Claims made by an alleged former member of Tom Cruise’s Scientology security team earned a stiff rebuttal from Scarlett Johansson on Wednesday. Brendan Tighe made claims on Megyn Kelly’s NBC show that the Avengers actress was one of the women who allegedly was set to audition to “date” Tom Cruise for the Church Of Scientology. While the actual scenario with Scientology hoping to find someone for Cruise is documented in Going Clear and other places, Johansson was quick to deny the claim and criticize the message according to The Hollywood Reporter:
“The very idea of any person auditioning to be in a relationship is so demeaning. I refuse for anyone to spread the idea that I lack the integrity to choose my own relationships. Only a man aka Brendan Tighe would come up with a crazy story like that,” Johansson said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
Tighe claims he saw Johansson on a list of women “auditioned to date” Tom Cruise after his split with Nicole Kidman. He also added that actress Erika Christensen reportedly had to “disconnect from Scarlett Johansson because it didn’t go well” according to the same report. The Church of Scientology also denied these claims and Tighe’s connection with Tom Cruise:
Karin Pouw, from the Church of Scientology International, told Kelly, “Brendan Tighe was a Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization security guard/night watchman from 2002 to 2009. The ‘access’ he boasts of having was largely limited to viewing security cameras from a guard booth. He was removed from that position for dereliction of duty.”
While there are no real merits to verify Tighe’s claim or doubt Johansson’s denial, there is a history of Scientology allegedly grooming women to be with Tom Cruise. Before Katie Holmes came along, as shown in Going Clear and in Vanity Fair, actress Nazanin Boniadi was part of a group of church members “called in, told they were auditioning for a new training film, and then asked a series of curious questions including: “What do you think of Tom Cruise?”” She then dated cruise from November 2004 to January 2005 according to Vanity Fair.
The reported treatment she endured during the relationship was extreme, including having her “incisor teeth filed down” and punished for allegedly offending Scientology head David Miscavige according to Vanity Fair:
When a friend at a Scientology center in Florida, where Boniadi was subsequently sent, asked why she was crying all the time, Boniadi broke down and told her about her relationship with Cruise, which she had been forbidden to do. According to the knowledgeable source, the friend reported her. Boniadi’s punishment was to scrub toilets with a toothbrush, clean bathroom tiles with acid, and dig ditches in the middle of the night. After that, she was sent out to sell Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics on street corners. Boniadi and her mother are no longer involved in Scientology.
She’s no longer a member of the Church of Scientology today and is now “a known activist and face of human-rights concerns” when not pursuing her acting career.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter / Vanity Fair)