Church of Scientology

Nicole Kidman Will Talk About Bodily Fluids, But Not Scientology

While being interviewed for The Hollywood Reporter, Nicole Kidman was told that a recent issue of the same publication featured an excerpt from Going Clear, the book in which Scientology is blamed for her divorce from Tom Cruise. "I'll bet it is," she says before quickly looking at something else i ... More >>

Tom Cruise Wants To Protect Us From Aliens Living In Our Bodies!

Now we know why Tom Cruise was jumping up and down on Oprah's couch so emphatically. He was trying to rattle those aliens up inside him and get them to come plopping out! That must be the same reason he wore assless chaps in Rock of Ages. (And yes, I know "assless chaps" is a redundancy, but I like ... More >>

Scientology Watchers: A Message from Tony Ortega

Tony O goes Clear!To the readers of this blog... Today, Paul Thomas Anderson's movie The Master opens in a few theaters here, and the media reaction has been electric. We've all watched as interest in Scientology has skyrocketed this summer, and it seems to have reached some kind of culmination thi ... More >>

Scientology Chooses an Odd Time to Open a "National Affairs" Office in DC

Today at 6 pm, Scientology will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a building in Washington DC's Dupont Circle neighborhood. For the last couple of years, Scientology has opened "Ideal Orgs" -- fancy, superfluous new churches in cities around the world in an expensive ploy to make it look like the ... More >>

Scientology President's Son Died of Prescribed Methadone While Sick With Pneumonia

I talked earlier today to Ed Winter, assistant chief coroner of Los Angeles County, who tells me that he's ruling Alexander Jentzsch's death an accident. The 27-year-old son of Scientology president Heber Jentzsch was found dead on the morning of July 3 at the home of his in-laws. Winter has now d ... More >>

Scientology to Marc and Claire Headley: Spy For Us and We'll Forget the $43K You Owe

The Voice has obtained a remarkable document -- a letter from Scientology's attorneys which explains how the church would agree to forgive almost $43,000 in court costs if Marc and Claire Headley agree to turn over information about former Scientology executive Marty Rathbun and "others involved in ... More >>

Scientology and The Master

EXCLUSIVE -- Paul Haggis On Scientology's Crude Retaliation: "They Are Bullying A Woman Who Has Yet To Even Speak"

The Voice received an e-mail this morning from Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis after we asked him about the Church of Scientology's attack on him and Nazanin Boniadi which appeared on Us Weekly's website yesterday. Over the weekend, Haggis spoke up to defend Boniadi -- who acted in his movie The ... More >>

Scientology's Homophobia: Even the Church's Token Gay Guy Was Disgusted

One of Scientology's enduring mysteries is that it has attracted Hollywood stars when it has such a reputation for homophobia. The sexual orientation of its top celebrities is always a matter of popular speculation, and even those with the barest understanding of Scientology seem to know that if cel ... More >>

The Secret to Eternal Youth! Now Available on the Cruise Ship Freewinds!

Scientology watchers, we have a treat for you this morning. This video has been making the rounds the last couple of days, and we can see why it's generating so much interest. Mike Napier, the captain of Scientology's private cruise ship, the Freewinds, stars in this film and tells us about the bene ... More >>

(2012's) Top 25 People Crippling Scientology, Nos. 14-16

Last summer, we put together a little list that took on a life of its own. We counted down the 25 people and groups who had been doing the most to get word out to the wider world about the Church of Scientology's many alleged abuses, and who have contributed to its steep recent decline. A year la ... More >>

Marty Rathbun: Scientology's Attorney "Supervised" Destruction of Records in Lisa McPherson Death

For the last year or more, Mark Bunker has been releasing short excerpts from his upcoming Scientology documentary Knowledge Report, and yesterday, he released a doozy. Bunker had told me that he'd interviewed former church executive Marty Rathbun, and in this excerpt, we see Rathbun addressing the ... More >>

(2012's) Top 25 People Crippling Scientology, Nos. 17-20

Last summer, we put together a little list that took on a life of its own. We counted down the 25 people and groups who had been doing the most to get word out to the wider world about the Church of Scientology's many alleged abuses, and who have contributed to its steep recent decline. A year la ... More >>

