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 Hey, it’s the Commodore’s 104th birthday! And what better way to celebrate the Great OT’s March 13, 1911 birth in Tilden, Nebraska than to welcome the theatrical release of Alex Gibney’s documentary about Scientology, Going Clear, which opens today in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.
Speaking of the film’s release, let’s get this out of the way first, because we’re getting a lot of questions that suggest some people are really confused about this movie and how they get to see it. Continue reading L. Ron Hubbard and ‘Going Clear’ — a reading list to celebrate Scientology’s birthday boy!
 This week has been all about the excitement of Going Clear hitting theaters, and we expect a big burst of activity when the documentary by Alex Gibney and Larry Wright opens in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco for limited runs starting tomorrow. But we also want to keep up on our other subjects here at the Underground Bunker, including our ongoing project to mine through some great new government documents that a researcher and friend to the Bunker tracked down with the help of the Muckrock website.
Continue reading DOX: Two early Dianetics supporters, including the E-meter inventor, turn against Hubbard
Our reader Vaquera admits that she felt a bit fanatical to purchase a membership to the Austin Film Society just so she could get her hands on two tickets to last night’s screening of Going Clear, but she says it was all worth it. Here’s her report, and photos that she took… Continue reading The ‘Going Clear’ screening in Austin, featuring Marty Rathbun and other familiar faces
 Back in 2003-2005, your proprietor was the managing editor of a newspaper in Kansas City known as The Pitch. They were two of our happiest years, and we still have a great love for that underrated city that has a state line snaking down the middle of it. Writing film reviews for the Pitch these days is Dan Lybarger, who also turns out to have an affinity for the Underground Bunker. He attended a showing of Going Clear on Sunday at the True/False film festival, and he sent us this report…
Continue reading Scenes from a ‘Going Clear’ screening — Alex Gibney at the True/False Festival
Former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder (left) received a frightening threat of violence which he posted to his blog this morning. The anonymous sender of the message said Rinder was under surveillance “twenty four seven,” and told Rinder he wanted to “cut your fuckin balls off.” Continue reading Scientology documentary ‘Going Clear’ participants getting harassed, threatened
 We’re five days out from Alex Gibney’s film Going Clear opening in theaters in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and things are getting downright nutty. Like, Scientology is losing its mind.
But here in the Underground Bunker, we’re over our fever, the cats are napping like champs, and we’re ready to get back to our essential weekly feature, Sunday Funnies. Continue reading Scientology really, really, really doesn’t want you to see this movie
 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 tend to get hashed and rehashed in books, articles, and especially on the Internet. He was kind enough to send us a new post.
Jon sent us just a short anecdote this time, which only whets our appetite for more. But we know he’s a busy man and has a lot going on that will come to fruition later this year. We’ll take what we can get. Tell it, Jon… Continue reading Jon Atack visits an org — ALSO: The richest Scientologist gets even richer!
![Mike Ellis [Photo by Doug Owens]](https://tonyortega.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Mike_Ellis-225x300.jpg) Mike Ellis [Photo by Doug Owens] Our fevered brain is still keeping us hunkered down in the Bunker. The cats are mixing up some nasty-smelling elixirs they swear will make us well. We think they just enjoy seeing us suffer. Anyway, we only have energy for another short post today, and we apologize if it only appeals to the truly hardcore in the Scientology watching community. But we understand that for many former members of the Church of Scientology, there’s a big fascination for a man named Mike Ellis, who holds the position of “International Justice Chief” of the Church of Scientology International. Continue reading Scientology posts the (nearly) full deposition of reclusive ‘Justice Chief’ Mike Ellis
 Your proprietor has been laid low by a virus right in the middle of all this intense publicity for Alex Gibney’s film, Going Clear. This is what we get for leaving the confines of the Bunker and interacting with germy human beings.
So we’re going to keep things short today, and trust our commenters to fill in by keeping an eye on all of the crazy press going on as we near the movie’s theatrical debut next week. Continue reading ‘Will Smith is not a Scientologist’ — we elaborate on our quote the press went wild for yesterday
Yesterday Mike Rinder and your proprietor were being interviewed about Alex Gibney’s film Going Clear for a well known national news organization when the interviewer asked, what is David Miscavige’s biggest skeleton in his closet? We had already talked about the Scientology leader’s disappeared wife, Shelly Miscavige, and where we think she has been for the last nine years. And that, certainly, is one of the biggest controversies about David Miscavige. But we thought Rinder had a really good answer. Continue reading Scenes from the ‘Going Clear’ publicity caravan in midtown Manhattan
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![Mike Ellis [Photo by Doug Owens]](http://tonyortega.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Mike_Ellis.jpg)
