'Going Clear' takes on Scientology's celebrity fixation

Who'd have thought a history of a religion would offer so many guilty pleasures? Lawrence Wright's enthralling account of Scientology's rise, "Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief," brims with celebrity scandal. To anyone who gets a sugar rush from Hollywood gossip, the chapters on Tom Cruise and John Travolta will feel like eating a case of Ding Dongs.

By Evan Wright, Special to the Los Angeles Times

January 14, 2013