Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He's written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology's harassment of Paulette Cooper titled 'The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.' He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world from an undisclosed location in an underground bunker he shares with four cats and one of them wrinkly Shar Pei dogs. Despite his super-secret security protections, you can still reach him pretty easily by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you'd like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.) [Header image courtesy John Rickard]
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Putting back a family ripped apart by Scientology can be easier said than done

[Claudio Lugli and his son Flavio, in 1990]

On Thursday, we told you about what appeared to be a new development in Scientology’s “disconnection” policy that rips apart families. Like so many other parents, Claudio and Renata Lugli have not heard from their son Flavio in years because they chose to leave the Church of Scientology []

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Scientology, why are you keeping a cancer patient from seeing his only daughter?

 Bernie Headley sounded really good on the phone. And he says for now, he feels good. The lung cancer he was diagnosed with in 2004 went into remission after he had a partial lung removal. It came back in 2014, but radiation treatments seem to have made that dormant as well. But then lesions started []

Brandon Reisdorf: Scientology complained to probation dept. over ‘Leah Remini’ appearance

 Brandon Reisdorf got a surprise yesterday. He tells us that he heard from his probation officer, who had some questions about his recent appearance on Leah Remini’s A&E series, Scientology and the []

Scientology wastes no time making a move on the new president, but where does Trump stand?

[Then-candidate Donald Trump and Trish Duggan, during the campaign]

Back in August, we pointed out that while many people have noted similarities between Donald Trump and L. Ron Hubbard, at least in their personal styles (something we’ve acknowledged as well), we hadn’t really seen any substantial connections between the Republican candidate and the Church of Scientology []

National civil rights museum knows it’s harboring Scientology front group, shrugs it off

 Rod Keller is on the case again this week, looking into Scientology’s many front groups and their []

Scientology is still a fraud in France, but it gets some revenge against anti-cult group there

[For Scientology’s Paris spokesman, Eric Roux, it was a good day.]

Here’s the latest report from our man in Paris, British journalist Jonny Jacobsen…

In 2013, France’s highest court upheld a ruling that Scientology, in that country at least, is a fraud. And key to that court decision, as well as the one it upheld, was an []

What Scientology can tell us about a 20th of January like no other

 L. Ron Hubbard warned us that he was a garden-variety crackpot right from the start. Go ahead, take a look at the very first words in Hubbard’s 1950 manifesto, Dianetics. Here’s what it []

Scientology in hot water again for cutting down trees without permission

 What is it with David Miscavige and trees? He seems to be in such a hurry to pave over the world in the name of Scientology, the church leader is in hot water again for cutting down trees without []

Tonight on ‘Leah Remini’: L. Ron Hubbard’s stolen valor, and Leah’s tearful goodbye

 Tonight’s episode of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath is not the last we’re going to hear from this A&E series. There’s yet another special episode scheduled for next Tuesday that is apparently going to focus on Leah []

Behold, it’s Scientology Jesus as you’ve never seen him before!

[Recognize your lord and savior?]

It’s one of the questions we’ve been getting the most in recent weeks as A&E’s hit series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath has brought around a lot of curious new folks here and at Twitter. Is it true, they ask us, what Scientologists say — that you can join the []