On the November 21st episode of the syndicated TV show "The Doctors," spooky Scientologist Kelly Preston shilled for her fellow sect member Kirstie Alley's Organic Liaison diet program. As part of the show, Preston presented a taped piece in which she visited a place called Alternative Laboratories, which makes supplements for Alley's company. What Preston didn't say is that the "expert" in the Alternative Laboratories segment had his pharmacy license suspended in 2004 for ten years after pleading guilty to a host of charges of fraud and for failing a personal drug test.
Arriving in the Naples, Florida offices of Alternative Laboratories, Preston called a man in a lab coat "Dr. Ryan." But Ryan Margot is not a medical doctor, which was the implication. Margot is the Research and Development Director of Alternative Laboratories. In fact, he was once a pharmacist. But Ryan Margot's pharmacy license was suspended in 2004. He pleaded guilty to 39 counts of obtaining drugs like Hydrocodone through fraud. The emergency suspension reads: "Upon questioning, Mr. Margot admitted to diverting 46 prescriptions, totaling 4,830 pills…Margot was arrested on August 21, 2001." He was charged with grand theft.
There's more, and it's all bad. Margot pleaded guilty to 39 counts of "obtaining or attempting to obtain, or possession of controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception, or subterfuge." He got ten years in a Florida State Prison, suspended sentence, and 60 months of drug probation.
You'd think that was bad enough. But in July 2004 Margot failed a urine test for Bultalbital, Hydrocodone, and Hydromorphone. He was re-arrested for violation of probation. That was when his license as a pharmacist was finally suspended.
For the last two years, Margot has worked for Alternative Labs, identified in Preston's piece as the place Kirstie Alley uses to prepare foods and diet supplements. He gave Preston a short lecture on the value of "organic foods" and was identified as an expert on the subject. "The Doctors" apparently just took the taped segment from Preston without questioning it.
Kevin Thomas, who owns Alternative Labs, told me tonight by phone that he did not know Margot's history. But he also doesn't care. He said that Margot was a great guy whose problems were behind him. He said Margot had told him he'd had some personal problems with drugs. Thomas was unaware of Margot's ten year suspension. He also said, "We don't have those kinds of drugs around here." Thomas also told me he is not a Scientologist.
I wrote three years ago that Organic Liaison was just another front for Scientology. Alley denounced me on the Today show. But the story stands. Since I wrote it, Alley has added another top Scientologist, Brit Andrew Banks, to the advisory board.
Preston was allowed by "The Doctors' to promote Organic Liaison without question. She also made wild claims on the show which the so-called "doctors" did not dispute. Among them that her late son Jett's autism "was going away" when he died. Autism does not "go away."
For years, Preston and John Travolta insisted that Jett was not autistic. They claimed that Jett had Kawasaki Syndrome, and stuck to it even after Jett died. It was only in the police report from the Bahamas, after Jett died, that Travolta admitted to the authorities that Jett was autistic. Nevertheless, it's pretty clear Jett was never treated for autism. His "nanny" was a man named Jeff Kathrein, who was not a nurse but a wedding photographer from Tampa. No one has ever adequately explained why Jett was in Kathrein's care.
Kathrein can be seen in a YouTube video taken in Paris of Travolta, Preston, Jett and daughter Ella Blue. Jett is clearly not "with it" in the video. He is so oblivious to what's going on around him that he can't even move over in as SUV to let Travolta sit down. The father has to climb over the son to get in. The look on Travolta's face says it all. He's in pain, concerned about his son because he knows he's vulnerable. It's actually kind of heartbreaking.
