Katie Holmes wasn’t the church’s first choice
A new report claims that the way the high-profile relationship started was equally bizarre – and the Church of Scientology was apparently to blame.
The secretive religious group organised an ‘audition’ process to find Mr Cruise a wife, according to Vanity Fair, grilling dozens of young women to make sure they posed no threat to the church or its most famous member.
And Ms Holmes was apparently not the first choice – the church wanted Mr Cruise to marry a young actress who was already a Scientologist, but she was seen as disrespectful to religious leaders.
Daily Mail reported that the shocking allegations about the origins of the stars’ six-year marriage are made by writer Maureen Orth in the October issue of Vanity Fair.
She claims that the project to identify a new partner for Mr Cruise, following the break-up of his relationships with Nicole Kidman and Penelope Cruz, started in 2004 and was headed by Shelly Miscavige, wife of the church’s top official David Miscavige.
A number of Scientologist actresses were interviewed by church leaders, according to former official Marc Headley, and told they were being considered for a role in a new training video.
However, they were faced with unexpected questions such as: ‘What do you think of Tom Cruise?’
Katie Holmes, who did not become a Scientologist until she started going out with Mr Cruise, was not part of this process.
Instead, Mrs Miscavige apparently chose Nazanin Boniadi, then 24, an Iranian-born actress who grew up in Britain, to be the megastar’s new partner.
She was told she had been selected for ‘a very important mission’, and ordered to break up with her boyfriend.
When Miss Boniadi was flown to New York and taken for dinner by Mr Cruise at trendy restaurant Nobu, she began to suspect she was part of an elaborate set-up.
The pair went ice-skating at Rockefeller Center, where the rink had been closed for them, then spent the night together.
The actress, who has appeared in General Hospital, How I Met Your Mother and blockbuster Iron Man, was made to sign multiple confidentiality agreements over her relationship with Mr Cruise.
While the process which selected Miss Boniadi may have been arbitrary – one of the stipulations was that Mr Cruise could not go out with a woman who had ever been in a threesome – the star soon fell hard for the young woman.
However, Miss Boniadi was not affectionate enough towards her new boyfriend, Vanity Fair reports.
Mr Cruise was keen on extravagant romantic displays, and complained that the actress would not reciprocate his grand gestures.
Moreover, she was repeatedly in trouble for not respecting senior Scientologists – including Mr Cruise himself.
