Tom Cruise: How Scientology Recruited Girlfriends For Him Before Katie Holmes
Sept. 2 2012, Published 4:45 a.m. ET
By Breaking Celebrity News Staff
Katie Holmes was not the first of Tom Cruise's girlfriends to be recruited by Scientology, an upcoming cover story in Vanity Fair.
None other than Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, headed up the task of finding Tom an appropriate mate, writes the mag's award-winning Maureen Orth. Candidates were told they were auditioning for a new training film and were asked a series of questions including "What do you think of Tom Cruise?"
Iranian-born actress and longtime Scientology follower Nazanin Boniadi was the winner in the girlfriend derby, writes Orth, and went on to date Cruise from November, 2004 to January, 2005.
Boniadi had to sign multiple confidentiality agreements and ended up falling head over heels for Cruise. But in short order, he decided she wasn't up to the task, sources told Orth, and complained to her, “I get more love from an extra than I get from you."
Boniadi was then subjected to daily sessions -- two to three hours each -- of purging herself of “negative thoughts about Tom," reports Orth. "She felt completely shut off; her only source of money was a credit card issued in the name of Cruise’s production company."
Eventually Boniadi was sent off to a Scientology center in Florida, and the process began again.
In April, 2005, Tom debuted Katie Holmes as his new girlfriend.