Scarlett Johansson denies auditioning to be Tom Cruise’s partner in bizarre Scientology ritual

Scarlett Johansson has trashed reports that she ever ‘auditioned’ to be Tom Cruise’s partner, calling the idea ‘crazy’. Brendan Tighe, a former Scientologist who claimed to have served on Cruise’s personal security detail, in an appearance on NBC’s Megyn Kelly Today, said that he was mistakenly sent a list of actors who were brought in by the church to audition for Cruise post his split from Nicole Kidman. Tighe said that he remembers Johansson because she was the only one he recognised.

“The very idea of any person auditioning to be in a relationship is so demeaning,” Johansson said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”

This isn’t the first time a dating process for the actor has been reported about. It has long been rumoured that his marriage with Katie Holmes failed because she refused to convert to Scientology, hence labelling herself as a ‘suppressive’ person.

The Church of Scientology maintains a Suppressive Person list, which includes people who have been declared by the church to be anti-social and detrimental to the spiritual progress of Scientologists. It has also been rumoured that the reason Cruise has not maintained a relationship with his daughter, Suri, is because she has also been included on this list because of her mother.

A 2012 Vanity Fair article claimed to pull the curtain from ‘the secret wife-auditioning process’ for Cruise. Homeland actor Nazanin Boniadi reportedly passed the audition and dated Cruise between November 2004 and January 2005.

In addition to Katie Holmes, both Nicole Kidman and Penélope Cruz ran afoul of Scientology, the report said.

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