The buzz is growing for The TomKat Project, a bare-bones stage show running through April 24 at the Playground Theater in Chicago. Scientology watcher Tony Ortega let his readers know about it this morning and Tribune theater critic Nina Metz has just given the production a “Genius” rave:

It matters very little that Brianna Baker bears no meaningful resemblance to either Oprah Winfrey or Cruise attorney Bert Fields; she inhabits both with real skill and technique. This might be the best Winfrey impression I’ve seen, one that doesn’t overplay its hand but perfectly embodies her vocal tics and regal self-regard.

The Brandon Ogborn script sources media coverage of Cruise and Holmes from 1998 through 2012 to skewer celebrity journalism as much as it does Scientology. Ortega’s tipster, Synthia Fagen, says that Ogborn has told her there may be some interest from Comedy Central. [Editor's note: Please see reader comments below.]

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In the media this week, there’s something going on in reaction to the release of Lawrence Wright‘s book about Scientology that also occurred last year when Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes divorced, and separately when a Vanity Fair cover story outlined that whole business with Nazanin Boniadi.

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Our good friend Tony Ortega sums it up this way:

For those of us who watch Scientology closely, and have for many years, most of the [Lawrence Wright book-related] articles that have popped up in recent days seem to be gasping over things that have been known or written about for many years…

We would argue that for much of the public, the word [about Scientology] was already out long before today’s publication of Wright’s book. (Look at the reaction, for example, when on Monday The Atlantic magazine ran a paid church advertorial at its website extolling the virtues of Scientology leader David Miscavige. Even though there was nothing really wrong with The Atlantic taking the church’s money for an ad, the public denunciation of the magazine was so swift and loud, The Atlantic caved and took it down.)

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As we reported earlier this week, Paul Haggis’ comments about the shocking Vanity Fair October cover story involving Tom Cruise, the Church of Scientology and an alleged 2004 audition process was met with an almost equally disturbing response from the church. The CoS pointed to Googled proof of a prior Haggis “relationship” with the woman at the center of Maureen Orth’s article, Nazanin Boniadi (pictured).

Today, there is more of what will be much more as the Vanity Fair October issue begins to circulate. Over at Tony Ortega’s Village Voice CoS blog, Haggis has chimed in with a few more thoughts. He clarifies that although his emails to Showbiz 411 columnist Roger Friedman were taken as confirmation of the VF report, “Like everyone else, I have not even read their story.”

But Haggis stands firm on the central point of his reaching out. Vouching for Boniadi’s character:

“I am simply coming to the defense of a woman who has been publicly called a liar… Perhaps it’s just me, but I have never found Scientology’s blanket denials equally credible… It is my understanding that Naz is the subject of this article, not the source of it. Scientology has a long and well-documented history of attempting to bully its critics into silence. Here they are bullying a woman who has yet to even speak. I guess I just don’t like bullies.”

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Tony Ortega has done it again. Over the weekend, on his Scientology-focused blog Runnin’ Scared, the Village Voice editor-in-chief published a groundbreaking two-part interview with John Brousseau, a 32-year member who very methodically “blew” Hemet’s Int Base in 2010.

Ortega remains the church’s number one journalistic foe, tirelessly publishing scoop after scoop. But FishbowlLA figured that this latest Saturday-Sunday opus must rank pretty high on his list of feature articles. Via email, Ortega concurred.

“I think this is definitely one of my favorite four or five Scientology pieces I’ve ever done,” Ortega says. “And people are telling me it fills in some interesting gaps in the historical record, so that’s nice to hear.”

“I was talking to JB for more than a year,” he adds. “In February 2011, Larry Wright’s New Yorker piece described some of the work Brousseau had done for Tom Cruise, and then I actually put his photos of that work up (Marty Rathbun had already done that too). Then, over the last year JB helped me here and there with stuff and questions about people like Ann Tidman [link] and Shelly Miscavige [link].”

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When this particular civil lawsuit was originally leveled in 2009, Tom Cruise’s lawyer Bert Fields called the accusations made by plaintiff Michael Davis Sapir “absolute garbage.”

Nevertheless, in the wake of Katie Holmes’ divorce filing, such a lawsuit is suddenly fair media-game. And so, Celebuzz has today published exclusive snapshots of the original court documents and stacked them alongside a thousand and one Church of Scientology Cruise news items:

“In or about the mid 1990s,” Sapir claimed in the lawsuit, “Cruise visited Pellicano’s office for the purpose of listening to wiretaps.”

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This morning, there are already two new interviews with high-profile ex-Scientologist Marty Rathbun about the Cruise-Holmes divorce.

Village Voice editor-in-chief Tony Ortega, the single biggest media thorn in the side of the Church of Scientology, chats with Rathbun about the latter’s experiences handling the Nicole Kidman split while at the Church a decade ago as well as Rathbun’s general thoughts on how Cruise should handle this third instance. Meanwhile, Radar Online assistant managing editor Jen Heger talks to Rathbun about some clandestine intel gathering about the church that he says has been going on at the Holmes family end for at least four years.

This holiday week, expect more fireworks as the church battles its biggest PR crisis yet, framed by a now-infamous Rupert Murdoch tweet. Many new readers are hitting the blogs of Rathbun and Ortega – hard. Over the weekend, Rathbun posted a devastating primer, highlighting ten key prior pieces of coverage about Cruise, church leader David Miscavige and the slave labor reportedly caught in the middle of their rekindled bond.

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Peter Letterese‘s ongoing battle with the Church of Scientology and poster boy Tom Cruise is coming to a head with the allegations flying in both directions.

A Florida-based legal source, who loves to gossip about it, but is unwilling to reveal even his name, has this to say about the skirmish:

Federal Bankruptcy Judge John K. Olson in Florida seems to have “become a Scientologist,” whether he knows it or not.

An appeal filed Thursday in Ft. Lauderdale Federal Bankruptcy Court says that Judge Olson has defied long-standing statutes and nearly a dozen precedents in federal bankruptcy decisions that ultimately help Scientology.

According to many who have managed to escape the controversial cult what Scientology “does” to people in an earlier era, would be referred to as hypnotic brainwashing. And, here Cruise and Scientology seem to have perfected how to do it to an otherwise trusted and respected Federal jurist through a Miami Law Firm, Adorno & Yoss.

More below:

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British biographer Andrew Morton has the “church” of L. Ron in a frenzy with his new biography of Tom Cruise. The book claims:

Cruise is the # 2 guy, after David Miscavige,

daughter by Katie Holmes “conceived like Rosemary’s Baby”,

Cruise’s next mission is to recruit David Beckham,

Nicole Kidman “feared blackmail” over sex tapes made with Scientologists,

Idle thought: Kidman should have feared blackmail over Eyes Wide Shut.

The book comes out in the US on the 15th of this month, but won’t appear in the UK, due to the stringent libel laws. Paulette Cooper has been on the receiving end of such lawsuits.

And Dana Goodyear goes inside the Celebrity Centre.