Tom Cruise dodged all sorts of reports that before marrying Katie Holmes he “auditioned” women to be his wife. That he rented out space in a Scientology center and mislead many women into thinking they were auditioning for a film when in reality, he was trying to skip over the whole “dating thing” right into “Imma wife you” mode.
It’s been rumored that Erika Christensen, Scarlett Johansson, and Jessica Alba auditioned for the role of Mrs. Cruise. Recently, actress Nazanin Boniadi told Vanity Fair that she auditioned for Cruise in 2004. They “dated” for about 2 months before Tom moved on. Ms. Boniadi (aka Nora from How I Met Your Mother) was basically punished by the “Church” of Scientology for being dumped by Cruise and left the organization.
Anette Iren Johansen, ex-Scientologist, is coming forward with her audition experience. Everything she says sounds legit based on what I’ve studied about Scientology but there’s one thing that isn’t completely working for me — she’s not an actress, she’s got no fame, and thus it doesn’t make sense that she would even be in the running. One of the reasons Cruise left Boniadi was because she wasn’t “famous” enough. Johansen had only made appearances in Scientology magazines and training films (which is what she thought she was auditioning for). So I don’t get why she would be considered. Regardless, her story is interesting. From The Underground Bunker:
… She noticed right away that there was something unusual about this project. There was a makeup team, for example, which she’d never seen before. She wanted to keep it light, but the woman in makeup told her it was important for this audition to be made up with eye shadow and glossy lips.
And that was the other odd thing about it — everyone working on the audition was a woman.
Anette sat down before the camera, and instead of giving her a script, they just asked her about herself.
“They asked me so many questions about my life, my family background, everything I’d ever done in Scientology. There was a lot of talk about Tom Cruise at that time — he had just been in Norway [hosting] the Nobel Peace Prize concert.”
It seemed odd, but she got through it. Another strange detail: no one else seemed to be taking part in the auditions.
Before she could leave, she was required to sign a waiver, promising not to mention anything about the audition. (Another thing that hadn’t happened at earlier auditions.)
About two weeks later, she received a phone call from a man in California who identified himself as “Golden Era Productions, international management.” She was at the org’s canteen at the time, in a room with other people. He told her that he had some private questions to ask her, so she went to a nearby bathroom and locked herself in.
“I got a call from a top guy at the main base in L.A. He said it was regarding my audition and that he needed to ask some very private questions,” she says.
“He asked, ‘Do you have any sexual perversions?”
She told the man that she didn’t have any perversions. (She was between boyfriends at the time.)
He thanked her, and told her he might be back in touch with her. But she never heard anything else about the audition or from Golden Era.
We called Marc Headley, who worked on some of these auditions before he left from the International Base.
“That was for Tom Cruise, absolutely,” he says.
Headley worked on technical projects at the International Base in California before he left early in 2005. At one point during the summer of 2004 he was asked to watch a highlight reel of the auditions that had been made for Tom Cruise.
“Those are the exact same questions that they were asking the other girls,” he says.
“The reason the sexual question came up was that they had some girls with histories that weren’t so great. So they were being careful. This girl has to be perfect in all ways.”
We asked him why Scientology would be going as far afield as Denmark.
“It was slim pickings in Los Angeles. In LA there were a lot of pretty girls, but they had a lot of baggage, by Scientology standards.” […] The auditions didn’t stop until he found Katie later in 2005. So even if he was with one of the girls, they were still working it, casting for the next season of Scientology’s version of The Bachelor.”
After the audition, Anette realized that there seemed to be no film that came out of it.
Holy f-ck, that last sentence makes the hairs on my arms stand up. It sounds like creepypasta.
I’m not quite buying that LA was such a wasteland that they had to outsource to Denmark, especially for a nobody. But this doesn’t mean that I am Team Scientology or Team Cruise. That will never happen. I’m glad she got out.
It doesn’t get any creepier than Scientology. I’ve researched the hell out of that organization and it’s ties to Crowley. They aren’t very compassionate nor do they seem to have a conscience. If a guy was Scientologist, I wouldn’t date him….no matter how much money he had nor how big his….. lol. Big turn off.