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 this week with Anderson's movie in theaters and Maureen Orth's story on the cover of Vanity Fair.

I've decided to take advantage of this moment to change directions. Next week will be my last as editor of the Voice; I will be leaving to pursue a book proposal about Scientology in its time of crisis.

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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 church is expanding. (It isn't.)

But today's dedication is especially curious.

At a time when Scientology is reeling from several major crises and more negative press attention than ever in its history, the church is officially opening a "National Affairs Office" in the nation's capital, expecting that it can become a player in American politics.

Well, you can't blame them for trying. But their timing? We're wondering if they've been hanging out in the sauna too long.

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Karen de la Carriere with Alexander Jentzsch at his wedding to Andrea Evans

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 determined that Alexander was suffering from pneumonia while he was on a prescription of methadone. His injury was "drug intake," Winter says, and "final mode" of death an accident.

"What you're telling me sounds like an accidental drug overdose while he was very sick," I said to Winter.

"That's what I'm telling you," he answered.

Karen de la Carriere, Alexander's mother, tells me that Winter is not done investigating.

"They don't even have all the reports back yet. And they're looking at that methadone prescription," she tells me.

She points out that a healthy 27-year-old is not likely to die from pneumonia. And if he was following his methadone prescription -- and so far there's no indication that he didn't -- that also should not have been lethal.

It's the combination that killed Alexander Jentzsch.

The son of the president of the Church of Scientology International, cut off by the church from both of his parents, was taking methadone while he had serious pneumonia rather than antibiotics. And that doesn't look good.

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We've always been suckers for the final scene of It's a Wonderful Life. No matter how many times we see it, we tear up at the sight of George Bailey's friends coming to his aid in his time of need, proving to him that he really is the richest man in town.

Over the last couple of days, we watched something remarkable happen as the readers of this blog rallied to help a family in a somewhat similar circumstance. Only this time it wasn't old man Potter providing the bullying tactics, but the attorneys of the Church of Scientology.

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Marc and Claire Headley

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 disparaging" the church, "including any media contacts."

In July, we reported that the Headleys lost in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals after a lower court had dismissed their 2009 lawsuits against the church. In a lengthy and detailed decision, federal appellate judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain found that as longtime members of Scientology's hardcore "Sea Org," the Headleys had certainly endured hardships -- Claire claimed that she had been forced to have two abortions in order to keep up with the Sea Org's 100-hour weeks while paid pennies an hour -- but Scientology had not violated human trafficking laws.

After that court victory, Scientology was entitled to court costs, and the Headleys received three bills totaling $42,852.06. As a matter of procedure, they say, their attorney asked the church to waive those costs.

They were stunned when they got the church's response, explaining what it wanted in order to make that debt go away.

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See also our Voice Exclusive: Paul Haggis reacts to Scientology's attack on Nazanin Boniadi

We managed to find a copy of the new Vanity Fair today, and we've read Maureen Orth's story, "What Katie Didn't Know," about Tom Cruise and his Scientology-approved search for a new wife.

As advertised, there's really good stuff here. But there's also a lot we knew before and that's been reported here at the Voice. So join us as we show you our notes after giving Orth's story a good read.

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Haggis strikes back

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 Next Three Days -- when she turned out to be the subject of this month's Vanity Fair in a story about her being one of several women who were "auditioned" in 2004 by Scientology to become the next girlfriend for Tom Cruise. According to a teaser of that story published on Vanity Fair's website Saturday, Boniadi dated Cruise for about three months before she somehow displeased both Cruise and the church's leader, David Miscavige. As a result, she was punished with cleaning toilets with a toothbrush and other indignities.

Haggis spoke up in a statement to journalist Roger Friedman which appeared on Sunday, saying "I'm appalled that any church would treat its parishioners this way."

Scientology struck back yesterday, with an official statement that was delivered by an unnamed spokesperson -- whose identity was hidden by Us Weekly, a decision we questioned earlier -- accusing Haggis of being in a relationship at some point with Boniadi.

Read Haggis's response to that accusation after the jump...

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In 1955, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard announced "Project Celebrity," coming up with a list of Hollywood stars he wanted his followers to treat as "game" to hunt down for the church.

And while Hubbard didn't succeed in bagging Danny Kaye, Sid Caesar, or Liberace (!), his organization did eventually have a good run of attracting actors and musicians to its ranks.

You know the list. Cruise. Travolta. Alley. Elfman. Archer. Corea. Hayes. Rimini. Beck. Etc.

These celebrities not only gave the relatively small organization some luster, they were trained how to talk about Scientology -- in positive, but always very vague, terms -- and entertainment reporters knew not to pry.

But now, with Scientology going through several serious crises -- from flagging membership to investigations of deaths at its drug rehab centers -- the church's biggest problems are only being magnified because of the involvement of its celebrities.

Could its obsession with Hollywood stars ultimately hasten Scientology's demise? Let's go over the evidence.

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Keith Relkin

UPDATE after the jump: Breaking news about Paul Haggis and the Vanity Fair bombshell about Tom Cruise.

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 celebrity members are gay, they have to keep quiet about it.

Scientology is going through several serious crises right now, but its treatment of homosexuals is never far behind its other more immediate troubles. It was the San Diego church's support of California's homophobic Proposition 8 in 2008, for example, that became the last straw for director Paul Haggis, who famously quit the church and then told his story to the New Yorker last year. (He's not gay, but he has two lesbian daughters.)

Now, we have a remarkable story about a man named Keith Relkin who for several years became a sort of unofficial spokesman for queer Scientology. He was the church's token gay guy in West Hollywood, insisting to the public that Scientology was actually friendly to homosexuality.

On February 3, Relkin died. And now, his friends have shared with the Voice some of his e-mails and other writings which show that behind the scenes, Relkin was actually very frustrated with the deep-seated homophobia of his church.

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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 benefits of his "competence and leadership" course (which looks hard to distinguish from your typical Outward Bound sort of experience, but what do we know).

This is Scientology, so naturally the claims are off the charts -- for example, swabbing the decks of the church's tugboat is somehow going to teach you how not to age!

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