was sentenced last October to 120 years in prison after being convicted of seven felonies.
Mack wrote in her letter, “I am sorry to those of you that I brought into Nxivm. I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man. I am sorry that I encouraged you to use your resources to participate in something that was ultimately so ugly. I do not take lightly the responsibility I have in the lives of those I love and I feel a heavy weight of guilt for having misused your trust, leading you down a negative path.”
Allison Mack Speaks Out Before Sentencing: “This Was the Biggest Mistake and Regret of My Life”
The former 'Smallville' actress addressed "those who have been harmed by my actions" in her letter on Saturday.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
Allison Mack Speaks Out Days Before Sentencing: “This Was the Biggest Mistake and Regret of My Life”
The former 'Smallville' actress addressed "those who have been harmed by my actions" in her letter on Saturday.
BY TRILBY BERESFORD
Plus Icon
JUNE 26, 2021 3:16PM
00:00 of 01:23Volume 0%
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In a letter addressing “those who have been harmed by my actions,” which accompanied sentencing guideline recommendations from her attorneys and was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Mack wrote: “It is now of paramount importance for me to say, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry.”
“I threw myself into the teachings of Keith Raniere with everything I had,” she continued. “I believed, whole-heartedly, that his mentorship was leading me to a better, more enlightened version of myself. I devoted my loyalty, my resources, and, ultimately, my life to him. This was the biggest mistake and regret of my life,” Mack added.
Related Stories
TVCatherine Oxenberg Reacts to Keith Raniere Sentencing: "It's Over for Him"
GENERAL NEWSNXIVM Defector India Oxenberg Breaks Silence on "Inhumane" Sex Cult
Her letter referenced “those harmed by the collateral damage of my destructive choices,” in which Mack wrote that she is dedicated to spending the rest of her life working to make amends and become a more compassionate woman.
A memo from Mack’s attorneys asked for no jail time on the consideration she has recognized that she has “committed grievous wrongs and that she has earned her punishment.”
The letter stated, that Mack has “publicly denounced Raniere (and her own prior association with Raniere) in the strongest possible terms.”
Her attorneys continued: “That is made clear by Ms. Mack’s plea allocution, her decision to cooperate completely and fully with the government, and is further underscored in her letter to this Court as well as her efforts to demonstrate her remorse to the public generally and more specifically to those she harmed. There is thus no need to impose an additional sentence of incarceration on Ms. Mack to achieve specific deterrence.”
Mack was arrested in 2018 and charged with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy. She pleaded guilty to charges alleging she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for Raniere, who was sentenced last October to 120 years in prison after being convicted of seven felonies.
Mack wrote in her letter, “I am sorry to those of you that I brought into Nxivm. I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man. I am sorry that I encouraged you to use your resources to participate in something that was ultimately so ugly. I do not take lightly the responsibility I have in the lives of those I love and I feel a heavy weight of guilt for having misused your trust, leading you down a negative path.”
@fonzerrillii
Allison Mack Speaks Out Before Sentencing: “This Was the Biggest Mistake and Regret of My Life”
The former 'Smallville' actress addressed "those who have been harmed by my actions" in her letter on Saturday.
Allison Mack Speaks Out Days Before Sentencing: “This Was the Biggest Mistake and Regret of My Life”
The former 'Smallville' actress addressed "those who have been harmed by my actions" in her letter on Saturday.
BY TRILBY BERESFORD
Plus Icon
JUNE 26, 2021 3:16PM
00:00 of 01:23Volume 0%
Former Smallville actress Allison Mack is speaking out in the days leading up to her sentencing for involvement in the NXIVM sex cult.
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In a letter addressing “those who have been harmed by my actions,” which accompanied sentencing guideline recommendations from her attorneys and was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Mack wrote: “It is now of paramount importance for me to say, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry.”
“I threw myself into the teachings of Keith Raniere with everything I had,” she continued. “I believed, whole-heartedly, that his mentorship was leading me to a better, more enlightened version of myself. I devoted my loyalty, my resources, and, ultimately, my life to him. This was the biggest mistake and regret of my life,” Mack added.
Related Stories
TVCatherine Oxenberg Reacts to Keith Raniere Sentencing: "It's Over for Him"
GENERAL NEWSNXIVM Defector India Oxenberg Breaks Silence on "Inhumane" Sex Cult
Her letter referenced “those harmed by the collateral damage of my destructive choices,” in which Mack wrote that she is dedicated to spending the rest of her life working to make amends and become a more compassionate woman.
A memo from Mack’s attorneys asked for no jail time on the consideration she has recognized that she has “committed grievous wrongs and that she has earned her punishment.”
The letter stated, that Mack has “publicly denounced Raniere (and her own prior association with Raniere) in the strongest possible terms.”
Her attorneys continued: “That is made clear by Ms. Mack’s plea allocution, her decision to cooperate completely and fully with the government, and is further underscored in her letter to this Court as well as her efforts to demonstrate her remorse to the public generally and more specifically to those she harmed. There is thus no need to impose an additional sentence of incarceration on Ms. Mack to achieve specific deterrence.”
Mack was arrested in 2018 and charged with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy. She pleaded guilty to charges alleging she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for Raniere, who was sentenced last October to 120 years in prison after being convicted of seven felonies.
Mack wrote in her letter, “I am sorry to those of you that I brought into Nxivm. I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man. I am sorry that I encouraged you to use your resources to participate in something that was ultimately so ugly. I do not take lightly the responsibility I have in the lives of those I love and I feel a heavy weight of guilt for having misused your trust, leading you down a negative path.”
White tears...
Allison Mack sentenced to 3 years in prison for role in NXIVM sex cult
The "Smallville" star received a lenient sentence after cooperating with the government in its case against Keith Raniere.
Allison Mack sentenced to 3 years in prison for role in NXIVM sex cult
The "Smallville" star received a lenient sentence after cooperating with the government in its case against Keith Raniere.www.yahoo.com
FOH.....this chick was the "bottom bitch" for that mfkr and only got 3 years?!
Wow.......
I HATE it here!
Mfkrs got more time for $50 of fucking weed
I honestly think that this is a situation where she got a lower sentence because of the evidence that she provided. But like you... i'm fucking tripping that she got the lightest sentence of all of them...
My gut is that the feds are going to use her shit... to go after Nxivm the organization ..
Right now as we speak ... Nxivm is still operating and Raniere is still talking to people
Who the fuck is Jessica Joan
I would love to smell her naked body
Allison Mack sentenced to three years in federal prison in NXIVM sex cult case
“I made choices I will forever regret,” the "Smallville" actor told the judge, adding that she was filled with “remorse and guilt.”
“I made choices I will forever regret,” the "Smallville" actor told the judge, adding that she was filled with “remorse and guilt.”
It's weird, in India Oxenbrg's doc, they made it seem like she(India) turned over the tape of them discussing branding chicks....but now I'm hearing that Allison did. Gotta read up more.
they had multiple "leaders" across US & Canada that reported up to Allison- those women ran their own branding ceremonies
thats a lot of branded hoes and videos of it