Tom Cruise and the Slaves

Via Brendan an article about Scientology. There are incidents detailed that are new to me, but most of the material on the CoS itself is typical stuff from an investigative article on Scientology: abuse, money, egomania, and a wall of silence around what the church actually does and believes. The most interesting thing about the article to me is that many of the defectors are believers in the good that Scientology can do, they just don't like how the hierarchy works. A standard religious conundrum I guess. I wound up having a little pity for Tommy Davis, who comes across there and elsewhere and elsewhere and elsewhere and elswhere as a tightly-wound shitbag and obvious liar, yet a pawn of an organization that can't let go of any power it conceives it has. I kind of hope he's able to wear an old shirt with paint on it and some cutoffs down to the 7-11 to get a Slurpee once in a while.

On to juicy celebrity news!

Brousseau also says that he helped customize a Ford Excursion S.U.V. that Cruise owned, installing features such as handmade eucalyptus panelling. The customization job was presented to Tom Cruise as a gift from David Miscavige, he said. “I was getting paid fifty dollars a week,” he recalls. “And I’m supposed to be working for the betterment of mankind.” Several years ago, Brousseau says, he worked on the renovation of an airport hangar that Cruise maintains in Burbank. Sea Org members installed faux scaffolding, giant banners bearing the emblems of aircraft manufacturers, and a luxurious office that was fabricated at church facilities, then reassembled inside the hangar. Brousseau showed me dozens of photographs documenting his work for Cruise.

Both Cruise’s attorney and the church deny Brousseau’s account. Cruise’s attorney says that “the Church of Scientology has never expended any funds to the personal benefit of Mr. Cruise or provided him with free services.” Tommy Davis says that these projects were done by contractors, and that Brousseau acted merely as an adviser. He also says, “None of the Church staff involved were coerced in any way to assist Mr. Cruise. Church staff, and indeed Church members, hold Mr. Cruise in very high regard and are honored to assist him. Whatever small economic benefit Mr. Cruise may have received from the assistance of Church staff pales in comparison to the benefits the Church has received from Mr. Cruise’s many years of volunteer efforts for the Church.” Yet this assistance may have involved many hours of unpaid labor on the part of Sea Org members.

Rich people love free stuff.

UPDATATRON!

Author Lawrence Wright interviewed here. Thank the manqué.