ian halperin

Threatening Phone Calls Cause Author Of Scientology Expose To Go Into Hiding

9:00AM Defamer Hollywood | The Church of Scientology has a long history of harassing those individuals who dare question their controversial doctrines. While they mostly utilise legal channels to do so, there have been more than a few whispers over the years that they sometimes deploy members of the church to do the harassing in person (the most recent example being Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake, the couple whose mysterious dual suicides were recently chronicled in the pages of Vanity Fair). Now author Ian Halperin, who infiltrated the Church and wrote about in a book called Hollywood Undercover, has drawn so much attention from Hubbard’s mobsters that the scribe has been forced to go into hiding. Defamer received communication from Halperin late last night regarding threatening phone calls he had just received, phone calls that prompted him to get outta Dodge for awhile: “Tonight I received a call from an unknown number saying, ‘If you enjoy breathing, shut your fuckin’ mouth,’ and then they hung up. Tomorrow I think I’ll go stay at a friend’s place up in the mountains for a while until it all dies down.” Yikes! While we sometimes wake up in fear that crazed LRH disciples have left the severed head of Kirstie Alley in our bed, we are beginning to have some suspicions that perhaps Halperin is getting a wee bit paranoid during his fifteen (well, to be fair, thirty) minutes of bold-faced fame. That said, you can never be too careful. RELATED: BATTLE OF THE SCIENTOLOGY SCRIBES [DEFAMER] More »

Battle of the Scientology Scribes: Is Tom Cruise The Prez or VP of Cult? Who Went ‘Undercover’ Enough?

2:40AM Defamer Hollywood | With two bursting-at-the-seams tell-all books out this month delving deeper than anyone wants to go into the demented world of Scientology, authors Ian Halperin (Hollywood Undercover) and Andrew Morton (Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography) are turning against each other, kind of like Xanax and cocaine. According to Halperin, the one who posed as a gay actor in order to uncover the Church’s reparative techniques, Morton’s book is “full of factual errors,” most twisted his claim that Tom is scientology’s second most powerful member: “A lot of people I met when I was undercover insisted Cruise was the number 1 man. Cruise is the star there, and, like in his films, no one at the Church got top billing over him. Church officials told me that everyone, including David Miscavige [scientology's Chairman of the Board] do whatever Cruise says. Basically, they act as his puppets.” More »

Exclusive: Scientology ‘Straight’ening Closeted Actors For Years, Says Author

3:28AM Defamer Hollywood | Is Scientology just a fancy term for reparation therapy? That’s what investigative journalist Ian Halperin, author of books on Kurt Cobain’s death and the underbelly of the modeling world, is claiming in his new tome, Hollywood Undercover, out today. After claiming to be a gay actor afraid that revelations of his homosexuality would ruin his career, the Church took him in, promising they could “cure him of his sexuality through auditing,”or, you know, asking him to pay up. We asked Halperin if he had any dirt on the usual suspects (Tommy C. and Johnny T., natch), and learned way more than we wanted to. Hear why Travolta remains a smiley scientologist out of fear, why bisexual Anna Nicole Smith refused to join the tribe, and details on founder L. Ron Hubbard’s proven contempt for these “sexual perverts” after the jump. More »