Clearwater

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 >>

Scientology's Concentration Camp for Its Executives: The Prisoners, Past and Present

This weekend, we published a two-part story about the rather amazing 32-year Scientology career of John Brousseau, whose adventures included driving for L. Ron Hubbard, spending time in the Sea Org's prison program the RPF, and working in the Cruise household with Tom and Katie Holmes. What seemed ... More >>

"Tom Cruise Worships David Miscavige Like a God": The John Brousseau Story, Part Two

Yesterday, we published the first part of our conversation with John Brousseau, a 32-year veteran of Scientology's "Sea Org" who escaped from the church's International Base east of Los Angeles in 2010. In our first part, Brousseau described his work in the Tom Cruise household with Katie Holmes an ... 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 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Nancy Cartwright and Karen Black Announced For 'Writers of the Future' Gala -- a Direct Response to the Voice?

Last week, we brought you several moments from Scientology's big L. Ron Hubbard birthday event that was held on March 10 in Clearwater, Florida. Here's another few minutes from that celebration that we alluded to earlier, during which church leader David Miscavige uses the church's "Writers of the F ... More >>

Mike Rinder on "The Hole," Indoctrination, Confessions, and His Ultimate Escape

For years, Mike Rinder was the Church of Scientology's chief spokesman and executive director of the Office of Special Affairs, its intelligence wing. In 2007, his defection was among the most surprising in an exodus of high-ranking officials from the church. Since then, he's given several interview ... More >>

Sunday Funnies: LRH Gets an Answer from Tricky Dick!

We've shuffled up our schedule a bit here in the underground bunker -- it was either that, or the cats would be dining on our corpse with the klaxons going off for weeks before we were discovered. Now that things are a bit more relaxed, we can take in the past week with a Sunday morning warm beverag ... More >>

VIDEO: Proof that L. Ron Hubbard Was the Most Awesome Human Being Ever

Just a few weeks after the Scientologists at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida experienced it for themselves, here it is: video from this year's L. Ron Hubbard birthday event. On March 13, LRH would have turned 101 years old (if he hadn't so wisely dropped his meat body in 1986 to research hig ... More >>

Scientology Greenery: Commenters of the Week!

Note: We'll have a special St. Patrick's Day report at 1pm this afternoon. Please come back for that after you check out these comments of the week! We went to Mecca and back this week -- Scientology's Mecca that is, the town of Clearwater, Florida to celebrate L. Ron Hubbard's 101st birthday. And ... More >>

In Clearwater for LRH's 101st Birthday: Tales of Disconnection and Scientology Creepiness

One of the highlights of a full day here in Clearwater, Florida -- spiritual mecca for the Church of Scientology -- was meeting Darth Xander and watching him chase a Flag bus to inform Sea Org members that they can leave if they want to. In town over the weekend to celebrate L. Ron Hubbard's 101st ... More >>

DEBBIE COOK COUNTERSUES SCIENTOLOGY: We Have Her Counterclaim, and the Church's Legal Salvos

The Voice has learned that Debbie Cook filed a counterclaim against the Church of Scientology Monday afternoon, the first significant development since her stunning victory against the church in a Texas courtroom on February 10. In her counterclaim, Cook is aiming directly at Scientology's ultimate ... More >>

Scientology's Secret Behind "Ideal Orgs" Revealed At Last

David Miscavige opened yet another "Ideal Org" this weekend, showing up to cut the ribbon at the new Church of Scientology in Florence, Kentucky (servicing the Cincinnati area). As you can see in the photo to the right, Miscavige showed up long enough to open the new building Saturday, which is jus ... More >>

Scientology Sunday Funnies: The "Dwindling Spiral"?

