When E! released a trailer for The Arrangement last summer, many of us walked away with an inkling of déjà vu. This looks familiar, we thought before realizing the narrative seems a lot like the one we imagine transpired between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.
In an interview with BuzzFeed News, show creator Jonathan Abrahams is stressing again that he was not inspired by the ex-couple. To quote our story in May of last year, the premise is as follows:
"...a young actress, Megan (Christine Evangelista), gets a chance to audition opposite a motorcycle-riding Hollywood heartthrob, Kyle West (Josh Henderson). They start to fall in love, but there's a problem: He's a member of a mysterious organization and buddies with its nefarious leader, Terrence Anderson (Michael Vartan). As Kyle and Megan get serious — a contract marriage is on the table — Terrence wants to exert an ominous amount of control over Kyle's personal life."
But the story line must have come from somewhere, right?
“I totally understand why people think that considering the rumors we’ve heard," Abrahams said. Those rumors being that Holmes was hired to play Cruises' girlfriend IRL by his Scientology cohorts in order to add a little salt to his image.
“I know people are going to draw these comparisons but I’m not going to create story based on my fear of that or try to encourage that," Abrahams said. "I am not in the business of doing an exposé. I’ll leave that to others who are doing it probably much better than I can.”
The biggest difference between Abrahams' story and that of the real Cruise is that the lead character isn't affiliated with a religious organization. Scientology has been swapped with a self-help organization, Institute of the Higher Mind.
Considering that Scientology's legal department has a reputation for combating fire with fire, there's no way Abrahams could have kept that fact the same without a massive headache.
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