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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Tales from Scientology’s Hollywood Celebrity Centre: A new film, and a new death

We have two very different reports for you today that share one thing in common — Scientology’s Hollywood Celebrity Centre.

Steven Mango spent four years in Scientology, hoping that his involvement with the Celebrity Centre would help his acting career. A year ago, he left Scientology after he’d had enough of the church’s constant requests for []

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Sunday Funnies: For the second year in a row, Scientology will have an ad in the Super Bowl

On the first day of 2012, a woman named Debbie Cook who had been a somewhat legendary official in the Church of Scientology rocked the church with a lengthy e-mail that went out to thousands of her fellow church members.

One of the accusations she made in that e-mail (which the church sued her over) was []

Jon Atack on Scientology’s fundamental feature: the thousand-yard stare

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 on Saturdays he’s helping us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that tend to get hashed and []

‘The Factors’: Another video the Church of Scientology would rather you not watch

Our video source has come through again, sending us another “quote video” that is meant only to be seen inside a Scientology “org.”

As we learned earlier, many of these videos were created in order to highlight a portion of a particular L. Ron Hubbard lecture as new editions of his lectures were produced and []

Judge Waldrip grants Monique Rathbun’s discovery request, snubbing Scientology

Marty and Monique Rathbun

It’s another victory for Monique Rathbun in her harassment lawsuit against the Church of Scientology and its leader David Miscavige: Comal County, Texas Judge Dib Waldrip has granted her request for a continuance so she can gather more evidence to refute Scientology’s anti-SLAPP motion. A new hearing on the matter []

High crimes and misdemeanors: Jefferson Hawkins on Scientology’s bizarre criminal code

Jefferson Hawkins was once the top marketing executive for the Church of Scientology and helped it reach its greatest extent with the famous “volcano” TV ads in the 1980s. He’s told his tale of getting into and out of the church with his excellent books Counterfeit Dreams and Leaving Scientology, and he’s helping us understand []

Leah Remini talks briefly about Scientology on Access Hollywood, says very little

Leah Remini talked about Scientology this evening on Access Hollywood, interviewed by her friend Holly Robinson Peete, and managed to say virtually nothing more than she already has.

Holly told Leah that she had been very public and honest about the transition and that she handled it gracefully. What was it like going through that and []

Cheese from Scientology’s mecca, raspberries from Éire, and a Puerto Rican dessert!

While we wait for word of legal happenings in Texas, we have a few fun items to tide you over today.

One of our tipsters sent us another issue of the Fort Harrison newsletter, the house organ of Scientology’s mecca in Clearwater, Florida. This is our second issue, and already we’re charmed by the upstat []

Being and nothingness: And now we move on to Scientology’s Operating Thetan Level Four!

Bruce Hines

Claire Headley and Bruce Hines are taking us on our journey to train as Scientologists. Claire spent years working with Scientology’s “tech,” and was trusted to oversee the auditing of Tom Cruise. Bruce was in Scientology for 31 years and spent about half that time as a senior case supervisor. Go here []

New criminal case for Scientology in France could shut it down permanently in that country

A surprising new story out of France today has huge implications for Scientology in that country. Our man in Paris, Jonny Jacobsen, has the lowdown for us. Take it away, Jonny…

Scientology, already convicted in France of organised fraud, is in trouble with the courts here again.

The Paris Court of Appeal is resurrecting a case dating []