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 >>

SCIENTOLOGY'S DISGRACE: AN OPEN LETTER TO TOM CRUISE

Dear Tom, It's time for you to start talking publicly about Scientology again. Your religion is in serious trouble. In 2005, you ended a longtime policy of not talking about the church by suddenly bringing it up in interviews. Most memorable, of course, was the way you challenged Matt Lauer, tell ... More >>

Scientology: Secrets of the Super Power Building

The Voice has obtained hundreds of new renderings of Scientology's Super Power Building in Clearwater, Florida, as well as a comprehensive collection of its architectural drawings. [Go here for our primer: What is Scientology? Update: More renderings of the building's odder features. And we reveal p ... More >>

Scientology in Crisis: Debbie Cook's Transformation from Enforcer to Whistleblower

Debbie Cook and her husband Wayne Baumgarten, Christmas 2010​Most of the press reporting on Debbie Cook so far has focused on her past as a high-ranking executive in the Church of Scientology and her sudden transformation this week into a whistleblower trying to rally her fellow church members ... More >>

Is Scientology Imploding? Watching the Panic After a Former Executive Dares to Question Church Management

UPDATE: We look back at Debbie Cook's career, from enforcer to whistleblower. The world of Scientology watching is still reeling after Debbie Cook's New Year's Eve e-mail landed in the inboxes of thousands of church members Saturday night. A few minutes after midnight, we began receiving copies of ... More >>

Scientology in 2012: Mark Bunker and Mike Rinder Give Us a Preview of Enturbulation To Come

The new year has already started with a bombshell, but we wanted to get a longer view of how 2012 might turn out for Scientology watching. So we asked a couple of far-seeing church observers to give us their thoughts. We have some fascinating prognostication from Mark Bunker, whose film Knowledge R ... More >>

Our Scientology Puzzle Solved!

In yesterday's story celebrating our commenting community at the end of the year, I mentioned that back in the summer, I had planted a puzzle in our very successful series, The Top 25 People Crippling Scientology. Despite the large readership of that series, no one managed to spot the little visua ... More >>

Tom Cruise Denies Paying for Indian Extras to Cheer Him, And More Thursday Scientology Stats!

Each Thursday at 2 pm, Scientology staffers rush to turn in their weekly statistics. We like to do our part by rounding up the week's stories around the world and tallying up how the church fared. This week, we have items from India to Australia, but first, friendly correspondent Angry Gay Pope s ... More >>

Scientology Cruise Ship as Hellhole: The Ramana Dienes-Browning Story

Ramana Dienes-Browning and Iyana​Last week, Steve Cannane of Australia's ABC network and its program Lateline broke the story of Valeska Paris, a woman who says she was held against her will on Scientology's private cruise ship, the Freewinds, from 1996 to 2007. In that story, Cannane also ta ... More >>

Desperate Scientology Fundraising Caught on Video (UPDATED with more Video)

For the last week, the excellent journalists over at the St. Petersburg Times have outdone themselves with their best series on Scientology ever -- a look at the desperate fundraising by the church, which runs employees ragged and puts intense pressure on ordinary church members. Naturally, the chu ... More >>

Scientology's Sales Pitch: "Pure and Simple Blackmail"

Today sees another explosive installment in Tom Tobin and Joe Child's latest investigative project examining Scientology at the St. Petersburg Times. The previous day, the SP Times duo had introduced us to Hy Levy, a fomerly successful "registrar" who brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars t ... More >>

Biggi Reichert: Does Scientology Have Another Lisa McPherson On Its Hands?

Biggi Reichert: What happened to her before her 2006 suicide?​When I talked to Marty Rathbun after his return from Germany recently, he mentioned that one of the things he and Ursula Caberta hoped would come from their new friendship was cooperation on a mysterious death involving a German Sci ... More >>

The Top 25 People Crippling Scientology, No. 5: Joe Childs and Tom Tobin

​On August 5, we started a countdown that will give credit -- or blame -- to the people who have contributed most to the sad current state of Scientology. From its greatest expansion in the 1980s, the church is a shell of what it once was and is mired in countless controversies around the worl ... More >>

Scientology Schweinehund: Commenters of the Week!

