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Scientology wants Mike Rinder’s affidavit struck from the record

A week ago, we told you that in their fraud lawsuit, Luis and Rocio Garcia had filed an affidavit by former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder to convince Tampa federal Judge James D. Whittemore that the church’s internal arbitration rules were a sham.

It turns out Scientology wasn’t very happy about []

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Tom Cruise and his Freedom Medal of Valor: Where’s the tabloid press?

On Saturday night, just before midnight, we published a story about a remarkable photo of Tom Cruise that had been posted to Instagram. The photo had been put there by Luis Bascaran, a Venezuelan talent manager whose stable of actors includes a woman named Ruddy Rodriguez.

On Saturday afternoon Bascaran posted the photo of Ruddy and []

Vance Woodward files motion to reconsider his dismissed lawsuit against Scientology

We’ll give him this — Vance Woodward is a fighter. The attorney, who spent more than 20 years in Scientology, then dropped out of it, wrote a book about his experiences in the church (which he later pulled from circulation), helped us read Dianetics cover to cover in one of our favorite series here at []

Scientology is turning Larry Hagman’s house into a drunk tank for celebs

Well, Mike Rinder called it, and on Friday night, Scientology leader David Miscavige confirmed it: After purchasing the hilltop Ojai estate of Larry Hagman from the actor’s widow last year, the church will be turning the place into a drug rehab clinic for celebrities who need to dry out.

That was one of several announcements made []

Marty Rathbun on being ambushed at LAX by raving Scientologists: ‘It was insane’

Jenny DeVocht

On Sunday evening, Mark “Marty” Rathbun, formerly the second-highest ranking official in the Church of Scientology, posted a bizarre 2-minute video to his blog, a video he had taken earlier in the day while he was waiting at Los Angeles International Airport to catch a flight back to his home in Texas.

Marty []

Tom Cruise shows up with his Scientology ‘Freedom Medal of Valor’ in London

 Well, so much for those idiotic tabloid reports about Tom Cruise losing his religion. The folks over at ESMB spotted a photograph posted Saturday on Instagram that shows Tom in London and wearing his Freedom Medal of []

Jon Atack: The question Scientologists aren’t allowed to ask each other

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 a year on Saturdays he helped us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that []

Scientology leader David Miscavige gets in just under the wire in NAFC lawsuit

On September 23, we told you about the struggles of a process server who was trying to serve a lawsuit on Scientology leader David Miscavige. Despite the best efforts of the security guards at the Hollywood Guaranty Building to keep the process server from getting anywhere near Miscavige, he managed to succeed under California law []

The Garcias answer Scientology’s ‘International Justice Chief’ with an affidavit by Mike Rinder

Last time we checked in on the federal fraud lawsuit brought by Luis and Rocio Garcia against the Church of Scientology, we told you about a rare appearance by the church’s “International Justice Chief,” Mike Ellis.

We explained that the IJC is something of a notorious figure in Scientology because he’s an excommunicated member’s only “terminal” []

A perplexing tale about Bob Duggan, the richest Scientologist in the world

[Illustrations by Chad Essley]

 Gentle readers, we have an unusual and, we must say, rather mystifying story to tell you today. It’s about a successful businessman by the name of Robert W. Duggan. This illustration of Bob, who is a robust 70 years old, is inspired by an image from his personal website, which we encourage []