WEBVTT

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Meet Spanky Taylor,

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a drama queen whose nail-biting account

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of a harrowing “escape”
from the Church of Scientology

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with her infant daughter in her arms

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is the sensationalized centerpiece
of Alex Gibney’s documentary…

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even if the story was pure fiction.

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Turns out Taylor is
quite the backpedaler, too.

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Because now that her fabricated yarn
has been indelibly committed to film,

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Spanky Taylor has a problem:

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She has a former husband,
attorney Norm Taylor,

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who was there, an eyewitness
to these same events.

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It just so happened, she didn’t
show up to work one day.

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She just said 'I’m not doing this anymore'

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and I talked to her . I said,
"Hey, what are you doing,

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just go in and follow the protocol
and you’ll be off staff

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and everything will be fine."

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Which is exactly what she did.
There was no escape involved at all.

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Alex Gibney knew all about this interview
with Spanky Taylor’s former husband,

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but ran with her story, anyway…

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In fact, Gibney refused to see
Norm Taylor three months earlier

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when Taylor came to New York to see him.

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Instead, Gibney gave Spanky Taylor
an unchallenged pass

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because he had already cast her
as the heroine of his video fantasy.

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And so HBO sent Taylor out
as a promotional mouthpiece.

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Very ill-advisedly, as it happens,

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because after being asked about
just one of her stories,

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Spanky Taylor immediately
started backpedaling.

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Your daughter was being,
you say, mistreated.

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Well, she, she was –

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she had a very nice little girl
who was taking care of her.

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And then, things go from bad to worse

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as the story of her great escape
starts to unravel.

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Now your ex-husband is on tape
challenging what you say. Here he is:

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As far as our daughter Vanessa,
she was in the care

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of a fulltime nanny and she had,
she got everything she needed.

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She was fed well,
she was changed constantly,

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I saw her every day.  As her father
I was there every day.

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I used to take her out in her stroller,
I took her for walks,

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I would sing to her – I loved my daughter
and I made darn sure

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that she was well taken care of.

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Would you say your ex-husband
who is an attorney is lying there?

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Um, I think from his perspective,

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that’s how he remembers it.

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That’s right - for Spanky Taylor,

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now the truth is only
what you care to remember,

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not what actually happened.

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And then awkwardly,
and in a nervous panic,

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Spanky Taylor blurts out just how long ago

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this tall tale supposedly occurred.

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I left many, many years ago.
I mean, more than a decade.

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I mean like, 30 years or more ago.

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It was 37 years ago, to be precise.

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In the 1970s.

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Yet Alex Gibney dusts off Spanky Taylor

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and, ignoring the testimony
of her former husband,

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presents her biased, distorted
and discredited story

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as if it were unshakeable truth,

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even when Spanky Taylor
herself backpedals from it.

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Because Alex Gibney
has a story of his own to tell.

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“I think we got the story that we wanted.”

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It’s not truth. It’s Alex Gibney. On HBO.