E!'s "The Arrangement" is clearly, loosely based on a famous Hollywood star and a controversial church … except that no one involved will admit that it has anything to do with Tom Cruise and Scientology.
The hourlong drama, which premieres Sunday at 11 p.m., centers on struggling actress Megan Morrison (Christine Evangelista, "The Walking Dead"), who gets an audition for a role opposite Kyle West (Josh Henderson, "Dallas"), the hottest actor in Hollywood. The audition goes well, and so does their night in bed together.
Then Kyle's closest adviser, Terrence (Michael Vartan, "Alias") — who is the head of The Institute of the Higher Mind — comes up with an idea. Before the end of the first hour, Megan has been offered a huge contract to act, but not in a movie. She's offered $10 million to become Kyle's next wife — and, if she's lucky, to launch her career.
It's not exactly a leap to see Cruise, his ex-wife Katie Holmes and Scientology in this. Well, the unconfirmed reports about Cruise, Holmes and Scientology, that is. We don't know that it's true, but the story certainly got around.
Which is why the first question to executive producer Jonathan Abrahams from a member of the Television Critics Association at a recent news conference was this one: "In anticipation of the panel in which you tell us repeatedly that this show absolutely, positively isn't about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and Scientology, could you legally tell us if it were?"
(C'mon, that's funny!)
"Certainly, it's clear to me that even if I could say that I could legally do it, I don't have the authority to say that," Abrahams said. "Do you know what I mean?"
Actually, no. What?!?!?
"Like, I don't know," Abrahams continued. "But it's an easy— I mean, it doesn't really matter because it really isn't, if that answers your question."
Well, yes, I suppose it does. Probably. But that answer is absolutely not believable.
Hey I'm not criticizing Abrahams for adapting the Cruise-Holmes-Scientology story into a TV series. I'm praising him.
"The Arrangement" gets off to surprisingly good start, and I'm interested to see where it goes.
And I'm not suggesting that this is anything close to a documentary. It's not.
"I think we've all heard of the myths and rumors," said Henderson. "And so what's kind of fun [about] doing a show living in this world is that we get to tell our own story and take our audience on a journey."
Exactly!
Actually, I don't blame Abrahams for wanting to avoid any litigation from Cruise or Scientology. That's absolutely fair.
But at the same time, to suggest that "The Arrangement" wasn't at least somewhat inspired by Cruise, Holmes and Scientology is not exactly believable.
I'm guessing Cruise and Holmes won't be watching. But I'll bet somebody in Scientology will be taking notes.
Scott D. Pierce covers TV for The Salt Lake Tribune. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.
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