This is the guy selling you a mystery sandwich in those Scientology TV ads

We’ve been telling you about some new TV ads that Scientology is running in 30 countries (they say) in a big new push. So, there’s a good chance you’re going to run into one or more of them in the next few weeks if you watch football playoff games or other “event” TV, which is what Scientology likes to target.

Once again church leader David Miscavige is paying big bucks to promote Scientology, and in two of those ads he’s gone with the usual approach that he’s been relying on since he began paying for Super Bowl ads back in 2013.

Over those past 11 years, we’ve been trying to make people understand that Scientology never pays the gigantic numbers for national ad spots during the big game, but instead slots their ads in the few commercial breaks that are set aside for local advertisers. Still, it’s a pretty penny to run the ads, year after year. (You can see them all, collected in this post about 2024’s game.)

And in every single one of those Super Bowl spots since 2013, you’ve heard the same voice. A narrator talking about your natural curiosity about yourself, about being a rebel or a freethinker, about exploring the exciting merging of religion and science.

It's a “mystery sandwich” approach — the ads never actually tell you a thing about what Scientology is or what you'll be doing in it. Instead they are slick mini-movies with frenetic stock footage and a lot of hip-looking young people engaging in extreme sports and looking up in awe at Scientology buildings.

And always, that same voice.

We’ve often wondered, who is that? You can’t mistake him. It’s clearly the same guy, doing his best to sound intriguing and self-assured.

And then it dawned on us: We know exactly who can tell us who that narrator is.

Mitch Brisker is one of the most recent defectors who once held a position of high rank in Scientology. We really enjoyed the memoir Mitch published last year, and we’ve used his help in a number of different stories. He was Scientology’s film director for many years, and only left the church a few years ago, well after the Super Bowl ads had started.

So we asked him: Mitch, who is this guy we hear in the ads?

“That would be Shane Johnson,” he replied.

“I originally cast Shane in a tech film in the early 2000s. He’d met Jason Dohring in an acting class, and took a Scientology basic course or two. It never stuck. Shane has never identified as a Scientologist. I later tapped him as voiceover talent and he’s become the go-to voice of Scientology ever since.”

We weren’t familiar with the name, but that’s on us: Shane Johnson has had a very successful career as an actor, particularly playing the heavy in 50 Cent’s Power (2014-2020) and Power: Book II (2020-2024), a Starz franchise that has been one of the most-watched on cable.

Johnson was so hated in the antagonist role as a lawyer named “Cooper Saxe,” he’s given interviews about the heat he gets from fans who have a hard time separating him from the character he played.

But he’s gotten no press at all about being the voice of Scientology’s TV ads.

It’s a relief to finally put a face and name with that narration we’ve heard for so many years.

This is the guy trying to sell you on the idea of stopping by to check out Scientology.

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When hucksters turn on each other

[Gary Brecka and Grant Cardone]

Early last year, we told you about how Grant Cardone was moving into new lucrative fields of hucksterism with his “10X Health System.” Not content to gull the masses with his get-rich-quick motivational schemes, he had partnered up with a “bio-hacker” named Gary Brecka who claimed that with a blood test he could pinpoint to the month when someone was going to die. (And then sell them an expensive program to extend their life.)

Together, Brecka and Cardone were offering the gullible their own version of med beds — a “superhuman protocol” setup with “light bed” that cost $130,000.

That anyone would spend that kind of money believing that these flim-flam artists could extend a life? Well, it was pretty depressing.

But now we’re all smiles, because these hucksters have turned on each other.

Yesterday, Gary Brecka put out a press release announcing that he’s suing Grant Cardone’s wife Elena for $100 million for defamation.

Apparently, the Cardones and Brecka couldn’t make their partnership work, and in November the Cardones got wind that Brecka was going to quit and so they rushed to fire him first.

Brecka says that he then put out a statement that was intended to keep from the public that there had been any bad blood.

But then Elena, he says, posted a video at her Instagram account showing Brecka and Sean “Diddy” Combs doing 10X Health stuff in the past.

The implication was clear, Brecka says in his lawsuit. With Combs in jail awaiting trial on trafficking allegations, the Instagram posting was intended to give the impression that Brecka might have some connection to Combs’ crimes.

There was also some nasty back and forth going on in the comments between them.

Well, whatever. The lawsuit, as far as we can tell, has nothing to do with the Cardones being major Scientology donors, or about Scientology otherwise.

But we can’t help enjoying seeing these clowns turn on each other.

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Continuing our year in review: The stories of July 2024

We’ve been writing about Neil Gaiman and his Scientology past for years, but we sure didn’t see this coming: We provided some Scientology background for a podcast that exposed serious and multiple allegations of abuse by women against the sci-fi/fantasy author. Even more women came forward later, and Gaiman has gone silent.

Fundraising in Boston has reached the Ideal Crustacean stage.

Scientology argued that Valeska Paris and the Baxters were misreading a new US Supreme Court opinion in their motion asking a Tampa court to reconsider its ruling sending their trafficking lawsuit to arbitration.

Actress Shelley Duvall died, and we remembered when she had called us about Scientology years earlier.

Leah Remini hired a new lawyer for her Scientology lawsuit, and he’s a heavyweight: One of the things Daniel Saunders is known for is putting Anthony Pellicano in prison.

