Hicks: Tom Cruise and Scientology auditioned potential wife, says report.

Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology auditioned actress Nazanin Boniadi to be his wife before he married Katie Holmes, according to a story in the October issue of Vanity Fair.

They could've just built him a robot and saved a lot of trouble.

The story, written by Maureen Orth, says a secret wife-auditioning process began in 2004, headed by Shelly Miscavige, wife of Scientology chief David Miscavige, with the purpose of finding a girlfriend for Cruise, with the idea of grooming her to be his bride.

Tom Cruise couldn't find his own girlfriend? That's sort of difficult to believe.

Sources told Orth about the elaborate wife-auditioning process, in which actresses who were Scientologists were chosen and questioned.

A spokesman for Cruise denied the actor was auditioning Boniadi to be his wife. In a statement to ABC News, the rep said: "Lies in a different font are still lies -- designed to sell magazines." The Church of Scientology told Vanity Fair that no such recruiting project occurred.

Oscar-winning director and former Scientologist Paul Haggis is backing the story. In an email to Showbiz411.com, Haggis said he has known Boniadi for 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," Haggis wrote. "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."

Sounds like a reality show.

Boniadi, an Iranian-born, London-raised actress, was eventually selected as the Chosen One. In a monthlong preparation in ! October 2004, she was audited every day, a process in which she told a high-ranking Scientology official her innermost secrets and every detail of her sex life. Boniadi was told to lose her braces, her red highlights, and her boyfriend, according to the story.

They also made her watch the volleyball scene in "Top Gun" ten straight times.

She and Cruise dated from November 2004 to January 2005. Although she was allegedly in love with him, his intense affection and public displays of that affection were too much for her.

After she reportedly disrespected a Scientology chief, she was asked to move out of Cruise's home and into Scientology's Celebrity Centre where she was later told she had been dumped.

Cruise began dating Katie Holmes in 2005. That same year, Holmes began studying Scientology. "I'm really excited about it," she told the Associated Press at the time. The two divorced in late-June.

Not surprisingly, Scientology officials are denying the Vanity Fair article.

"There was no project, secret or otherwise, ever conducted by the Church to find a bride (audition or otherwise) for any member," read a statement issued by the church. "No church members were 'used,' nor were they punished, nor silenced."

A Scientology spokeswoman, Karin Pouw, also labeled Haggis an "apostate" who's "attempting to grab headlines and falsely slander his former religion."

The October issue of Vanity Fair hits newsstands September 6.

Contact Tony Hicks at thicks@bayareanewsgroups .com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BayAreaNewsGroup.TonyHicks.