Avengers star Scarlett Johansson has auditioned for many roles in her lifetime. The part of Tom Cruise's offscreen girlfriend, however? Not one of them.
In Megyn Kelly's new TODAY interview with former Church of Scientology member Brendan Tighe, the once devout Sea Organisation participant alleged that Johansson's name was on a list to become the Top Gun actor's next real-life girlfriend.
Tighe also alleged that Erika Christensen, who starred with the Her actress in the 2004 film The Perfect Score, had to "disconnect" from Johansson because the alleged audition did not go well.
The persistent rumour, which was the subject of a 2012 piece in Vanity Fair, states that members of the Church of Scientology had planned on finding Cruise a church-approved girlfriend following the split from wife Nicole Kidman. Refinery29 has reached out to representatives for Cruise for comment.
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Johansson — whom, as far as the public knows, has never had a romantic relationship with Cruise — is now denying Tighe's claim that she was involved in this alleged audition process.
"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 a.k.a. Brendan Tighe would come up with a crazy story like that," Johansson said in a statement to Refinery29.
This is not the first time Johansson's name has been linked with Cruise's in this capacity. The 2013 book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright alleged that the Church of Scientology orchestrated bogus auditions for Mission Impossible that were really about finding Cruise a good romantic match. In addition to Johansson, actresses Kate Bosworth, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, and Cruise's eventual wife Katie Holmes were named in the book.