We’ve been intrigued by her Scientology connections, but colorful Nevada politician Michele Fiore suddenly found herself in some serious hot water, facing a federal indictment for corruption.

Geoff Levin helped us remember what the Hollywood Celebrity Centre annual gala once was, now that it apparently has gone the way of the dodo.

We’ve been curious about skateboarding mogul Aaron Kyro for years, and now his double life as a Scientology staffer seemed to be collapsing.

As the Summer Olympics began in Paris, the country’s culture minister bestowed a cultural knighthood on Tom Cruise. Jonny Jacobsen helped us understand the odd politics behind the move.

And Apostate Alex helped us understand what was going on at the London org that made it such a social media experimenter compared to other orgs.

A LOOK BACK AT JULY 2023: A look at CST’s real estate holdings. Steve Cannane’s publisher of Fair Game caved to pressure and settled a bogus lawsuit. Luke Y. Thompson reviewed Tom Cruise’s latest Mission Impossible movie. At the podcast, Mark Ebner dished some wild insider info about Tom Cruise’s best friend, writer/director Chris McQuarrie. Valerie Haney connected Tom Cruise to the Shelly Miscavige story. Bruce Hines and your Proprietor discussed the Scientology angles on Oppenheimer. Sunny Pereira had another look at disconnection.

A LOOK BACK AT JULY 2022: Australia gains 2 million in population but loses 26 Scientologists. Valerie Haney nominates Elisabeth Moss to be one of her arbitrators. Claire Headley tells us things we don’t know about Tom Cruise in Scientology, and Bruce Hines tells us a wild Shelly Miscavige tale we hadn’t heard before. Scientology filed its petition in the Bixler case to the US Supreme Court. Jon Atack got married, and Paulette Cooper came out with a memoir.

A LOOK BACK AT JULY 2021: Chris Owen on Scientology’s war with psychiatry. New court documents in Brian Statler’s shooting death. Our motion to quash a subpoena served on us by Tom Mesereau in Danny Masterson’s criminal case. And more accounts about life in Scientology from Sunny Pereira, Pamela Nickel Williams, and Cathy Mullins.

A LOOK BACK AT JULY 2020: Covid bailout loans went to Scientology churches, front groups, and schools. Some LAPD emails demonstrating a cozy relationship with Scientology were released. Kelly Preston died at 57 and Lisa Marie Presley lost a son to suicide. Bryan Seymour’s ‘Black Ops’ series was cancelled and Leah Remini blamed Tom Cruise. Leah Remini and Mike Rinder began a new podcast series. And Leah gave us her unpublished chapter on Tom Cruise to post here at the Bunker. And a potential Biden VP pick, Karen Bass, gets called out for her Scientology support.

A LOOK BACK AT JULY 2019: Brendan Tighe and Sunny Pereira told us more shattering disconnection stories. Chris Owen unearthed what was really behind the 1960s FDA investigation of Scientology. Miss New York would no longer shill for a Scientology front organization after our reporting. Mike Rinder made public an LAPD report about a woman who fled Scientology after being lured in by Jason Dohring at the Celebrity Center.

A LOOK BACK AT JULY 2018: Photos from Maiden Voyage included what would become an infamous shot of David Miscavige getting pinned with a medal. A witness in the Danny Masterson investigation provided proof that they were being subjected to frightening harassment. With trial nearing, Laura DeCrescenzo served David Miscavige with a notice to appear. A stunning new story of Scientology financial crime begins to unfold in the tale of Efrem Logreira and an ice cream party. Chris Owen reconsidered the UK ban on Scientology on its 50th anniversary. We reported the puzzling suicide of a young Scientologist visiting the Flag Land Base. And Sunny Pereira treated us to her Scientology passport!

A LOOK BACK AT JULY 2017: Clay Irwin snagged images from the spy camera aimed at his house. L. Ron Hubbard explained how you could crush a planet between thumb and forefinger with OT powers. Scientology billionaires yoked the fortunes of the world’s biggest-selling drug to an ongoing windfall for Scientology. Tommy Davis’s Hollywood dream ended, and so did his marriage. Paulette Cooper turned 75.

A LOOK BACK AT JULY 2016: How the parents of a Kazakh woman got her back from the Sea Org. We marked the passing of Steve “Sarge” Pfauth at 70. We found that Joey Chait’s story was more complex than some had it. Rebecca McKee told us how she reunited with her high school sweetheart. And we said goodbye to Arlene Cordova.

A LOOK BACK AT JULY 2015: We wrote about Scientology’s day care from hell. Brian Sheen’s full Scientology story turned out to be pretty fascinating. Chris Shelton emceed us in Denver. And Nick Lister dished on Tom Cruise ruthlessly putting ethics in on his own family.

A LOOK BACK AT JULY 2014: Our Independence Day special, when Jeremy Powers defied disconnection and came home. We said goodbye to John Joseph, a man who cared. Camilla Andersson went public after 29 years in Scientology. And we live-blogged ID network’s show on Elli Perkins (which featured your proprietor).

A LOOK BACK AT JULY 2013: Leah Remini defects, Shelly Miscavige speaks, Jim Lynch exteriorizes, and Christian Stolte rocks.

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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology

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