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Cruise Control: Scientology casting couch confirmed by Paul Haggis

By April MacIntyre Sep 5, 2012, 6:20 GMT

Roberta Armani and Paul Haggis - 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival - "Haiti Carnaval in Cannes" Photocall - Palais des Festivals - Cannes, France © Pixplanete / PR Photos

Top defectors from the notoriously litigious Sciebtology cult confirm that the long rumored "casting couch" for brides for Tom Cruise, in fact, existed.

In the latest Vanityfair.com October issue, Vanity Fair special correspondent Maureen Orth writes that in 2004 Scientology held a "top-secret project" headed by Shelly Miscavige, wife of Scientology chief David Miscavige, which involved finding a girlfriend for Tom Cruise.

According to several sources, the organization allegedly created an "auditioning process" in which actresses who were already Scientologists were called in, told they were auditioning for a new training film, and then asked a series of curious questions including: “What do you think of Tom Cruise?”

Marc Headley, a Scientologist, claimed he watched a number of the audition videotapes when he was head of Scientology’s in-house studio, told Orth, “It’s not like you only have to please your husband—you have to toe the line for Scientology.”

Oscar-winning movie director Paul Haggis was cult member for over 35 years, but he quit over their stance on anti-Gay marriage California Prop 8.

Paul confirmed the audition stories to Usmagazine.com via Showbiz411.com .

Vanity Fair claims that actress Nazanin Boniadi, who was a Scientologist at the time, was audited to become Cruise's third wife, but it was decided she wasn't famous enough.

Haggis says Vanity Fair's story is completely true: "I’ve known Nazanin for about three years. I met her through a mutual friend when I was doing my own personal research into the allegations against Scientology, before I wrote my letter of resignation. Naz was embarrassed by her unwitting involvement in this incident and never wanted it to come out, so I kept silent. However 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 her 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...."

"After I wrote my resignation letter, a dozen or more “friends” and officials of the church repeatedly descended on me to demand that I destroy the letter and resign quietly. I told them that wasn’t an option for me. I also told them that I had more sources of information about the troubling nature of the organization then I was at liberty to divulge. This was one."

"I’ve met quite a number of people who have been treated shamefully but are afraid to speak out. This story will draw attention because of our fascination with celebrity. Most of the others are just ordinary people whose stories, if told, would not appear in a magazine. They live in fear of retribution, legal, financial or personal, even some famous ones. They fear an incredibly wealthy organization 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."

"In Naz’s case, she has no right to feel ashamed. She is not only a terrific actress at the beginning of a very promising career, she is a dedicated human rights activist and a truly lovely and caring person. The last thing she wanted or needed is this kind of publicity, but here it is, and I am sure she will deal with it with the same grace and dignity she exudes in her daily life. I’m appalled that any church would treat its parishioners this way, but Naz has never cast herself as a victim. She is strong and resilient and I am very proud to call her a friend."