The church of Scientology is certainly mysterious and confusing, but for the most part, they keep to themselves. However, every once in a while, a member of the church will make some pretty startling claims that sends the rest of us into a frenzy.
For example, Brendan Tighe appeared on Megyn Kelly Today and talked about how when Tom Cruise split from Nicole Kidman in 2001, scores of women auditioned to date the famous actor. At the time, Tighe was a member of Cruise's Scientology security unit, and said the reports of the women were "accidentally sent to his printer."
"Purely by accident, a bunch of reports kept coming to my printer by mistake," Tighe said. "Tommy Davis, who was previously Tom Cruise's personal handler, he would get interviews to make sure he was staying on the level of handling Tom Cruise properly. Anything he had to say would be written down in those reports, a lot of it was about those interviews."
Kelly pressed to find out who may have been on that list, and Tighe had a surprising answer.
"By name the only one I recognized [on the report] was Scarlett Johansson," he revealed. "That was right there in the report."
"Was there an audition for her?" Kelly questioned, to which he stated: "Yeah. That's what the report said."
"Another actress, Erika Christensen, had to disconnect from Scarlett Johansson because it didn't go well. That was in that report," Tighe also said.
Of course, these allegations ran rampant across social media. Johansson, who is currently dating Saturday Night Live cast member Colin Jost, responded almost immediately with a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
The very idea of any person auditioning to be in a relationship is so demeaning.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 despite Tighe making these huge claims against not only Johansson, but the process itself, the Church of Scientology is trying to distance themselves from the rumors.
"Brendan Tighe was a Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization security guard/night watchman from 2002 to 2009," said Karin Pouw, from the Church of Scientology International, "The 'access' he boasts of having was largely limited to viewing security cameras from a guard booth. He was removed from that position for dereliction of duty."
However, even though Pouw seemingly shuts down Tighe's reputability in order to lessen the story, it's not the first time stories of an audition process to date Cruise has surfaced.
In 2004, actress Nazanin Boniadi was linked to the Scientology star. Details of their relationship became somewhat public during the FBI's 2009/2010 Church of Scientology human trafficking investigation, when Boniadi was interviewed.
Most of the information and names were redacted, but it's clear which parts relate to the actress because at one point the name NAZ appears, seemingly by mistake.
In the interview, it's stated that Cruise initially did not want todate Boniadi "because her ethics level in the Church was not as high [as his]." He did warm up to it, however, and the couple was together for a few months.
However, according to the FBI file, the romance didn't last long.
"At the beginning of the relationship [redacted] was very romantic but as the relationship progressed [Cruise] began to have temper tantrums. [Cruise] began to show violent tendencies," the file says.
