EXCLUSIVE: Danny Masterson’s attempt to delay trial over baseball gambit is DENIED

[Danny Masterson at the 2001 Hollywood All-Stars, photo by J. P. Aussenard]

On August 4 we broke the news that Danny Masterson’s attorney Shawn Holley was attempting to delay his rape trial from October 11 to late January by saying she was too busy with Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer’s arbitration in Washington DC.

Continue reading EXCLUSIVE: Danny Masterson’s attempt to delay trial over baseball gambit is DENIED

Pete Goes to Hollywood: The grim reality of Scientology servitude in La-La-Land

It is September 1987 and I have just spent the past few months at Saint Hill Manor near East Grinstead in West Sussex, former home of noted conman L. Ron Hubbard, studying his Organization Executive Course.

Continue reading Pete Goes to Hollywood: The grim reality of Scientology servitude in La-La-Land

Scientology scores major success with powerful new publicity effort

We don’t give Scientology enough credit. We never would have thought the church was savvy enough, or that it had such a good sense of humor about itself, that it could convince Second City Television to reunite for a killer satire of all things L. Ron Hubbard.

Continue reading Scientology scores major success with powerful new publicity effort

PODCAST: She did Scientology’s dirty work, and then made historic amends for it

As a Scientology watcher, you’ve probably had loads of fun soaking up Tom Cruise in a black turtleneck talking about what an L. Ron Hubbard fan he is in an infamous 9-minute video recorded in 2004 and leaked in 2008. Or you’ve plumbed the depths of the Hubbard death announcement event held at the Hollywood Palladium in 1986, which featured the young David Miscavige, in a full-blown naval getup, announcing Hubbard’s translation to another plane of existence.

Continue reading PODCAST: She did Scientology’s dirty work, and then made historic amends for it

A shaky day handling life and death at Scientology’s Hollywood Celebrity Centre

I had just finished an interrogation session that I was doing on a Scientology registrar, because she wasn’t making enough money for the org. It wasn’t even actually my job, interrogations, but I was the preferred auditor for whatever reason.

Continue reading A shaky day handling life and death at Scientology’s Hollywood Celebrity Centre

Lured into your own past: The seduction of an initial Scientology session

[Pete Griffiths, fully hatted]

My first ever Dianetics session had a bizarre twist which at the time meant nothing to me. Years later it made me go, wow! Really? Did that really happen? Am I making this up? How accurate are memories anyway?

Continue reading Lured into your own past: The seduction of an initial Scientology session

Special series starting today: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[Phil Jones]

In 2016, the A&E Network was preparing to take on the Church of Scientology in a big way.

What few people knew, however, was that the network was in a bit of a quandary.

Continue reading Special series starting today: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

Rizza Islam’s sisters plead no contest, leaving him last facing trial in Medi-Cal fraud case

[Rizza got a boost from ABC last year]

Nearly seven years ago — seven years! — we broke the news that several members of Scientologist Hanan Islam’s family had been charged with felonies. California state investigators alleged that the Islams had been ripping off the Medi-Cal program with the use of a jackleg Scientology Narconon drug rehab in Compton, California.

Continue reading Rizza Islam’s sisters plead no contest, leaving him last facing trial in Medi-Cal fraud case

Hey, Dublin: Want to see some Scientology child abuse?

We’re sure that the parents who recorded the video we have for you today are very proud of what it shows. Their son, whose name we couldn’t quite catch but that we’re glad isn’t clear anyway, gives a short “graduation” speech this past Friday at the Dublin Scientology Ideal Org and for them it is probably quite charming and inspiring.

Continue reading Hey, Dublin: Want to see some Scientology child abuse?

Former Scientology flak Tommy Davis potential witness in foreign-agent trial of Trump pal

[Tom Barrack arrives at court with Tommy Davis in tow (far left), July 26, 2021. Photo by Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg]

Yesterday Marcy Wheeler, the formidable and brilliant journalist who goes by “emptywheel” online, posted a list of potential witnesses in the upcoming trial of billionaire financier and close Donald Trump friend, Tom Barrack.

Continue reading Former Scientology flak Tommy Davis potential witness in foreign-agent trial of Trump pal

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