There's a really fascinating and incredibly long article in this weeks New Yorker about the cult of Scientology, and writer/director Paul Haggis's brave escape back into the world of secular sanity. In the piece, Haggis and other defectors speak with shocking candor on an institution whose inner workings have always been shrouded in secrecy. Before reading it, I'd considered Scientology stupid, creepy, amusing, and mostly harmless. After reading the piece, I now understand that this institution is all those things, but also evil, violent, and incredibly powerful. Read the piece for free in its entirety on The New Yorker website. But for those of you who don't have the time or energy to devote a couple hours to Scientology, I've provided a synopsis after the jump.

What’s great about Scientology is that it’s a perennial gift basket for journalists and reporters. There’s always some new outrage, some new guts-spilling defector, or some new Tom Cruise hissy-fit. Last week, ABC’s Nightline did a lengthy investigative piece on the religion (if the IRS defines them that way, then who am I to say otherwise?), with heavy emphasis on the behavior of the church’s leader, David Miscavige. Among other not-very-charming idiosyncrasies, he was accused by former colleagues of various physical abuses, as well as a slavish devotion to his dog, whom he dressed in the uniform of a military commander and insisted that all church members salute. If this is true, then why didn’t the tell-all apostates relating these stories run away screaming after the first putative beat-down or forced doggy salute? Weak wills? Brainwashing? Masochism? Whatever the case, the timing of the report is interesting as a respected Hollywood heavy-hitter has just “disconnected” from the religion after 35 years: director and Academy-Award-winner film festival Paul Haggis.

● The rumor that Rashida Jones and John Mayer hooked up at the Chateau Marmont is untrue; rather, the two were dining with their friends separately. Mayer did come over to Jones’ table to say hello and asked to play the guitar her friends had brought for an impromptu concert. [GossipCop] ● Despite actor Matthias Schweighöfer telling German GQ otherwise, Jude Law and Robert DeNiro are not in Kenneth Branagh’s Thor. [LatinoReview] ● Kenny Ortega has left the Footloose remake after the studio wanted to cut his budget and have the film be a drama with very few musical numbers, rather than the musical extravaganza Ortega wants it to be. [JustJared]

A pairing of the literary and the fashion worlds doesn’t exactly seem like a match made in heaven. That is, unless you’re talking about Tom Wolfe’s suits, Truman Capote’s spectacles, or the late Hunter S. Thompson’s propensity to break every fashion (not to mention, literary) rule in the book. But, thanks to "Flash Fiction" -- a recently launched multimedia project courtesy of Diesel -- the literary world is getting a whole lot more fashionable.