Vanity Fair has dropped a bombshell in its October issue. The magazine features a story by special correspondent Maureen Orth who claims that Shelly Miscavige, wife of Scientology chief David Miscavige, was tasked with the chore of finding a suitable girlfriend / wife for Tom Cruisein 2004 after the actor’s split from his Vanilla Sky costar, Penelope Cruz.
Orth’s sources reveal that the Church of Scientology put out a “movie audition” for actress members of the organization. Those who responded were posed a series of questions including: “What do you think of Tom Cruise?” as a way to narrow the field.
Orth says that Iranin-born actress Nazanin Boniadi was picked out of the lot as being a strong candidate. She passed the first stage of the audition process and then underwent a month-long preparation. When she passed, she started to date Cruise from November 2004 until January 2005.
In the month-long preparation, Boniadi “was audited every day, a process in which she told a high-ranking Scientology official her innermost secrets and every detail of her sex life,” Orth explains. “Boniadi allegedly was told to lose her braces, her red highlights, and her boyfriend.”
Per Orth’s sources, once Boniadi underwent her makeover, she met Cruise for the first time in NYC in November 2004. “That’s when she first sensed that this was possibly going to be an arranged marriage,” Orth writes. The actress was soon requested to sign a confidentiality agreement about Cruise. Boniadi eventually fell in love with the actor and moved into Cruise’s home, sharing his bedroom.
The relationship fizzled and eventually ended when Boniadi was asked to move into Scientology’s Celebrity Centre at which time she was told that Cruise “wants someone with her own power — like Nicole [Kidman].” When Cruise refused to meet Boniadi in person to break up with her, she had a break down and confided in a friend about her soured relationship. That friend reported Boniadi to the organization and Boniadi ended up scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush as punishment for breaching her confidentiality agreement. She also had to clean bathroom tiles with acid and made to dig ditches in the middle of the night.
Cruise started dating Katie Holmes in early 2005 and the rest is history. A representative for Scientology denied the story.
