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 reveals its long-range strategy against the Jane Doe 1 forced marriage lawsuit

[Defendant Gavin Potter and (still to be served) would-be defendant David Miscavige]

We told you it was pretty predictable that Scientology would respond to Jane Doe 1’s forced marriage lawsuit by digging up a contract she signed in 2002 that they say obliges her to take her case to Scientology’s own internal “religious []

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This guy was so upset after Scientology, he spilled the OT 3 secrets in a 1974 classified ad!

 One of the most important concepts in Scientology is that it harbors fantastic secrets about the nature of the universe, but you aren’t allowed to learn them until you’ve spent several years and lots of money to prove your dedication to the []

Scientology whines that the Jane Does leaked info worse than Tom Mesereau did

[Scientology attorney Bill Forman is sticking up for Tom Mesereau]

We told you on Tuesday that Judge Upinder Kalra lifted the stay on the Bixler v. Scientology lawsuit and set a tentative trial date for September []

LIVE: Meghann Cuniff’s reporting sizzled and her photos from Masterson trial were iconic

One of the reporters we got to know well as we covered Danny Masterson’s two criminal trials was Meghann Cuniff, an independent journalist who writes for her own Substack and was one of the hardest working people we saw at the []

How Scientology lured a Sci-Fi fan, but drove him away with its lack of imagination

[Ron Kasman, young Scientologist SF artist]

I first heard about Scientology from a cousin at my mother’s kitchen table. From that introduction, I entered the Church of Scientology on Sunday, December 27, 1970 to attend a Sunday service. I wrote about that experience here previously. That story was written fifty years to the day after that []

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 []

Sinéad O’Connor and Scientology: How she dodged a Thetan-tipped bullet

[O’Connor on The Graham Norton Show in February, 2012]

Sinéad O’Connor’s death at the age of 56 has produced an outpouring of tributes to her as a transformative artist and political figure, as well as moving portraits of her struggles with mental illness, something she was more open about than most. (See, for example, this superb []

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 []

Where is Scientology keeping Andrew Barton?

[Janis Gillham Grady]

[Janis Grady sent us this appeal, asking for attention to another of Scientology’s abuses, and we knew you’d find it interesting — and we want to hear from you if you can help us with any information about []