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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It’s a miracle! Scientology put ‘more than 10,000’ people in these 1,000 chairs!

 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 []

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Will Scientology’s celebrities heed the call and show up for today’s big media center opening?

[Kelly Preston, John Travolta, and Tom Cruise at the 2013 Super Power grand opening in Florida]

We hope to be hearing from several of our readers who will be on the scene today as Scientology has its latest grand opening, this time in Los Angeles for what is the most unusual and anticipated opening of a []

Is Scientology using Tommy Davis to get Aussie billionaire James Packer back in the fold?

 Former Church of Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis has a new job, and with a surprising boss. In February, Davis went to work for James Packer, the Australian billionaire Tom Cruise lured into Scientology in late 2001, but who hasn’t been involved in the church since 2006. Davis left his job as church mouthpiece in 2011, []

What you didn’t see on ‘I Am Cait’: Kate Bornstein and Caitlyn Jenner at Scientology HQ

 In December, while filming the second season of I Am Cait, Caitlyn Jenner and show regular Kate Bornstein made a visit to the Church of Scientology “org” that is part of its worldwide administrative headquarters in Los []

As Scientology prepares for Saturday’s grand opening, its controversial sign goes up

 The Church of Scientology’s new Los Angeles television studios on Sunset Boulevard suddenly became a hive of activity yesterday as preparations got underway for Saturday’s big grand opening. Scientology purchased the old KCET studios in 2011, and has been fundraising ever since to open what it’s calling “Scientology Media Productions,” a complex of TV and []

As Scientology sinks, does Tom Cruise really have to go down with the ship?

 Sunday night we were still reeling from what we’d just seen on HBO and a scene involving three little words — “hold the door” — so when we turned to AMC at ten pm, we weren’t really in the best shape for taking in the craziness in the pilot episode of Preacher.

We knew that there []

Scientology’s newest attack on Ron Miscavige: Could his son David be any whinier?

 It’s been nearly three weeks since bookstores received Ron Miscavige’s memoir, Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me, and the news about it is finally dying down. The book has fallen off the New York Times bestseller charts after debuting at #1 in ebook nonfiction. But its rankings at Amazon are still healthy and []

Scientology makes you a god who can heal this horse just with your finger

 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 []

Atack: Contradictions in L. Ron Hubbard’s “tech” only increase Scientology discipline

Jon Atack is the author of A Piece of Blue Sky, one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. He has a new edition of the book for sale, and for more than three years he’s been helping us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that tend []

Scientology gets judge disqualified in forced-abortion lawsuit and wants recent order voided

[Judge John P. Doyle]

On Tuesday, we told you that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John P. Doyle had submitted a surprising disclosure in Laura DeCrescenzo’s forced-abortion lawsuit against the Church of Scientology. Judge Doyle revealed that he had a first cousin, Greg Smith, who was a Scientologist. In fact, Doyle’s cousins are a longtime, hard []