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UPDATED: Scientology’s ad is now in the post, as well as a response from Alex Gibney. See below.
This is a fun one: New York Times staffer Michael Cieply reporting on an ad in his own newspaper. Cieply reports that the Church of Scientology has taken out a full page ad in the Times to slam Alex Gibney, whose documentary about Scientology, Going Clear, premieres at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25. You just knew Scientology was going to make this fun, didn’t you? Continue reading Scientology takes out full-page ad in the New York Times to attack Alex Gibney Advertisement
 Wow, James Barbour is back in a big way.
A few days ago, it was announced that Barbour was taking on the title role in Broadway’s longest-running production, Phantom of the Opera. And then, last night, the producers of the show felt compelled to answer an overwhelming Internet response to the news that Barbour was joining the cast. Here’s what the show released… Continue reading ‘Phantom of the Opera’ gets a two-fer: Scientologist and child molester!
 We’ve been curious about what Scientology was going to do with the old KCET studios in Los Angeles since they bought the complex back in 2011. It’s now under renovation, and we’re getting more and more information about what Scientology leader David Miscavige thinks he’s going to do with it.
Now, Scientology has put out a website with a lot more detail about the new plans, and we thought we’d excerpt some of the more relevant parts of it, for informational purposes. Continue reading Scientology reveals a lot more of its lofty plans for the former KCET studios
 The Underground Bunker is very happy that we could play a small role in bringing together one of our favorite people — Claire Headley — with David Pakman, who is doing some very good work interviewing former Scientologists about their experiences.
Claire explains how she grew up in Scientology, what it meant to be a young member of the Sea Org — and signing a contract for a billion years at only eight years of age — and what it was like to dedicate your entire life to L. Ron Hubbard. Continue reading Claire Headley explains her amazing Scientology experience as Tom Cruise’s ‘examiner’
 Back in the day, still infested with space cooties. When did Howard Stern become such a doormat? Yesterday, once again, he had actress Kirstie Alley on his show, and once again he let her off easy regarding her involvement in Scientology and her rivalry with Leah Remini. The last time Alley was on, she called Remini a “bigot” after Remini had left Scientology and then made public that her former friends in the organization had dropped her like a hot potato — a result of Scientology’s “disconnection” policy. Continue reading What Howard Stern should have asked Kirstie Alley about Scientology
 Surprise! If you’re looking for our Monday reveal, we sprang it early, on Saturday afternoon. Our big secret was the title and subject of our forthcoming book, ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely,’ about the life of Paulette Cooper, which London-based Silvertail Books is publishing in May.
We decided to keep that announcement up the rest of the weekend, so today we’re going to post our delayed Sunday Funnies — they’re our Monday Funnies! And we’re going to start off with more evidence which convinces us that Scientology is taking very seriously the threats it is facing in 2015. We know that the organization has been dealing with dwindling membership for years, key defections by important officials, a tenacious “indie” movement that tries to entice other members to leave, and the growing legal problems of Narconon. Continue reading Monday Funnies: More evidence that Scientology is gearing up for a really tough 2015
London-based Silvertail Books is to publish The Unbreakable Miss Lovely by Tony Ortega, the story of the life of author Paulette Cooper, the most famous victim of the Church of Scientology’s notorious and ruthless ‘Fair Game’ retaliation schemes. Continue reading COMING IN MAY: A book about Scientology’s most infamous campaign of terror
 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.
We’re encouraged, Jon, that you’ve been receiving messages about your pieces here in the Bunker. And this week, you wanted to respond to one question in particular, about meditation and Scientology’s odd ‘training routines.’ We’re curious about this too. Take it away, Jon. Continue reading Jon Atack: Scientology’s ‘training routines’ and their relationship to meditation
 Wow, this is a fun leak, which was brought to our attention by Jon Atack.
In 1997, Channel 4 in the UK aired an hour long documentary titled Secret Lives – L. Ron Hubbard. We’ve posted it here at the Underground Bunker in the past, and it’s long been considered one of the better documentaries about the organization and its founder. It contained interviews with key people, such as Hana Eltringham Whitfield, who captained one of Hubbard’s ships as Scientology was run from sea in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It also featured a brief interview with Forrest Ackerman, the famous science fiction promoter who was once Hubbard’s literary agent. And now, the raw footage of Ackerman’s entire interview — most of which did not make the finished documentary — has been released. It’s a real treat! Continue reading Full Forrest Ackerman interview from 1997 ‘Secret Lives’ film released for first time
 Your proprietor will be at the world premiere of Alex Gibney’s documentary on Scientology, Going Clear, at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, but you won’t have to wait very long to see the film for yourself. At a winter TV critics meeting, HBO revealed that it will be airing its documentary on the television network on Monday, March 16.
Gibney is maybe the best documentary filmmaker working today, and we know that HBO is expecting a lot of this two-hour movie. Gibney’s production company is being pretty tight-lipped about the contents of the documentary, saying only that it is partly based on Lawrence Wright’s 2013 book of the same name and that it portrays eight former members of the church. Continue reading HBO airing its Scientology documentary, ‘Going Clear’ on March 16
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