Scientology's Grip on the Mind: An Ex-Sea Org Member Explains It For Us

In December, we brought you the story of Melissa Paris, a former Scientologist who we got to know after her sister Valeska's stunning claims that she'd been a virtual prisoner on Scientology's private cruise ship from 1996 to 2007. Melissa had her own shocking tales of growing up in Scientology's " ... More >>

(2012's) Top 25 People Crippling Scientology, No. 21 & 22

Last summer, we put together a little list that took on a life of its own. We counted down the 25 people and groups who had been doing the most to get word out to the wider world about the Church of Scientology's many alleged abuses, and who have contributed to its steep recent decline. Our list in ... More >>

The Top 25 People Crippling Scientology -- 2012 Edition!

In the doldrums of August last year, we put together a little list that took on a life of its own. We counted down the 25 people and groups who had been doing the most to get word out to the wider world about the Church of Scientology's many alleged abuses, and who have contributed to its steep rec ... More >>

Scientology Sunday Funnies: Bowl With The Valley Girls!

And here we thought the Ideal Org caper was winding down. An alert reader guided us to this video, which shows that the clever gals at the Operating Thetan Committee of Scientology's San Fernando Valley Celebrity Centre (CC OTC) know how to get the membership pumped up for some of that endless fun ... More >>

Scientology's Recruitment Film: The Version They Don't Want You to See

On Sunday, we wrote about our trip to Scientology's New York "org." We were invited inside to see a short movie about the origin of L. Ron Hubbard's 1950 book, Dianetics. An alert reader noticed that a film fitting our description could be found on YouTube and brought it to our attention. Yes! This ... More >>

Movie Night at Scientology's New York "Org": The Village Voice Gets Proselytized!

The image you see here means a lot to us at the underground bunker, where we keep an eye on all things Scientology related. And on this lazy Sunday morning, we hope you'll indulge us as we attempt to explain what it represents. Andreas Heldal-Lund, meet Chill EB. Chill, meet the devil.

Chick Corea, Heber Jentzsch, Ingo Swann, and Scientology's 1977 OT Summit!

Scientology has been rocked by so much bad news lately, with all of the divorces and disappearances and defections and schisms and death investigations and torture programs and unnatural relationships and forced abortions and space opera and weird kids and weirder movies, we thought it might be tim ... More >>

Mimi Faust's Mother, Olaiya Odufunke: Her Life in Scientology's Secret Service

Monday night, Mimi Faust revealed on VH1's Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta that she had been abandoned at 13 by a mother who chose Scientology over her own children. By Tuesday morning, we had identified Mimi's mother, Olaiya Odufunke, who died in 2003. And now, we have a photograph of Olaiya (on the left, ... More >>

Watch Mimi Faust Talk about Losing Her Mother to Scientology

One of our tipsters put together for us this portion of Monday night's Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta that features Mimi Faust talking about her mother choosing Scientology over her own children. In this scene, you see her dealing with what is still deeply felt trauma over being abandoned at only 13 years ... More >>

Mimi Faust on Scientology: "They Wanted Me To Sign a Contract To Work For Them And I Refused"

We noticed a lot of people talking about a "Mimi" and Scientology tonight on Twitter, and eventually figured out all the fuss was about reality TV star Oluremi "Mimi" Faust on VH1's show Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta. The rebroadcast just happened, so we got a chance to see what Mimi had to say about how ... More >>

Scientology's Worlds Colliding: Bert Leahy and David Edgar Love Together in Oklahoma on August 25!

To even begin to explain why it's significant that a Texas man named Bert Leahy and a Montreal man named David Edgar Love are going to meet up in the godforsaken town of Canadian, Oklahoma on August 25 would probably strain most news organizations. But we have an advantage: Bert Leahy and David Lov ... More >>

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise's Split Becomes an Advertisement (Also, Guide to Our Scientology Archives!)

