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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United Kingdom sees Scientology documentary ‘Going Clear’ tonight on Sky Atlantic

 Finally, the time has come! After a considerable delay caused by nagging legal concerns, Alex Gibney’s Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary, Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief, will air tonight on Sky Atlantic at 9 pm local []

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L. Ron Hubbard, would-be conqueror: Scientology’s fable about Rhodesia is a riot

 We’re grateful to our source who has been supplying us rare looks at the Maiden Voyage celebration of 2006. As we’ve said previously, these videos are exceedingly tough to find, and it has been illuminating to see David Miscavige lead his “OT Summit” on Scientology’s private cruise ship, the Freewinds, over successive nights that June. []

THE GETTING CLEAR CONFERENCE: How to see the videos that lay Scientology bare

 Historian Jon Atack (right) and religion professor James Beverley put together a remarkable gathering of people in Toronto in June. We were fortunate to see people like Paulette Cooper and Nancy Many and Jonny Jacobsen and Nora Crest and Nan McLean and so many others all get together for the first time. []

Scientology about to throw its Harlem party — and we need your eyes and ears!

 Scientology has its soul duds on! These young staff members are in place in Harlem for tomorrow’s big block party, as David Miscavige opens yet another Ideal Org.

We’re very disappointed that we won’t be on the scene because of other obligations. We’d love to know if there are any New York correspondents who might want []

Surreal encounter at Scientology’s secretive Int Base shows up in Danish documentary

 Last December, we brought you some pretty bizarre footage. It was shot by Marc Headley, who was visiting Scientology’s secretive Int Base near Hemet, California with a Danish film crew making a documentary about a Danish former Scientologist, Robert []

‘Fundamentalist’ Scientology means chasing the ideal of Neo while turning your back on family

 We have a new video today from Aaron Smith-Levin in his series, “Growing up in Scientology.” In order to help outsiders understand why Scientologists could dedicate themselves to chasing outlandish ideas about superhuman abilities, Aaron went all Matrix on []

Back where it all started: Hoping to see you in Phoenix to talk Scientology then and now

[Thank you, reader SeriouslyWTF, for this image.]

Wow, it’s great to be back in Phoenix. Your proprietor spent some very important formative years of his journalism career here in the Valley of the Sun, and it’s great to see that despite some new trolley tracks, a freeway shooter, and some new coats of paint, the place []

Another rare Scientology video leaks, and this time we see its long vanished president

 Your proprietor is a bit under the weather, and we’re traveling, but we didn’t want to leave you without something to chew on today. Luckily our source came through again and pointed us in the direction of yet another Scientology video gem that has previously been unseen outside of the []

Paul Haggis, Lawrence Wright react to Alex Gibney’s Emmys sweep for ‘Going Clear’

[Alex and Anne Gibney and Tom DeVocht at the Emmys last night]

 What a night for Alex Gibney and his documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. Not only did the film win the Emmy for outstanding documentary, but Gibney also won Emmys for writing and for directing.

We brought you some of the []

‘Going Clear’ wins Outstanding Documentary Emmy, also for writing, directing

The “Creative Arts Emmys” are being held today at Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles, and we’re looking forward to finding out how many trophies Alex Gibney’s Scientology documentary Going Clear takes home.

It has some stiff competition — some of it from its own network, HBO — and the event won’t be televised for another []