She thought they were personal trainers.

Young, beautiful, naive actress arrives in Hollywood and gets lured into a cult. TV Movie of the Week? A film coming to an area theater near you? It certainly could be. It’s also the story of blonde knockout Michelle Pfeiffer. It seems that when the 55-year-old actress first arrived in Hollywood at the tender age of 20, she found herself caught up with a couple who believed in “Breatharianism” which is the ability to survive without the staples of water and food. Instead, the idea is that sunlight can provide all the necessities for human life.

The Fabulous Baker Boys and Scarface actress was out promoting her new film The Family when she told Britain’s The Sunday Telegraph how she wound up with this group that could be defined as a cult. “They were very controlling. I wasn’t living with them but I was there a lot and they were always telling me I needed to come more. I had to pay for all the time I was there, so it was financially very draining.”

Although her marriage to actor Peter Horton, Thirtysomething, did not work out. The couple split in 1988. Horton’s role in a film about the Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church nicknamed “The Moonies,” helped Pfeiffer in determining that Breatharianism looked like a cult and that she should get out as soon as possible. Pfeiffer said, “We were talking with an ex-Moonie and he was describing the psychological manipulation and I just clicked.”

Apparently, Breatharianism is still around today. In fact, they have their own Facebook page. The site defines a person who is Breatharian as “someone who taps into multiple energy and food sources other than the regular food the world knows.”

Image via Wikipedia