This image was lost some time after publication.

Is it a coincidence that Yahoo invited two Scientologists to its campus this year? First, CEO Terry Semel arm-wrestled Tom Cruise. Then, Beck (who quietly acknowledges his faith in L. Ron Hubbard) played a concert at Yahoo Hack Day. Is Semel the missing link? Is a ten-year-old letter to the German Chancellor any hint?

File this under "Sprechen Sie Hearsay," but a web site prints what it claims is a 1996 letter from "friends of Scientology" defending the religion to the Chancellor of Germany. Guess which Internet CEO is in Column 3 of the signatures, below Mario Puzo and to the left of Gore Vidal.

But hey, it's not that sinister. Dustin Hoffman and Larry King allegedly signed the same document, and Terry could just be proving a corollary to the Broadway maxims "Keep it gay" and "You won't succeed on Broadway if you don't have any Jews": "You can't get far in Hollywood unless you're cool with Scientology."

An Open letter to HELMUT KOHL [German Way; photo by Maximum Mitch on Flickr]
Earlier: