Was Scarlett Johansson a target of Tom Cruise’s Scientology wife search?
In 2004, the Church of Scientology embarked on a top-secret project to find a new wife for Tom Cruise after his divorce from Nicole Kidman and the end of his relationship with actress Penelope Cruise, according to a report by Vanity Fair.
The project involved an elaborate auditioning process in which actresses were brought in to try out for a film, then asked a series of questions that included: “What do you think of Tom Cruise?”
In an interview Wednesday, a former Scientology member, who said he served on Cruise’s Scientology security detail, claims that one of the actresses who auditioned to be Cruise’s “second dynamic” was Scarlett Johansson. While appearing on NBC’s “Megyn Kelly Today” on Wednesday, Brendan Tighe, who was born into the organization but left in2011, saidhe inadvertently came across reports of women who auditioned to be in a relationship with the “Mission: Impossible” actor — and one was Johansson.
The reports, by Cruise’s celebrity “handler” Tommy Davis, were mistakenly sent to Tighe’s printer, he said.
“The only name I re- member was Scarlett Johansson,” Tighe told Kelly. “Itwas right there inthe report.”
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Johansson, 33, vehemently denied Tighe’s assertion. “The very idea of any person auditioning to be in a relationship is so demeaning,” the “Avengers” actress said. “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.”
But the 2012 Vanity Fair report confirms the essence of Tighe’s assertion. The story said that Cruise had attempted to entice several beautiful, well-known women to accept his devotion to Scientology — and Johansson was one of them.
Today.com, citing a report fromRadarMagazine.com, said Cruise invited Johansson to the Scientology center where he showed her literature about joining his controversial self-styled religious organization.
“After two hours of proselytizing, Cruise opened a door to reveal a second roomfull of upper-level Scientologists who had been waiting to dine with the pair,” RadarMagazine.com reported. At that point, “the cool-headed ingénue politely excused herself,” the magazine said.