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PODCAST: Phil Jones on the billboard, Scientology, and the Aftermath Foundation

 
What a week Phil Jones has had, with his stealth operation in Los Angeles to put up a billboard on behalf of the Aftermath Foundation, and then the controversy that then ensued.

Continue reading PODCAST: Phil Jones on the billboard, Scientology, and the Aftermath Foundation

Aftermath Foundation billboard pulled down, and ClearChannel isn’t saying why

[Phil Jones and his newest billboard on Monday morning.]

When we spoke to Phil Jones last night, he had just arrived back home in Canada after his flight from Los Angeles, and he sounded tired and a bit bewildered by what he’d been through over the last few days.

Continue reading Aftermath Foundation billboard pulled down, and ClearChannel isn’t saying why

News report says Leah Remini’s Scientology suit ‘gutted’ — but the ruling says otherwise

[No surprises in Judge Hammock’s ruling on Leah’s suit. So why pretend there was?]

On January 16, after Judge Randolph Hammock issued a tentative ruling in Leah Remini’s lawsuit against the Church of Scientology, the Courthouse News Service reported that the judge intended to grant parts of Scientology’s anti-SLAPP motions and “trim” Leah’s complaint, but her lawsuit was still “likely to survive.”

Continue reading News report says Leah Remini’s Scientology suit ‘gutted’ — but the ruling says otherwise

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard is 113 today: Let’s celebrate with his own words!

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was born 113 years ago today in Tilden, Nebraska, and the reason he’s still remembered today, more than 38 years after his death in January 1986, is that he was a pulp fiction hack who churned out turgid magazine dreck by the yard during the Great Depression.

Continue reading Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard is 113 today: Let’s celebrate with his own words!

Jane Doe 1: Scientology’s forced arbitration shouldn’t apply in a lawsuit about sex abuse

[Judge Robert Broadbelt and defendant David Miscavige]

Two weeks from today, the forced-marriage lawsuit filed by Jane Doe 1 will face its biggest challenge so far, and one that readers here at the Bunker are only too familiar with: A motion from Scientology asking the court to force the case into its own internal “religious arbitration.”

Continue reading Jane Doe 1: Scientology’s forced arbitration shouldn’t apply in a lawsuit about sex abuse

They’ve done it again! Billboard goes up adjacent to Scientology HQ in Los Angeles

It was April 2016 when we first launched our ‘Call Me’ billboards. The first one we did was in Los Angeles. From there we did a billboard in Clearwater, Florida and another in Los Angeles near the Scientology Media Productions site. There was lots of press that resulted which went on for some months afterwards. I think we were able to effectively bring increased awareness of Scientology’s disconnection practice.

Continue reading They’ve done it again! Billboard goes up adjacent to Scientology HQ in Los Angeles

Scientology does not want racketeering added to lawsuit from Danny Masterson victims

[Judge Kalra and defendant Danny Masterson]

In December, we reported that Danny Masterson’s victims were proposing to enhance their 2019 lawsuit against him and Scientology in a big way. They proposed to add a new plaintiff (the actress Tricia Vessey, who had testified in Masterson’s first criminal trial to being attacked by him twice in 1996), and to add sexual battery counts against Masterson and racketeering allegations accusing Scientology of being a criminal enterprise.

Continue reading Scientology does not want racketeering added to lawsuit from Danny Masterson victims

PODCAST: Mark Bunker on Scientologists stealing his campaign signs

 
With a little more than a week before election day (and with early voting already underway), it was great timing for Mark Bunker that Tracey McManus revealed in the Tampa Bay Times this week that Clearwater police determined it was a couple of Scientologists who were caught stealing Bunker’s yard signs.

Continue reading PODCAST: Mark Bunker on Scientologists stealing his campaign signs

You’ve just been through Scientology’s Wall of Fire: It’s time to party!

 
We know you’re hearing some pretty grim things about Scientology’s prospects these days, with dwindling membership, damning lawsuits, and terrible press, but as we never hesitate to point out, Scientology never gives up.

Continue reading You’ve just been through Scientology’s Wall of Fire: It’s time to party!

For an outfit that sells immortality, Scientology really sucks about death

[Yvonne Gillham Jentzsch, center, and the early Celebrity Centre community]

In June 1976, my grandmother died in my little sister’s bed. She was 80. She was my last living grandparent. After her husband, my grandpa, had died in 1968, I spent several summers at her house with her, just the two of us, staying up late watching Johnny Carson and taking the bus around town during the day. They were idyllic times.

Continue reading For an outfit that sells immortality, Scientology really sucks about death