Scientology's biggest star comes to Canada to make a movie that will bring church's values and villains to a theatre near you Members of the Church of Scientology were in Yorkville this past holiday weekend, questionnaires in hand, to collect opinions about the church from passersby. It's been a difficult couple of years for Scientology, which is trying to polish its fringe image as it awaits word from Revenue Canada about its application for charitable status. But positive PR may be ...

Harold J. McElhinny (Bar No. 66781) Rachel Krevans (Bar No. 116421) Stephen P. Freccero (Bar No. 131093) Ronald P. Flynn (Bar No. 184 186) Jason A. Crotty (Bar No. 196036) MORRISON & FOERSTER LLP 425 Market Street San Francisco, California 94105-2482 Telephone: (415) 268-7000 Facsimile: (415) 268-7522 Jana G. Gold (Bar No. 154246) MORRISON & FOERSTER LLP 755 Page Mill Road Palo Alto, California 94304-1018 Telephone: (650) 8 13-5600 Facsimile: (650) 494-0792 Attorneys for Defendant DENNIS ERLICH UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT ...

David Miscavige, the seldom-seen leader of the church, comes forth in his first newspaper interview to talk of a more peaceful time for Scientology. LOS ANGELES — When David Miscavige recounts his rise to power in the Church of Scientology — a journey that began when he quit high school at age 16 — it is mostly a story of war. War against renegade Scientologists. War against Scientology’s critics. War against its one-time arch enemy, the IRS. But Scientology’s 38-year-old leader ...

WASHINGTON – After years of holding the U.S. government in contempt, the Church of Scientology is enlisting members of Congress, the U.S. State Department and even President Clinton to advance its agenda in foreign lands. Prodded by the Scientologists' paid lobbyists and its cadre of sympathetic entertainers, several lawmakers and the Clinton administration have criticized the German government for allegedly discriminating against Scientology practitioners. They even got their argument against Germany to the floor of the House of Representatives last November. ...

GRAHAM E. BERRY, State Bar No. 128503 GORDON J. CALHOUN, State Bar No. 84509 LEWIS, D'AMATO, BRISBOIS & BISGAARD 221 N. Figueroa Street, Suite 1200 Los Angeles, California 90012 Telephone: (213) 250-1800 Attorneys for Defendants UWE GEERTZ, PH.D. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA No. CV 91-6426 HLH (Tx) DECLARATION OF VICKI AZNARAN RE: MOTION FOR COSTS Date: APRIL 4, 1994 Time: 10:00 a.m. Courtroom: 7 CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL, Plaintiff, VS. STEVEN FISHMAN and UWE GEERTZ, Defendants. —– ...

[Transcription of the meaningful parts of the 1023 form as submitted by the Church of Spiritual Technology to the IRS. For the complete document, see PDFs] [...] Church of Spiritual Technology 419 Larchmont, Suite 162 Los Angeles, CA 90004-3013 Form 1023 [...] [b]Part I, Question 8 – Previous Exemption Application[/b] Church of Spiritual Technology ("CST") filed an application for recognition of its tax exemption under section 501(c)(3) on August 24, 1983. That application was denied by an adverse ruling dated July ...

The principal of a Sherman Oaks elementary school has canceled an assembly by an environmental group because of fears that parents would object to the organization's connection with the Church of Scientology. The Sherman Oaks School's 927 students were scheduled to watch skits and hear songs Monday performed by Cry Out, an environmental group affiliated with Scientology. The event, which was to include an appearance by child actor Vonni Ribisi, was to kick off a yearlong study of environmental issues such ...

Testimonials of the famous are prominent in the church's push for acceptability. John Travolta and Kirstie Alley are the current headliners. The Church of Scientology uses celebrity spokesmen to endorse L. Ron Hubbard's teachings and give Scientology greater acceptability in mainstream America. As far back as 1955, Hubbard recognized the value of famous people to his fledgling, off-beat church when he inaugurated "Project Celebrity." According to Hubbard, Scientologists should target prominent individuals as their "quarry" and bring them back like trophies ...

The Church of Scientology today is run by a high-school dropout who grew up at the knee of the late L. Ron Hubbard and wields power with the iron-fisted approach of his mentor. At 30, David Miscavige is chairman of the board of an organization that sits atop the bureaucratic labyrinth known as the Church of Scientology. This organization, the Religious Technology Center, owns the trademarks that Scientology churches need to operate, including the words Scientology and Dianetics. The Religious Technology ...

