Wait, Scientology has Mary-Ellen of 'The Waltons’ on the hook for how much now?

[And does John-Boy know?]

Recently, we’ve been learning how much Scientology’s wealthy donors have been forking out as church leader David Miscavige makes a big fundraising push for his remaining “Ideal Org” projects in the US.

In April we stopped by the special convention they had in the San Fernando Valley, where the richies were hit up for the big bucks, and in the weeks since then Scientology has been issuing announcements of just how much cheddar they’ve turned over.

This time, we’re hearing about Judy Norton, 65, the former The Waltons actress who is such a dedicated Scientologist these days.

And this announcement indicates that she and her husband have now donated $2.9 million (29 “humanitarians”) for the Ideal Org push.

$2.9 million! And Judy doesn’t even get to put her name on the whatever building that’s used for.

For years Judy has been one of the most enthusiastic, most earnest of Scientology’s celebrities, and a real David Miscavige fangirl.

At the official Miscavige website, she’s featured in a gushing video about him.

He has a presence regardless of whether he is addressing all of the members of the Church with information about our expansion or plans or successes in ways that we are aiding different individuals in the world. Whether it’s, you know, disaster relief in our Volunteer Minister Program or whether it’s filling us in on what’s happening with the expansion of L. Ron Hubbard’s education technology and how that’s changing lives. So when he’s doing that I mean, he’s very professional but there’s always this twinkle in his eye. And there’s always this sense of life in him that is just—he’s magnetic.

At this point, the only two celebrities Scientology has who are willing to put their names on their big donations are Judy Norton and Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson, $21 million for the IAS).

As always, we wonder, are the other celebrities really slacking in this department, or are they merely keeping their donations from being published?

---

Mike Rowe quizzes your proprietor

In 2015, we were lucky enough to be in Alex Gibney’s HBO documentary Going Clear along with our friend Spanky Taylor. When Spanky came under attack by Scientology for appearing in the movie, only one of the celebrities she works with spoke up — TV host Mike Rowe.

So it's our great honor that Mike now had us on his podcast, The Way I Heard It.

---

Want to help?

You can support the Underground Bunker with a Paypal contribution to bunkerfund@tonyortega.org, an account administered by the Bunker’s attorney, Scott Pilutik. And by request, this is our Venmo link, and for Zelle, please use (tonyo94 AT gmail).

---

Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:

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

Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain

Here’s the link to today’s post at tonyortega.org

And whatever you do, subscribe to this Substack so you get our breaking stories and daily features right to your email inbox every morning.

Paid subscribers get access to two special podcast series every week…

Up the Bridge: A weekly journey through Scientology’s actual “technology”

Group Therapy: Our round table of rowdy regulars on the week’s news