A new Vanity Fair article is set to take down Hollywood star Tom Cruise big time, as, amongst other things, it claims that before he married Katie Holmes, he and the Church of Scientology “auditioned” various actresses for the role of his girlfriend.

The writer, Maureen Orth, used sources who have since been questioned by the Church of Scientology, but she’s gone on television to defend herself. All before we’ve even got to see the article!

In response to the piece, the Church realeased a statement: “Vanity Fair relied exclusively on a small group of anti-Scientologists…the article fails to quote a single source who is not a vociferous anti-Scientologist.”

But Maureen has said that her sources were solid and that: “Scientology does not know everybody I talk to. All of my sources, with very few exceptions, are on the record.”

Speaking to the Today show, she said that one of the reasons why Tom supposedly auditioned his girlfriends is because he needs to find someone to fulfill both his requirements and the church’s: “He can’t find the Scientology soulmate that he needs to be the number two most important person in the religion.”

She also claims that Tom Cruise was brought deeper into the church by being “audited” every day for almost a year: “For a long time Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman…had drifted away from the church.

“And it was the job of the second in command of the Church, the inspector general Marty Rathbun to help bring Tom back into the church.”

She continued: “And he audited him, which is their kind of confessional every day for nearly a year.”

In the piece, Maureen also says that a young actress, Nazanin Boniadi, went out with Tom for a while but couldn’t handle his public displays of affection.

Eeek! This is all pretty scathing stuff!