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PODCAST: ‘Oppenheimer’ and Scientology, with physicist Bruce Hines

The highly anticipated new film Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan, hit theaters yesterday, and we had a crazy idea: Watch the film on opening day here in New York while former Scientology auditor Bruce Hines caught it in Denver, and then talk about []

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Valerie Haney: Here’s why the press should be asking Tom Cruise about Shelly Miscavige

[Valerie Haney and Tom Cruise]

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One hasn’t done quite the business that its creators were hoping, but still, with $91 million in domestic sales and $168 million overseas for a total of $259 million as of yesterday, it was well along to making up for its whopping $290 []

FIELD TRIP: Hey, is that a Scientology ‘Advanced Org,’ and where is everyone?

 We were out running an errand just north of Toronto and thought we’d swing by the property Scientology bought for their proposed Advance Org (for upper-level auditing of OTs, ie. ridding yourself of Body Thetans), which was formerly the Hockley Highland []

Lawsuit seeks to make Scientology pay for years of costs after childhood sexual assault

[Gavin Potter, David Miscavige, and attorney Graham Berry]

 There’s a new filing in Jane Doe 1’s lawsuit against David Miscavige, Scientology, and a Sea Org executive named Gavin []

The OT 7s turned away at the gates: A Scientology blunder that reveals so much

[Cindy Plahuta and the under-construction Super Power Building]

After our recent special series about Scientology’s most secretive subsidiary, the Church of Spiritual Technology (part 1, part 2, part 3), we heard from an unlikely source about CST’s bizarre []

Scientology and statistics: How L. Ron Hubbard’s fetish for bureaucracy lives on

[Still frame from a Scientology video about its Flag Building]

It has been commented many many times that statistics are a really big deal in the nutty world of Scientology. It is part of founder L. Ron Hubbard’s “management []

Scientology and the Internet: Before there was Clambake, another OG made his mark

[Ron Newman in 2008, photo by Valis Iscari0t / CC BY]

Your proprietor shares a couple of interests with a man named Ron Newman.

First and foremost, of course, is that we both have a fascination for Scientology and its controversies, even though neither of us were ever involved in []

PODCAST: Mark Ebner dishes on Tom Cruise whisperer and ‘M:I7’ director Chris McQuarrie

We didn’t really need an excuse to bring Mark Ebner back to the podcast, but what the hell, we figured Tom Cruise coming out with another movie was reason enough to call our old pal for his []

Losing a friend they knew in Scientology: A tribute to a remarkable woman

In the realm of life, there are individuals who leave an indelible mark on the hearts and minds of those fortunate enough to cross their paths. Willie and I had the fortune to know one of those individuals. It was one of those rare positive things that came out of our stint in []

Mark Bunker: How I changed seats and freaked out Scientology last night in Clearwater

 Attorney Elise Winters has hated the idea of me on the Downtown Development Board since I was elected. She previously tried to get me kicked off the board with some very transparent maneuvers and failed. She has me exiled to the kids table out of sight with a mic that often isn’t working. []