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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Danny Masterson’s attorneys ask for concurrent sentences to lessen his time

 We announced last month the reasons that we would not be in court today for Danny Masterson’s sentencing. It’s a great disappointment for us not to be there, after the days we spent in both trials bringing you as much as we could during every moment of this court []

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Scientology attacked us with new social media ads, and the reactions are hilarious

[Scientology finally gave us our close-up]

For many years now Scientology has spread a lot of garbage about your proprietor, and we do our best just to ignore it. The exception we’ve made is to talk a little, for the movie Going Clear and for Leah Remini’s series, about some of the in-real-life stuff Scientology has []

Leah Remini’s lawsuit: Why Scientology will always smear and stalk its ‘enemies’

[Scientology, being ecclesiastical]

There’s so much in Leah Remini’s 60-page lawsuit against Scientology and David Miscavige. We talked about it last week, but we’re still digging through it and finding real []

While Miscavige spends millions on new buildings, Scientology withers elsewhere

 One of the many reasons that we appreciate Mike Rinder and look forward to his recovery is that at his blog he has done such a diligent job over many years documenting how Scientology has been withering []

Some personal news from Tony Ortega, the Underground Bunker’s proprietor

 Hey, gang. I have some personal news that I wanted to share with []

Former London staffer tells his story: ‘Abuse is fundamental to Scientology’s very nature’

 You can’t leave the room until you’ve written down everything you’ve done wrong. “Have you ever masturbated?” I was asked. “Write down every instance you’ve done this in as much detail as you can: when, where, how many times. Did you watch porn? What type? How long for?”. These were my last few moments in []

Some winners have emerged from Scientology’s most recent pilgrim shearing!

 This morning, while we wait for the second week of testimony to begin in the Danny Masterson retrial in Los Angeles, we are happy to report that the first hints of what took place at the San Fernando Valley “Ideal Org” the previous weekend have begun to trickle []

Opening statement a big improvement for prosecution at Danny Masterson retrial

[Another great shot by Meghann Cuniff: L to r, Philip Cohen, Danny Masterson, Shawn Holley, Mackenzie Phillips, Bijou Phillips]

After opening statements yesterday at the Danny Masterson retrial, the journalists we talked to were pretty unanimous: They said that Deputy DA Reinhold Mueller had done a much better job presenting the government’s case this time than []

VIDEO: This is what you really want out of Scientology, right? Super Power!

[For ten grand or so, you too can put the dilithium crystals into the warp core]

 We’ve saved the best for last: Another of Scientology’s newer promo videos that encourage members to pay for expensive upper-level “technology,” and this one is selling Super []

VIDEO: Watch this, and you will run to Scientology’s ‘spiritual mecca’

 Sunday, we talked about how Scientology leader David Miscavige has reacted to the recent court cases in New York and Los Angeles that put Scientology under intense scrutiny from the nation’s media.

He isn’t taking it well was our []