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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Federal judge says he has the Scientologists for a justice panel, but Garcias say, ‘not so fast’

 The Garcia litigation is enough to give us whiplash. As Tampa federal Judge James Whittemore pushes hard to get the case submitted to arbitration, it’s now the Garcias’ turn to say, “hold on there, []

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Of course Jada Smith was a Scientologist, says principal who ran her Scientology school

[Jada Pinkett Smith, and Jacqueline Olivier]

Back in the spring of 2015, your proprietor and Mike Rinder sat down with Daily Beast writer Marlow Stern as part of the publicity on Alex Gibney’s film, Going Clear. During the interview, Stern said that Will Smith was a Scientologist, and the two of us both corrected him — []

Tonight, Paul Haggis calls out Scientology’s celebs: ‘Damn them for being purposely blind’

 We’re of two minds about Scientology’s glittering celebrities. On the one hand, there’s no question that Scientology’s pursuit of celebrated actors and other artists is the major reason such a small group (the church claims millions, but the real figure is in the tens of thousands) gets such major press, and why the subject draws []

Moss wins Emmy for portraying totalitarian cult victim and doesn’t care what you think about it

 As expected, actress Elisabeth Moss took home the Emmy award last night for her role in Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, besting her fellow nominees for Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Claire Foy (The Crown), Keri Russell (The Americans), Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder), Robin Wright (House of Cards), and Evan Rachel []

Scientology leader David Miscavige has empty buildings all over the world — here’s a rundown

 Rod Keller keeps an eye on Scientology’s “Ideal Org” program for us, and he reminds us today of just how much empty real estate the church has lined up so David Miscavige can hold grand openings for years to []

Disconnected at birth — another infuriating Scientology saga

[Brian Sheen and his daughter Spring]

We’ve written several stories about Brian Sheen, a Florida man who left Scientology many years ago, but who never had a problem with his daughter, Spring, continuing in the organization. But after Spring married into a wealthy Scientology donor family in 2014, she got the order from the church to []

Scientology’s newest infiltration — Rebecca Minkoff and Meghan Fialkoff at Nasdaq!

 You have to hand it to Scientology. No matter how much L. Ron Hubbard’s creation is battered and bruised by bad press, shrinking numbers, and ridicule on social media, Scientology never, ever gives []

Is Ohio’s newest legislator a Scientologist? ‘I had him on the cans,’ says our man in Cincy

[George Lang, talking the Scieno talk]

Yesterday, a pretty minor political story — the appointment of a Republican township trustee to an open seat in the state House of of Representatives — blew up into something more, thanks to the Church of Scientology and a notorious alt-right []

Ford Greene responds to Marty Rathbun, and brings up a previous Scientology secret deal

[Ford Greene]

We heard this week from Ford Greene, the California lawyer who was involved in important litigation against the Church of Scientology and who also recently appeared on a special 2-hour episode of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. He’s also the former two-time mayor of San Anselmo, []

Tonight on ‘Leah Remini’: Two witnesses detail David Miscavige’s ruthless Scientology takeover

[John Brousseau]

If L. Ron Hubbard is responsible for the millions of words that spell out every aspect of Scientology, what, exactly, qualified David Miscavige to take over as church leader after Hubbard died in []