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But the real stars of the show — the ones who provided an emotional wallop — were sitting around us as we watched Gibney’s documentary about Scientology, Going Clear, at its Sundance premiere. Continue reading ‘Going Clear’ premieres at Sundance, and we watched in awe with the celebs
Jon Atack hooked us up with a source who is now making the full, uncut interviews from Secret Lives available. Last time, we got to see Hubbard’s literary agent, Forrest Ackerman, reminisce about the man. And this time, another rare treat: A 28-minute interview with Barbara Klowden, who worked as Hubbard’s PR assistant but was also his lover. (In Russell Miller’s 1987 biography of Hubbard, Bare-Faced Messiah, Barbara is given the pseudonym “Barbara Kaye.”)
As we pointed out then, this is the first time that Rathbun has been deposed since he emerged as a critic of his former employer, the Church of Scientology, in 2009. He had left the organization five years earlier after a career as one of its highest-ranking executives. But he’s now a severe critic of David Miscavige, the man who runs Scientology.
Endorsed by Scientology’s most well-known celebrities, such as Tom Cruise and Kirstie Alley, Narconon was for many years one of the organization’s most reliable money-makers. But recent patient deaths, negative press attention, and lawsuits around the country have turned Narconon into one of Scientology’s biggest headaches.
With Alex Gibney’s documentary “Going Clear” opening Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival and then airing March 16 on HBO, we’re seeing church leader David Miscavige respond with a full page ad in the New York Times, an advertising blitz on network television, and other major pushes to get Scientology’s message out on its own terms. Continue reading How Scientology responds to adversity: A classic example from its golden era  John McMaster ![Mike Ellis [Photo by Doug Owens]](http://tonyortega.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Mike_Ellis.jpg) Mike Ellis [Photo by Doug Owens] But its legal chicanery can also be a hoot. We have a series of documents that have been flying back and forth between parties as the Luis and Rocio Garcia federal fraud lawsuit against Scientology approaches a crucial February 18 evidentiary hearing. And we have a feeling you’re going to find the material in these documents rather entertaining.
Rathbun spent 27 years in Scientology and was its “inspector general for ethics,” the second-highest ranking official in the organization. He was known as a ruthlessly effective enforcer who then became disaffected and left the group in 2004. Today, he’s considered one of the biggest threats to Scientology’s continued existence, and on December 22, for the first time since his defection, he sat for a deposition and was questioned by the church’s own attorneys. Continue reading VIDEO LEAK: See former Scientology official Marty Rathbun interrogated under oath
In the early 1960s, the Food and Drug Administration was concerned enough about the health claims being made by Scientology with its “e-meters,” that it raided the “Founding Church” in Washington DC after several years of investigations. |
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