No matter what happens at the trials of former “That ’70s Show” star Danny Masterson, who is accused of raping three women two decades ago, and Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis, accused of raping a publicist a decade ago, the spotlight is on the controversial church that has been embraced by some of Hollywood’s biggest names — and derided as a cult by celebrity defectors and others.

“This is not going to be a trial on Scientology,” Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo warned at a pretrial hearing for Masterson, although she allowed the accusers to cite the church as a reason they waited to report the alleged rapes.

Scientology was started in 1952 by the science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. The religion asserts in its official statements of beliefs that man is an immortal spiritual being with unlimited capabilities, and it offers, for a price, one-on-one “auditing” and classes designed to help members achieve a “clear” spiritual state. It strongly opposes the science of psychiatry as “disastrous.”

Legal analysts said Scientology looms large over both proceedings.

“While it appears as if the judge is working hard to ensure that this trial is not about merits of Scientology, it is impossible for the witnesses to tell their stories without reference to the church,” said Sarah Krissoff, a top New York City defense attorney and former federal prosecutor who led investigations into sex trafficking and crimes against children. “It is all inextricably intertwined.”

All three of Masterson’s accusers were Scientologists, and two have testified that they were rebuffed when they told church officials Masterson had raped them and that they were subjected to stalking and other acts of retaliation after they reported the alleged assaults to police.

“She had told me not to use the word ‘rape,’” testified an accuser identified as Jane Doe #3, recounting a conversation she had two decades ago with Scientology ethics officer Miranda Scoggins at the church’s Celebrity Centre International in Hollywood.

The accuser said Scoggins told her: “I had done something to cause it. … We’re all responsible for the condition we’re in.”

There was no immediate response from a church spokesperson to the latest testimony. Scientology, whose celebrity devotees include Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley, has received “plenty of bad press” about “supposedly punishing and investigating those who leave the church,” said NBC News legal analyst Danny Cevallos.

Priya Chaudhry, the attorney for Haggis, a two-time Oscar winner, said in her opening statement as the civil trial got underway in Manhattan that Haggis had predicted in a 2011 interview in The New Yorker that church leaders would try to “find dirt” on him for having parted with Scientology in 2009 over its opposition to gay marriage.

“Scientology is very successful at destroying its enemies without leaving a single fingerprint behind,” Chaudhry told the court.

Which means Haggis will have to come up with some fingerprints, legal analysts said.

“The success of this strategy really depends on what evidence Haggis has to support this argument,” Krissoff said. “He will have to demonstrate a very close link between his animosity with the church and the allegations against him. If he fails to do so, this strategy might be a distraction but not necessarily a defense to liability.”

Both trials began this month, five years after multiple rape allegations against the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in 2017 sparked a tsunami of sexual misconduct claims in Hollywood and helped fuel the #MeToo movement.

Weinstein was convicted of rape in 2020 and sentenced to 23 years in prison before he was extradited from New York to Los Angeles. New York state’s highest court agreed in August to allow him to appeal the conviction. He is now on trial accused of attacking five women from 2004 to 2013 — in a courtroom down the hall from where Masterson’s trial is being held in Los Angeles County Superior Court. He has pleaded not guilty.