Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He's written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology's harassment of Paulette Cooper titled 'The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.' He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world from an undisclosed location in an underground bunker he shares with four cats and one of them wrinkly Shar Pei dogs. Despite his super-secret security protections, you can still reach him pretty easily by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you'd like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.) [Header image courtesy John Rickard]
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Tom Cruise’s ‘religion’: Scientology has kept this family apart for a decade

[Phil and Willie Jones and their kids Mike and Emily]

 As of this week, it’s been 10 years since we’ve seen our kids, Emily and Mike.

Scientology made them disconnect from us once we were out and criticized the cult. There is always a sense of amazement to me that the kids would go along with this []

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Tom Cruise goes black tie for Scientology at ‘Patrons Ball’ in England

What a weekend Scientology had!

The return of the International Association of Scientologists gala to Scientology’s UK headquarters — Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, England — after a four year absence was more than even we had dared to dream. It had everything, from the triumphant return of Scientology’s leader, David Miscavige, to the dramatic []

Scientology protest goes off without a hitch, and Tom Cruise made the scene

We hope you joined our live conversation yesterday afternoon with Alex Barnes-Ross, who was in an East Grinstead pub and told us about his adventures protesting at Scientology’s UK []

Is this the lamest tabloid ‘Tom Cruise has left Scientology’ speculation ever?

 You’ll have to forgive us that we didn’t get to this sooner, because we were just out of surgery and lying rather helpless in a hospital bed last week when the Daily Mail’s entertainment gossip columnist Alison Boshoff “reported” that Tom Cruise has stopped going to Scientology’s UK headquarters for the past three []

The time Scientology healing was used on a broken bone at Tom Cruise’s house

 The year was 1993 or 1994. It was a brief segment of my 24-year career in Scientology’s “Sea Organization.” The location of my post then was on the “Int Base” (the international headquarters of the entire Scientology network) near Hemet, California. The location of this 500-acre property was top secret in that strange world, known []

Valerie Haney: Here’s why the press should be asking Tom Cruise about Shelly Miscavige

[Valerie Haney and Tom Cruise]

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One hasn’t done quite the business that its creators were hoping, but still, with $91 million in domestic sales and $168 million overseas for a total of $259 million as of yesterday, it was well along to making up for its whopping $290 []

PODCAST: Mark Ebner dishes on Tom Cruise whisperer and ‘M:I7’ director Chris McQuarrie

We didn’t really need an excuse to bring Mark Ebner back to the podcast, but what the hell, we figured Tom Cruise coming out with another movie was reason enough to call our old pal for his []

PODCAST: Film critic Luke Y. Thompson on Tom Cruise as action star and Scientologist dope

Luke Y. Thompson (AV Club) once again knocked us out with a great film review at the Underground Bunker, this time for the premiere of Tom Cruise’s new actioner, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part []

Our mission, that we chose to accept: Watching Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt become a cult leader

Once again Luke Y. Thompson (AV Club) has given us an exclusive film review you’ll find only here at the Bunker. Our association with Luke goes back more than 20 years, to a now defunct publication, New Times Los Angeles, where he was one of the very few reviewers in the country who actually liked []

PODCAST: Karen Pressley on Scientology’s radicalizing of Tom Cruise

[Karen Pressley on ‘Aftermath’]

Karen Pressley spent almost 20 years in Scientology, and then turned her experience into a terrific book, Escaping Scientology: My Journey with the Cult of Celebrity Spirituality, Greed & []