Southampton, England-based P&O Cruises put this advertisement in a newspaper somewhere, and it was naturally posted to the web. We can't decide, however, if P&O understood just how brilliant its advertisement is, as it not only riffs on Tom Cruise's name, but it also recalls one of Scientology's b ... More >>

Case Closed: Paul Thomas Anderson's Script for The Master is Nothing But Scientology

Former Scientologist Marc Headley, who first revealed to the Voice in 2009 that Tom Cruise talked to ashtrays and beverage bottles as part of his Scientology training, has a stunning article in the Daily Beast today that settles, once and for all, what Paul Thomas Anderson's film The Master is all a ... More >>

Scientology's Shame: Karen de la Carriere Stuns KFI Radio; ALSO: Katie and Suri's Accident

We were first to report the death of Alexander Jentzsch, the son of the Church of Scientology's president, Heber Jentzsch, and the subsequent controversy when the church refused to allow Alexander's mother, Karen de la Carriere, to view his body before it was cremated. We continue to follow develop ... More >>

Katie And Suri Are Catholic: Is That Really Better?

Loving, caring Katie Holmes has reportedly gone back to Roman Catholicism and she's taken Suri with her. As a lapsed Catholic, I have to ask: Is that really better than Scientology? And the answer would be: Yeah, a little bit. The Church has started holy wars, destroyed lives, demonized gays, opp ... More >>

Video from the Memorial of Alexander Jentzsch; Also: Scientology Commenters of the Week

Filmmaker Mark Bunker put together this video of Friday's memorial held Friday for Alexander Jentzsch aboard the ship Spirit out of Long Beach Harbor in California. It's a simple event with a few people on a boat. But don't underestimate its significance. Since she sent out a message to thousands ... More >>

Alexander Jentzsch, Son of Scientology's President, Memorialized At Sea

Yesterday, Karen de la Carriere memorialized her son, Alexander Jentzsch, who was found dead at a home in Los Angeles on the morning of July 3. He was only 27 years old. Because the Church of Scientology would not give her access to her son's ashes, Karen had rose petals cast on the Pacific Ocean a ... More >>

Scientology Gets a Smooch from the L.A. Times

In 1990, just before he and his colleague Joel Sappell were about to publish a landmark series exposing Scientology's secrets in the Los Angeles Times, Robert Welkos found that someone had placed in a manila envelope against his home's front door a brochure from a mortuary, encouraging him to plan h ... More >>

SCIENTOLOGY TV: FALL LINEUP REVEALED!

Last year, the Church of Scientology bought the studios that had been the home for KCET, the public television station in Los Angeles. Now, news organizations are reporting that Scientology plans to use the facility for its own TV station, and broadcast the way other religions do. So far, however, ... More >>

Scientology Auditing Kids: Proof From Church's Own School Website

For the last two weeks, we've been asked one thing more than any other: what was Suri facing as a six-year-old in Scientology if she hadn't been taken out of it by her mother, Katie Holmes? Does indoctrination in the church start at such a young age? As we reported earlier, in 1961 Scientology foun ... More >>

Scientology Relents: Will Hold a Memorial for Son of Church President, Mother Not Invited

The Voice has received a reliable report that Heber Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International -- who has not been seen in public since about 2004 -- is being allowed to leave Scientology's desert base east of Los Angeles in order to attend a memorial for his son, Alexander. A ... More >>

Tom Cruise Gets Visitation Rights? Why Don't We, Ask Ex-Scientologists Cut Off From Family Members

Fans of Katie Holmes are celebrating that she seemed to get just about everything she wanted in her divorce settlement with Tom Cruise -- reportedly, she's getting primary custody of Suri, and Tom will get visitation rights. And with Katie registering with a Catholic Church in Manhattan, it's a good ... More >>

Prehistoric Aggression: More Reasons Katie Holmes Was Smart to Avoid Scientology Marriage Counseling

In its print edition today, the New York Times is catching up to something we printed on Wednesday about the weirdness of Scientology's marriage counseling. After news broke that Katie Holmes was divorcing Tom Cruise, various news outlets relied on Scientology PR to give the impression that, as ABC ... More >>

SCIENTOLOGY PRESIDENT'S SON DIES; DEATH OF ALEXANDER JENTZSCH KEPT FROM MOTHER, AN EX-MEMBER

I just received this anguished e-mail from Karen de la Carriere, formerly a member of the Church of Scientology who studied directly under L. Ron Hubbard and who was at one time married to the current (and disappeared) president of the Church of Scientology International, Heber Jentzsch... My son i ... More >>

Scientology's Own Promotional Material Attests to 15-Year-Olds in the Sea Org

As we explained yesterday, TMZ probably messed up when it claimed that Katie Holmes was filing for divorce because she feared that her husband Tom Cruise and Scientology would send her daughter Suri away to the Sea Org, which is a "boot camp." We went to some lengths yesterday to point out that the ... More >>

Scientology Marriage Counseling Comes Down to This: "What Have You Done to Tom?"

