Gwen Shamblin’s Controversial Story Gets the Lifetime Treatment in New Trailer Starring Jennifer Grey
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Jennifer Grey has undergone a hair-raising transformation.
The Dirty Dancing star plays self-proclaimed spiritual diet guru Gwen Shamblin in the trailer for Lifetime's Gwen Shamblin: Starving For Salvation.
Known just as much for her striking hairstyle as her controversial religious teachings—"The higher the hair, the closer to God," she says in the trailer—the movie tells the real-life story of Gwen, the founder of the Tennessee-based Remnant Fellowship Church and the Weigh Down Workshop.
"The demon isn't food," Jennifer's Gwen says in the trailer. "It's sin."
The Weigh Down Workshop was a Christian-based diet program that alleged prayer and a healthy relationship with a higher power had a direct correlation to weight loss.
"Your stomach doesn't need food," Gwen says. "It needs God."
And, as the trailer shows, Gwen's concept earned her legions of devoted followers. As one says to Gwen, "We'll follow you wherever you lead us." Gwen's concept earned her legions of devoted followers. As one says to Gwen, "We'll follow you wherever you lead us."
"As her church grew across the nation, so did her iron-fisted grip as its leader," the network says, "accumulating power and money, while creating a larger-than-life public persona with dramatically teased and towering hair."
Gwen's story, which was also documented in the 2021 HBO Max docu-series The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin, becomes more sinister as her stature within the organization continues to grow.
"At the peak of her power and influence, Gwen demanded that church members alienate themselves from anyone who was not a member," the network continues, "banished those that became overweight, threatened legal action against dissenters, and advocated for strict punishment of those who failed to follow church tenets."
Ultimately, Gwen's saga ended in shocking fashion when a plane being flown by her husband Joe Lara crashed in May 2021, killing Gwen, Joe, their son-in-law and four other Remnant Fellowship Church leaders.
Gwen Shamblin: Starving For Salvation premieres Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. on Lifetime.
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