In 1981, St. Martin's Press was offered a sure thing. L. Ron Hubbard, the pulp writer turned religious leader, had written his first science-fiction novel in more than 30 years. If St. Martin's published it, Hubbard aides promised the firm, subsidiary organizations of Hubbard's Church of Scientology would buy at least 15,000 copies. "Battlefield Earth," priced at $24.95, was released the next year in hardcover, rare for a science-fiction title. Despite mixed reviews, the book quickly sold 120,000 copies — enough ...

The San Diego Union first asked for an interview with Bridge Publications in December 1989. The request was referred to the L. Ron Hubbard Office of Public Relations, a Church of Scientology organization in Los Angeles. Several times throughout January, Union reporter Mike McIntyre contacted the L Ron Hubbard Office of Public Relations to request an interview with Bridge personnel. Each time, L. Ron Hubbard spokeswoman Sharyn Runyon said that a decision had not been made. Runyon later asked McIntyre to ...

[This is a reprint of an article published on Dec. 22, 1988 in the St. Petersburg Times.]

EVEN the strongest stomach at this summer's American Booksellers convention must have heaved in protest when comely goons hired by Bridge Publications, the publishing arm of the Church of Scientology, marched up and down the aisles of the auditorium literally setting ablaze a book by L. Ron Hubbard — a "hot" author, get it? — a man who is said to have improved the lives (If not the careers) of such celebrities as Sonny Bono and John Travolta. Judging from their ...

The year was 1976, one year after the Church of Scientology had secretly moved its spiritual headquarters to Clearwater, and Mayor Gabe Cazares was complaining too loudly for the church's comfort. So, as documents seized by the FBI would later show, the church's Clearwater office devised a scheme to "ruin Mayor Gabriel Cazares' political career by spreading scandal about his sex life." Church officials came up with ways to get Cazares' school records, birth records, anything — from checking with the ...

As a campaign by members of the church of Scientology to make Britain the first Scientology country gains momentum, we can reveal the cost of the "hard sell" 'religion' which has split families and which last week led one Ashurst Wood couple to the Bankruptcy Court. Our investigations suggest the cult uses high pitch American style sales techniques to trap their hapless "believers" in a never ending web of lengthy courses. Scientology is the religious philosophy which grew out of Dianetics, ...

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has ruled that there is insufficient evidence in a $1-billion lawsuit against the Church of Scientology to support charges that two corporations helped the religion's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, plunder church coffers. The action last Friday by Judge Norman R. Dowds undercut a key portion of the class-action lawsuit, filed in December by a group of disaffected church members who claim to represent 400 ex-Scientologists. The suit alleged that a profit-making firm run by high-ranking ...

Description of video is in italics. VO=VOICEOVER shot of Church of Scientology, Los Angeles; apparently group of ex-members VOICEOVER: The Church of Scientology, one of the largest and richest new religious movements, is being sued for a billion dollars by former members for fraud and breach of trust. They regard Scientology as a dangerous cult. group of Scientologists VO: Yet the church goes on expanding, making converts and claiming it is "The Road to Total Freedom". ''"Panorama" opening credits; while music ...

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 1 — More than 400 current and former members of the Church of Scientology have filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the church, accusing it of trying to compromise or pay off two Florida judges and siphon $100 million to foreign bank accounts. The suit, filed Wednesday by Lawrence Levy, a lawyer, contends that church officials or their representatives committed fraud and breached fiduciary duties. It says information obtained in purportedly confidential auditing sessions with a lie detector-like ...

Former members of the Church of Scientology filed a $1-billion class-action lawsuit against the organization Wednesday, accusing its late founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and a cadre of his most trusted aides of plundering church coffers, intimidating critics and breaching the confidentiality of sacred confessional folders. The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court at a time when the church had hoped that its legal wars with its critics had been put largely to rest. Two weeks ago, the organization reached ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — More than 400 current and former Scientologists filed a $1 billion suit against the church Wednesday, alleging efforts to compromise or pay off two Florida judges and siphon $100 million to foreign bank accounts. The class action filed by attorney Lawrence Levy contends Church officials or their representatives committed fraud and breached fiduciary duties. It says information obtained during purportedly confidential "auditing" sessions with a lie detector-like device is used "for purposes of blackmail and extortion." The ...