Since news of the Katie Holmes-Tom Cruise divorce filing broke last week, media outlets have been scrambling to put together basic information about Scientology, which appears to be central to the couple's split. We couldn't help notice that numerous news organizations have been relying on Scientol ... More >>

Radar Gets It Wrong: How Scientology Is Likely To Be an Issue in the Divorce of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise

Yesterday, RadarOnline, one of several online tabs trying to churn out incremental stories about the celebrity story of the year, grabbed for attention by quoting two lawyers who said it was unlikely that Tom Cruise's Scientology would be allowed as an issue in his divorce with Katie Holmes. Aside ... More >>

Scientology Plays Denver's Police Chief Like a Violin

We recently brought you footage of Sacramento's mayor, former NBA player Kevin Johnson, gushing about Scientology at the opening of an "Ideal Org" in that city. Since that fancy new building opened in California's capital, additional celebrations have occurred in places like Orange County and Denve ... More >>

How Hooters -- Yes, Hooters -- Could Mess Up Scientology's Refund Scam

We've been telling you for the past year about the large number of longtime Scientologists who are walking away from their church. It seems like nearly every week we hear about someone like Dave Fagen who gives up after years of dedication because of the continuing crisis over David Miscavige's lead ... More >>

The Master Gets Its Scientology On in 2nd Trailer

The second trailer to Paul Thomas Anderson's upcoming film The Master was just released, and this time we get a look at Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams along with Joaquin Phoenix. We gave PTA credit for being wily with his first trailer -- for years, we've all been waiting to see how much The ... More >>

Scientology Sunday Funnies: Neil Gaiman's Mum Builds a Civilization!

Scientologists don't really have a Sunday service. They like to say that they do, because they crave mainstream acceptance. But unless Xenu rested after six days and L. Ron Hubbard just forgot to mention it, there's no reason for Scientologists to treat Sunday any differently than every other day of ... More >>

New Scientology Movie Isn't Really A Scientology Movie!

The Master is the eagerly awaited Paul Thomas Anderson film about a man (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) who starts a cult-like religion in the 1950s. Sound like anyone, maybe with the first initial L.? Well, Hoffman says this movie has nothing whatsoever to do with Scientology.

Scientology Wins a Major Award Again! Galaxy Press Vindicated!

Last June, we told you about how proudly Scientology crowed in its press releases that it had won "Telly Awards" for some of its DVDs. We went on to explain that it's kind of difficult not to win a Telly, which gives away thousands of awards to up to about a quarter of the businesses that bother t ... More >>

How You Can Help a Film About Kate Bornstein Happen (Plus: Scientology Sunday Funnies!)

Filmmaker Sam Feder has opened Kickstarter funding for a documentary about recent Village Voice cover gal Kate Bornstein. Go to Sam's page to find out how you can help finish the project!

Ursula Caberta on Scientology: "You Have to Be Always Watching Them"

This week, a 90-minute documentary about Scientology's intelligence-gathering wing, the Office of Special Affairs, aired on the French and German cultural channel ARTE. Titled "Office of Special Affairs: Der Scientology-Geheimdienst" (Scientology's Secret Service), it included interviews with seve ... More >>

Scientology: Kiwi Reporter Puts Lisa Marie Presley On the Spot; Playboy Blows Tom Cruise

On Sunday, we broke the news that the lyrics to Lisa Marie Presley's song "So Long" -- from her new album Storm and Grace -- contained an even more obvious message that she was leaving Scientology than the one we perceived in the single she released in advance of the album a month ago, "You Ain't Se ... More >>

Lisa Marie Presley Removes All Mention of Scientology From Her Official Website (UPDATED)

After the jump: Less than 30 minutes after we pointed out one last CCHR mention on her website, Lisa Marie scrubbed it! Yesterday, the Voice revealed the lyrics to the song "So Long" on Lisa Marie Presley's new album, Storm and Grace, which seem to confirm what she was saying in her advance single, ... More >>