Jenny McCarthy is opening up about attending exes Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ 2006 wedding, in which the famed Top Gun actor allegedly tried to recruit her to join his controversial Church of Scientology.
“He tried to bring me into Scientology,” McCarthy, 53, claimed on the Thursday, October 15, episode of her eponymous podcast. “When I was dating Jim [Carrey], I went to … Tom and Katie’s wedding.”
McCarthy also claimed that she attended Cruise, now 64, and Holmes’ rehearsal dinner, where she sat “literally across” from the bride, groom and their “immediate circle.”
“She had just had her baby, and we’re having dinner and, all of a sudden, I see the nanny bring out the baby over to Katie,” McCarthy said, referring to the now-exes’ 20-year-old daughter, Suri. “My mom was a nanny … [and she] had seven babies that we babysat. So, I’m a baby person. I went over there and go, ‘Can I hold the baby?’”
Immediately, McCarthy said she felt all eyes on her.
“The entire party went like this,” she alleged, turning her head and looking at podcast guest Anne Gollert Hill. “It looked like Rosemary’s Baby. I got the Scientology stare.”
McCarthy further alleged that Holmes, now 47, “slowly passed” Suri to the Masked Singer judge while their fellow guests continued staring.
“I just went, ‘Hi baby,’” she said, pretending to bounce an infant on her knee. “No one was speaking anymore. No one was talking, [and] I was going, ‘Hi, baby.’ Once I gave her back the baby, it’s like everyone went back to their conversations. I thought to myself, ‘OK, I am in the belly of the beast right now.’”
Elsewhere during the dinner, McCarthy claimed that the Digger star introduced her to his best man David Miscavige — the leader of the controversial church.
“I go, ‘Haha, you got picked. Congratulations,’” McCarthy sarcastically told Miscavige, now 66, about his role in the wedding. “He did not like that, and I loved every second of it. I tried to do a perfect, like, passive-aggressive but still kind [response].”
Leah Remini has been an outspoken critic of the Church of Scientology since she left the controversial religion in 2013. The actress — who was brought into the church as an 8-year-old after her mother converted — slammed the organization for its alleged scare tactics and seemingly helping certain members avoid jail for various crimes. […]
Per McCarthy, Cruise loudly laughed to “cover the uncomfortable moment.”
“I will say from all the times I’ve met Tom, [he’s a] very nice human being, [but] very programmed you can tell,” McCarthy noted. “David was a force that I thought to myself, if I had to work underneath him, for him, around him, I don’t know if I’d be able to survive just from the little interaction. I’m a strong woman, [but] just from that little interaction, it’s like he could have broke me easily.”
Cruise, who also shares two children with ex-wife Nicole Kidman, and Holmes ultimately divorced in 2012. The Mission Impossible star has not publicly addressed McCarthy’s claims. Us reached out for comment.