According to the private investigator allegedly hired to spy on David Miscavige's elderly father, the petite Scientologist even went so far as to hire fake friends for the suppressive 70-year-old.

One of two private detectives who were allegedly paid $10,000 a week by Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige to spy on Miscavige's elderly father was evidently not particularly fond of his employer. "David probably has reason to be afraid," PI Daniel Powell tells police in an interview recording obtained by TMZ, when asked about Miscavige's paranoia. "He's a terrible person."

Scientology leader David Miscavige was apparently so paranoid he hired two private detectives to keep tabs on his father and advised them to "not intervene in any way" if the 79-year-old had a heart attack.

On Friday afternoon, two narcotics officers with the Burbank, Calif., police department reportedly showed up at Tom DeVocht's door on an anonymous tip—complete with dubious photographic evidence—that the former Scientology executive was selling drugs in the area. The documentary Going Clear, in which DeVocht appeared as an interviewee, had premiered on HBO five days before. Was the apparent frame job the church's way of getting revenge?

L. Ron Hubbard began Scientology’s “Project Celebrity” in 1955, offering a list of 63 high-profile targets and a “small plaque” as a reward to anyone who successfully brought the likes of Bob Hope and Ernest Hemingway into the church. “There are many to whom America and the world listens...” Scientology’s blustery founder wrote in a newsletter announcing the plan. “It is obvious what would happen to Scientology if prime communicators benefitting from it would mention it now and then.” Sixty years later, was Project Celebrity a success?

Leah Remini, the King of Queens star who noisily and publicly left Scientology after three decades of membership over disagreements with church leader David Miscavige, filed a missing person report for his wife Shelly who supposedly hasn't been seen in public in six years. The LAPD has taken the report and "ruled as unfounded." The missing person case is closed.

King of Queens star and former co-host of The Talk Leah Remini has left the Church of Scientology after some 30 years over a falling out with Church leader David Miscavige.

New Yorker staff writer Lawrence Wright's long-awaited Scientology book, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, will be released this Thursday, and the reviews are already coming in. Based in part on a 2011 profile of director and former Scientologist Paul Haggis, the book focuses primarily on the legacy of L. Ron Hubbard and his successor, David Miscavige. It contains over 200 interviews with both "current and former" Scientologists from all ranks within the organization.

While rumors have long circulated about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' union being arranged, an upcoming Vanity Fair cover story asserts that in 2004 there was a Scientology-sponsored audition process to find Tom Cruise a girlfriend — and Katie Holmes wasn't the first choice.

Today's edition of The Independent offers a profile of Marty Rathbun, a member of the Church of Scientology for 27 years, now considered a "heretic." As a high-ranking official, Rathbun worked with high-profile Scientologists like Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, and Greta Van Susteren. Since he left the Church, he has been hounded by damaging allegations and a weirdly persistent "documentary crew" known as the "SQUIRREL BUSTERS."

As a member of the Church of Scientology, Valeska Paris says she lived on the organization's religious cruise ship Freewinds for twelve years, working as a Sea Org manual laborer from the age of 18. Among her tasks: Preparing for Tom Cruise's 42nd birthday party, which Freewinds hosted. Above, Tom hamming it up with singer Stacy Francis at the party.

Ooh, look, another propaganda video from Hollywood's favorite cult, the Church of Scientology. This one appears to have been filmed in the early '90s, and features a fascinating shot of Church leader David Miscavige singing a Scientology hymn with his cronies.

The one thing Scientology has always been missing, as far as dangerous cults go, is a good apocalyptic prophecy. It was always more about destroying enemies and controlling time, matter, and energy than heralding the end of days. But it turns out L. Ron Hubbard actually did predict the Earth's destruction.

What happens if you leave the official Church of Scientology, but remain an independent, practicing Scientologist? As apostate Marty Rathbun learned the other day, a group of bearded men with cameras attached to their heads stalks you. Seriously.

Members of an FBI task force on human trafficking have been investigating the Church of Scientology for more than a year according to an article in this week's New Yorker. It's the scientology expose we've been all waiting for.

Sometimes, being in Scientology leader David Miscavige's inner circle sounds kind of fun. High-level church defector Mark Rathbun says he personally recorded Tom Cruise's confessionals—and that Miscavige read the transcripts out loud, "joking and laughing" at parties.

Yesterday a lawsuit revealed Scientology's brutal sweatshops. Next week a series of reports on Anderson Cooper 360 will apparently reveal further violence by leader David Miscavige (pictured) towards his minions. Scientology denies the claims. Again. [AC360]

It turns out the video we posted last week was just one way Scientology plans to take over the world. Here's more sinister leaked footage in which leader David Miscavige lays out his plans for intergalactic domination to fervent followers.

More juicy revelations courtesy of Marty Rathbun, the defector who's going all-out with deep insiders' knowledge of Scientology. This time, it's Tom Cruise: he offered to give deviant members a beatdown, and that "drills" were performed whenever he was oncoming.

Tommy Davis, the latest chief spokesman and outraged-interview-cutter-offer for the Church of Scientology, is a callow Hollywood brat, Tom Cruise hanger-on, and "drug revert" who thinks "L. Ron Hubbard is the coolest guy ever."