Tom Cruise benefiting from Scientology Sea Org slave labor: The photographic proof

Talking to a source about some Sea Org matters recently, we happened to notice that one of our most important stories about the Sea Org at the Village Voice is now missing a set of very important photos. So, as we have done with some other older stories at the Voice that have lost media, we thought we’d repost that story and bring those images back in our archives.

These were crucial images that helped prove what John Brousseau was telling Lawrence Wright for his amazing 2011 New Yorker article, “The Apostate.” Brousseau had escaped Scientology with a set of photos which he said proved that Tom Cruise knew full well that he was benefiting from Sea Org labor, workers who were being paid pennies an hour and who had signed billion-year contracts. Wright referred to the photos in his story, but the New Yorker issue didn’t show any. So that week we posted a set of the images to show what Brousseau was talking about. More than a decade later, the story is still on the Village Voice website, but the photos are gone.

We thought it would be a good idea to post them here on our Substack (and later, at tonyortega.org), especially at a time when Tom Cruise is so much in the news again, and just yesterday we posted a podcast episode with Claire Headley discussing this very issue: Cruise and his knowledge of Scientology abuses.

Oh, and also it turns out that Tom turns 60 years old today. (Or, at least the vessel he’s walking around in is now 60 years old. Tom Cruise, thetan, is actually 76 trillion years old, give or take.) So we’ll consider this our birthday present to him. Hip, hip, hooray!

Here’s the text and photos from our 2011 Village Voice story…

---

One of the many accusations made about Scientology in Lawrence Wright’s masterful piece in this week’s New Yorker is that the organization’s “Sea Org” members — who sign billion-year contracts — work for a measly $50 a week and do hard labor that benefits top members like Scientology leader David Miscavige and church icon Tom Cruise.

In particular, Wright interviewed a recent Scientology defector, John Brousseau, who says that he and others at Scientology’s desert headquarters expended enormous effort customizing a Honda Rune motorcycle for Tom Cruise and also a Ford Excursion.

Wright quotes church officials who deny that Brousseau and other Sea Org members worked on those projects, saying that contractors did. But Wright mentions in his article that he had seen “dozens of photographs” that backed up Brousseau’s claims.

Well, now Brousseau has made those photographs public to back up his side of the story, and they provide a fascinating look into the world of menial labor for the benefit of Tom Cruise.

Wright’s story explains how Brousseau, once he finally decided to leave Scientology after 30 years, went to see Marty Rathbun, a formerly high-level member of the organization who maintains a blog, “Moving On Up a Little Higher.” This morning, Rathbun posted a pdf of Brousseau’s photos that back up what he told Wright for his New Yorker story.

In the first one, Brousseau explains, he’s holding a model of a P51 Mustang that will be a gift to Cruise. The photo was taken at the Gilman Hot Springs highly secretive Scientology headquarters in the California desert.

In this photo taken at the base, Brousseau shows two of Cruise’s bikes (the one in the middle was customized for church leader David Miscavige) which he and two other Sea Org members painted while working for $50 a week. The one on the left is the Honda Rune which Cruise was given by Steven Spielberg for the War of the Worlds premiere, and that Brousseau had to disassemble to give the new red paint job Cruise wanted.

Brousseau: “Here’s Tom and Katie at the opening of War of the Worlds in Los Angeles on the Honda Rune”

Before he could give the Honda Rune a paint job similar to the one on a David Miscavige bike and the P51 Mustang model, Brousseau first had to strip off the parts of the bike that had a custom War of the Worlds paint job. Brousseau says he refused to paint over this fine work and instead had new parts ordered. The old parts in this photo sit in the Scientology headquarters.

In this photo, Brousseau can be seen setting up a truss system in “Tom Cruise’s hangar at Million Air aviation services in Burbank, California.” (Tom Cruise has an airplane hangar? Yowza.) Cruise paid for the materials, Brousseau says, but “99 percent” of the work was done by Sea Org members, who are paid $50 a week.

The finished result of all the truss work: custom signs and drapery in Tom Cruise’s aircraft hangar. “No contractors were enlisted in the manufacture of the signs or draperies,” Brousseau writes. Also, note the Ford Excursion in the foreground. This is the automobile that was mentioned in the New Yorker article, Broussau says, and he provides more photos about the massive amount of custom work that went into it.

Here’s another shot of the Excursion in the airplane hangar. As Brousseau notes, you can just see that P51 Mustang model in the background.

Inside the Excursion, showing the custom work in progress. “The metal contraption in the foreground is supposed to be a mount for a baby seat that goes between Tom and Katie’s seats.”

For wood highlights in the car, Brousseau recovered this eucalyptus burl from a tree that had blown over at the Scientology base.

The result: gorgeous wood highlights all over the place. “Tom loved it as it had come from a tree at the Int base, where he had achieved the state of Clear in the early 90’s. DM let him know that it was a special piece of wood from the Int base and Tom raved about it.”

Brousseau says that he even went so far as to create a custom Mont Blanc pen with the eucalyptus wood, and a secret compartment for it in the car. “DM went nuts when he saw this and so did Tom,” Brousseau writes, referring to church leader David Miscavige. “It was completely over the top.”

Another highlight in the Excursion: an aluminum step that bears the Tom Cruise logo (“TC”). Cruise had paid for the aluminum stock, but the work that went into it was provided by the Sea Org, Brousseau says.

Scientology told the New Yorker that all of this work was done by outside contractors, not Sea Org members. But Brousseau told the New Yorker that the work was being provided by workers making almost nothing: “I was getting paid fifty dollars a week…And I’m supposed to be working for the betterment of mankind.”

---

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 for 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…