Scientology is like Saudi Arabia: a bizarrely cloistered theocracy with hundreds of celebrity royals who mention the faith in passing while flitting between gauche resorts and showing off crazy bling. But what does it mean when royals start ditching said bling in a trash heap on L.A.'s Wilshire Boulevard?

One way or another, two super-pricey, hard-to-earn Scientology award plaques for Gay Ribisi ended up in that trash heap this weekend. Ribisi is kind of a big deal in the pseudo-faith's circles: she manages a bunch of Scientologist actors like Jason Lee, and is the mom of acting twins Giovanni and Marissa Ribisi. (Marissa is married to fellow Scientologist Beck.)

The ignominious fate of the plaques—which required hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to the Church of Scientology—is all the more bizarre because they were discovered on the street by Mark Ebner, an investigative journalist who has a history with the church, and his wife after a dinner date in L.A. He explained in an email to Gawker:

We were walking it off on Wilshire Boulevard, and the glint of gold off those plaques caught my eye in a pile of detritus that appeared to have been tossed curbside. Lo, the plaques—signifying 50k and 100k donations to Scientology, awarding [Ribisi] "Patron" and Patron With Honors status in the IAS (International Association of Scientologists).

Having been stalked investigated and subjected to Scientology dirty tricks since I wrote my original Spy magazine expose in '96, imagine my delight at finding these artifacts by chance in the big city! Instant karmic retribution. Scientology has been going through my trash for years.

The trash heap was not far from "a grand old building" that some of the Ribisis used to live in, along with Jason Lee and his formerly Scientologist ex-wife Carmen Llewelyn, according to Ebner.

"Could it be possible that Vonni's mother has grown disillusioned with Scientology and is throwing out her treasured artifacts?" asks Scientology-watcher and Raw Story executive editor Tony Ortega. "And wouldn't that cause a major earthquake throughout the Scientology celebrity network?" He quotes a former Scientologist as saying that most devotees would cleave proudly to the cheap tchotchkes. But Ebner has said that if Gay and her clan are still strong in the faith, he's happy to return the plaques to their rightful Operating Thetan.

Just how does a guy with Ebner's history just happened to stumble upon something like this in a trash heap, anyway? "The truth is, after years of battling with the cult, I always win," he says, "because I see them coming before they do."

[ Photo credit: Getty Images]