As long as Tom Cruise has been involved with Scientology, there’ve been rumors that potential girlfriends auditioned to become the next woman on his arm. Scarlett Johansson would like to clarify that she was not one of them.
“The Avengers” actress was mentioned in Wednesday’s interview with Church of Scientology defector Brendan Tighe on “Megyn Kelly Today.” Tighe, who grew up in the church, claimed to have seen a report that listed Johansson as someone who’d been “interviewed” as a possible mate for Cruise following the actor’s split from Nicole Kidman.
“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.”
Representatives for Cruise did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Tighe alleged that the report he saw said Johansson’s session “didn’t go well,” and prompted actress Erika Christensen, who’s still a practicing Scientologist, to disconnect from her. Johansson and Christensen starred together in the film “The Perfect Score.”
A 2012 Vanity Fair expose about Scientology by reporter Maureen Orth reported that actress Nazanin Boniadi, who had a brief relationship with Cruise in 2004, was one of the women who auditioned. Two years later, Cruise wed Katie Holmes and the two had a child, who Cruise reportedly hasn’t seen in years after he and Holmes divorced in 2012.
The Church of Scientology, in a statement Kelly read aloud on her show, also challenged Tighe’s claims.
“Brendan Tighe was a Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization security guard/night watchman from 2002 to 2009,” the church said. “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.”
Johansson, who’s currently dating “Saturday Night Live” star Colin Jost, has found herself in a Scientology-related controversy before.
A photo of John Travolta, one of the church’s most famous members, strangely kissing her on the red carpet went viral in 2015. Johansson later defended him, saying the advance was “totally welcome.”
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