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Paul Haggis: 'Scientology auditioned wives for Tom Cruise'

Sep 4, 2012, 1:01 GMT

Tom Cruise

Paul Haggis insists claims that Scientologists auditioned wives for Tom Cruise are true.

The October issue of Vanity Fair magazine features an article claiming the controversial church set Tom up with Scientologist and actress Nazanin Boniadi in 2004, before he dumped her and married Katie Holmes and while Tom has denied the report, the 'Crash' director and former member of the religion says it is true.

Paul - who left the organisation in 2010 - told Showbiz411: 'I was deeply disturbed by how the highest ranking members of a church could so easily justify using one of their members; how they so callously punished [Boniadi] and then so effectively silenced her when it was done. It wasn't just the threats; they actually made her feel ashamed, when all she had been was human and trusting.'

He also claimed the actress - who is said to have fallen in love with Tom and been devastated when they split - tried to repair her relationship with Scientology before resigning two years ago and said he understood her 'shame'.

He added: 'I've met quite a number of people who have been treated shamefully but are afraid to speak out...Most of the others are just ordinary people...They live in fear of retribution, legal, financial or personal...They fear an incredibly wealthy organisation that boasts that it seeks truth, empowers people, brings families together, encourages independent thought and free speech, and champions human rights. I would like to say that I don't know how its members, many of them good and intelligent people, can remain so purposely blind when they are faced with evidence like this every day, but then I am no one to talk. I was happily blind for many years, so I know the shame that Naz feels.'