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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Scientology Interviews John Travolta: Oddly, Massage Therapy Not Discussed

Boy, could actor John Travolta use some good publicity about now.

Scientology’s Celebrity magazine obliges with a particularly friendly look at the Pulp Fiction star in a new issue our tipsters passed along to us.

The magazine reviews Travolta’s film-making career, calling him an “icon of the silver screen,” and in a six-page piece manages to avoid []

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Thanksgiving? Pshaw! The Scientology Begin-A-Boom Bookathon Starts TODAY!

Breaking news! One of our tipsters forwarded to us an internal Scientology video urging church members to take part in a big push to sell copies of Dianetics around the world!

We’ve taken some stills from the video to give you some idea of just how persuasive it is. It’s so infectious, we suspect it may []

No, Kelly Preston is Not Rebelling Against Scientology By Acknowledging Autism

Much is being made in the press that today, Kelly Preston will appear on television and for the first time acknowledge that her late son Jett Travolta was autistic.

Jett died in 2009 after having a seizure in a bathtub while the family was in its Bahamian estate. At the time, a family spokesman confirmed that []

Fox 25 in Oklahoma City Keeps Up the Pressure on Scientology’s Drug Rehab Deaths

 The lack of any new developments in the ongoing investigation of deaths at Scientology’s flagship Narconon drug rehab center in Oklahoma didn’t prevent the Fox affiliate in Oklahoma City from putting together this lengthy and hard-hitting two-part series, which aired last night.

A lesson for other media: This is how you keep a story in the []

Ken Dandar Fails in Bid to Prevent Secret Scientology Court Hearing

Ken Dandar called us after he got out of the hearing on his federal lawsuit in Tampa, Florida today.

He said he was unable to convince Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington to grant him an injunction that would prevent a state court from saddling him with huge fees demanded by the Church of Scientology.

Next Monday, November []

LA’s Sheriff Lee Baca and Simpsons Actress Nancy Cartwright Shill for Scientology

While Scientology’s private eyes were tailing us around a different part of Los Angeles yesterday, one of our tipsters kept an eye on Sheriff Lee Baca’s appearance in Inglewood to promote L. Ron Hubbard’s 1980 booklet, The Way to Happiness.

We have a couple of photographs of the event, as well as some notes about who []

Marty Rathbun: Scientology’s Secret Agreement With Joan Wood to Change Lisa McPherson’s Cause of Death

Mark Bunker has uploaded to YouTube a 16-minute interview he did with former high-ranking Scientology executive Marty Rathbun for his movie Knowledge Report. It contains more details of the news that rocked Scientology this week: In attorney Ken Dandar’s federal lawsuit, Rathbun is alleging that the church spent $30 million fighting the criminal investigation of []

Scientology Accused of Spending Millions to Influence Florida Judges

Last night, the St. Petersburg, Florida CBS affiliate, WTSP, broke news that Marty Rathbun has made blockbuster allegations in sworn testimony that the Church of Scientology spent millions in an attempt to influence Florida judges as it was fighting the criminal investigation and then civil litigation following the 1995 death of church member Lisa McPherson.

We’ve []

Scientology’s Big Gamble: “Golden Age of Tech 2” Is Here!

One Golden Age was apparently not enough

This Saturday, Scientologists in the Los Angeles area are being asked to come to a “confidential briefing” that is so secret, they will be asked to sign special bonds at the door.

At that briefing, they will be told for the first time about major changes coming to []

LA’s Sheriff Lee Baca Handing Out Scientology Booklets This Sunday?

Given its rather unsavory reputation, the Church of Scientology usually has a hard time getting much love from politicians or other prominent personalities. For every glittering movie star that actually belongs to the wacky group, many, many more would never have anything to do with it.

But it’s those exceptions — big names that agree to []