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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Nancy Cartwright’s ‘defense’ of Scientology is the saddest thing ever

 You may have seen the short clip put out yesterday by the Associated Press which features voice actress Nancy Cartwright — who plays Bart on The Simpsons — talking about her unhappiness with Lawrence Wright’s 2013 book Going Clear and the 2015 documentary that filmmaker Alex Gibney made from []

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Scientology appeals $1 million loss to Florida supreme court, and Ken Dandar gets canny

[Florida’s state supreme court]

Just yesterday we were singing the praises of our sources, and once again we want to say a big thank you, this time to the extraordinary researcher Mary McConnell, who tipped us to some very interesting new documents in the ongoing saga of attorney Ken []

For Scientology’s most infamous dirty trickster, retirement has a happy ending

[El Jefe welcomes you to his empire]

Once again, we want to pay tribute to our great researchers and tipsters. We simply couldn’t keep up this daily website without the invaluable help we get from unsung heroes who are constantly on the lookout for court records and business documents and so many other things.

One of our []

Scientology opened a new ‘Ideal Org’ in Harlem, and we weren’t made to feel very welcome

 If you think about it, it’s kind of amazing. Eight years ago — eight years — the Church of Scientology finished purchasing two buildings on 125th Street in East Harlem as part of its “Ideal Org” program. (They had actually started buying the lots in 2003, 13 years ago, for a total of about $8.5 []

Harlem gets its Scientology ‘Ideal Org’ today, and David Miscavige doesn’t want you there

 It’s time again for Rod Keller’s Scientology Social Media Review. He’s made a specialty of hunting down the odd and wonderful things Scientologists post to the ‘net. He’s a chronicler who piece by piece builds a highly detailed assessment of what Scientology is doing around the world, and this is what he found for us []

L. Ron Hubbard as sad, oversexed schlub: The very personal writings his admirers never discuss

[L. Ron Hubbard, circa 1946]

Hey, gang. We spent all day yesterday reading two manuscripts from people who were kind enough to give us advance looks at their upcoming books. It was great stuff, and we’re glad we got to see it, but it meant we blew the whole day without a chance to make any []

Arlene Cordova, 1933-2016: In her 80s, she took on Scientology and reunited with her daughter

[Barbara Cordova Oliver, before she became ill]

It’s been a while since we checked in with Arlene Cordova about her daughter Barbara, and so we called her yesterday only to learn some unhappy news. We were unaware that Arlene had died last week, on July 22, at the age of 83. It was Barbara who answered []

As Stacy Murphy lawsuit heads to crucial hearing, two Scientology entities settle

 Thanks to one of our researchers, we noticed something odd about the docket in the wrongful death lawsuit that Stacy Murphy’s family is pursuing against Scientology’s drug rehab center in Oklahoma, Narconon Arrowhead. And when we looked into it, we learned something pretty []

How Scientology split up teen sweethearts who reunited more than 40 years later

 On Sunday, The Spokesman-Review, a newspaper in Spokane, Washington, published a touching story about high school sweethearts who were forced apart and then finally, after more than 40 years, reunited and got []

Hungarian tabloid’s wacky claim: Shit poured on Scientology’s leader in Budapest protest

 We’ve heard from three of our Hungarian readers who each brought to our attention a rather astounding story that appeared in an online scandal sheet known as “RiPost” about this past weekend’s Scientology “Ideal Org” opening in []