"Rathbun? I see nothing!"​We were feeling pretty whiplashed this week here at the underground bunker where we keep an eye on all things Scientology related -- on the one hand, our big countdown was really heating up, but we also needed to keep an eye on the big news breaking out in Germany, wh ... More >>

The Top 25 People Crippling Scientology, No. 10: Lisa McPherson

​On August 5, we started a countdown that will give credit -- or blame -- to the people who have contributed most to the sad current state of Scientology. From its greatest expansion in the 1980s, the church is a shell of what it once was and is mired in countless controversies around the worl ... More >>

The Top 25 People Crippling Scientology, No. 11: Nick Xenophon

​On August 5, we started a countdown that will give credit -- or blame -- to the people who have contributed most to the sad current state of Scientology. From its greatest expansion in the 1980s, the church is a shell of what it once was and is mired in countless controversies around the worl ... More >>

Scientology Uses Its Movie Stars to Woo Politicians, Says Former Top Exec (OR: Tom Cruise Loves Coconut Cake!)

Want to have Tom over to your place for dinner? Apparently all it takes is some yummy coconut cake.​Another revelation this afternoon from Marty Rathbun, formerly one of the highest executives in Scientology who defected in 2004 and since 2009 has been criticizing church leader David Miscavige ... More >>

Janet Reitman: An Interview with the Author of Inside Scientology

Janet Reitman​On Tuesday, we sat down with Janet Reitman, author of the terrific new book Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion, which is just hitting bookstores and will be released officially in July. Inside Scientology is a masterful telling of the Scientology ... More >>

Scientology Operation Against Washington Post Reporter Richard Leiby Exposed

Richard Leiby​After the jump, Leiby's ex-wife, Theresa Defino, responds to Marty Rathbun's allegation that she 'caved' to Scientology in its anti-Leiby efforts. Story originally published at 12:16 pm. Marty Rathbun has done it again. The top former Scientology figure who left the "church" in ... More >>

Janis Joplin Highlights a Surprisingly Good 'Summer Festival for Peace' at Shea

​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. August 13, 1970, Vol. XV, No. 33 Riffs By Don Heckman If anybody out there is looking for a convenient, already-built set for a film of Kafka's "The Castle," I've got just the thing -- Shea Stadium. Endless ramps that lead nowhere in p ... More >>

David Cross Endorses Scientology In a Way Only He Can

MTV ShowsOh, David Cross, not since your never-nude turn on Arrested Development have you shined like this. Sure, the audience at the MTVu "Woodie Awards" -- ahem, whatever the hell that is* -- seem bewildered by your deadpan endorsement of Hubbard tech at "Flag" (aka, the Scientology spiritual HQ ... More >>

Scientology's Leader a Sadistic Slapper, Say Top-Level Defectors: St. Pete Times

From the special series at the St. Petersburg TimesOver the past few months, actor and Scientology-defector Jason Beghe has been hinting to us that two absolutely top-level officials who had recently escaped the church's clutches were about to unload on their former supreme leader, David Miscavige.T ... More >>

Summer Guide: Amadou & Mariam's A Global Affair

Damon Albarn lends this "blind couple from Mali" a dash of Britpop

Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Celebration at MSG with Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, and Oscar the Grouch

Pete Seeger only turns 90 once, so why not have a big party? True to the folk singer's activist legacy, this packed Madison Square Garden celebration was a fundraiser for the Clearwater sloop and sailboat-centered foundation that Seeger built in 1969 to raise awareness about a then-near-dead Hudso ... More >>

THIS LAND IS PETE'S LAND

A progressive hero celebrates the 9-0 with a few friends

This Week's Voice: An Interview with JT LeRoy, Built to Spill, T.I., the New York Film Festival, and More

Club Midway on Avenue B: Reopened, Padlocks Off

Letters

Schiavo Judge Has Reason to Fear

Armed guards, dead flowers, and not very Christian-sounding e-mail

A Tale of Two Christmas Departments: Kmart and Bergdorf Goodman

Bush Boys Play Doctor

Your Bed, Your Hospital Bed—Wherever

Listening to Fido

A Different Kind of A.I.

Act of Contrition

Three Cheers For The Red, White And Blue Cheese