bdmetronews Desk ॥ As Allison Mack and Keith Raniere await trial, new details have emerged about how the Smallville actress ended up in an alleged sex cult in the first place.
The Hollywood Reporter interviewed people for an in-depth look at Mack’s disturbing rise to No. 2 in DOS, a secret society in the self-help group Nxivm, which stands for Dominus Obsequious Sororium or Master Over Slave Women. Mack and Raniere, the founder of Nxivm, have been charged with sex trafficking, sex-trafficking conspiracy, and forced-labor conspiracy for their involvement in the alleged sex cult.
So how did Mack go from a TV fan favorite to potential felon?
It started in late 2006, when she attended a two-day introduction to Jness in Vancouver. The program was billed as a “women’s movement” workshop within Nxivm and the then-23-year-old actress attended with thousands of other people around the world. Mack was living in Canada as she filmed Smallville and it was her co-star, Kristin Kreuk, who brought her along.
Kreuk, who played Lana Lang on the CW show, has admitted to being in Nxivm but denies any involvement in or knowledge of the secret sorority. She tweeted a statement explaining that she left the group years ago and has declined to comment further.
Susan Dones, a former Nxivm member and “field trainer” who had her own center in Washington state, tells THR that Raniere instructed members to roll out the red carpet for Mack. Nxivm’s president, Nancy Salzman, was speaking at the event and had her daughter Lauren seek out the young actress. “By the end of the weekend, Lauren and Allison were like best friends,” Dones, who left the group in 2009, recalls.
Mack, 35, has been in the entertainment industry for the better part of her life. She started acting at age 4 and was enrolled at the Young Actors Space in Los Angeles. (Leonardo DiCaprio and Keri Russell are a few notable names who attended the performing-arts academy.) Someone who worked with Mack — but didn’t want to be named — tells THR she was “as normal as ‘normal’ can be in this business … Her parents were just like, ‘This is what she wanted to do.’”
