The relationship between exes Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise and their children is strange. Isabella and Connor Cruise are rarely seen, and when they are, it’s for seemingly staged photo opps, like when they were photographed with Tom, Katie Holmes, Suri and the Beckhams at Thanksgiving. So when Connor Cruise landed his debut film role playing a young Will Smith in the upcoming drama “Seven Pounds,” you’d think that Tom and Nicole would relish the photo opp and show up to support him at the film’s premiere, right? Not so much, according to reports. Apparently, Tom’s press junket for “Valkyrie” kept him away from the premiere- but no word on what kept Nicole away.

“Seven Pounds” is his son Connor’s first film, but Tom Cruise opted not to attend the premiere in L.A. Dec. 16.

The reasoning for skipping 13-year-old Connor’s big-screen debut, in which he plays a younger version of Cruise pal Will Smith? Cruise opted to stay in New York to continue the publicity blitz for his film “Valkyrie.”

“As you know, Tom and Will are great friends,” his rep Cheryl Maisel said. “Tom is in New York on a publicity tour for his movie.”

That much is obvious, but why not support Connor, who was specifically invited to attend the festivities along with some of the other kids in the film?

“It comes as such a surprise,” says a Cruise source. “When Connor was filming (‘Seven Pounds’) Tom was so excited and proud of him. It’s sad Tom didn’t fly out for the evening. He could have missed one night of publicity to support Connor and Will.”

It wouldn’t be the first time Cruise did a cross-country sprint: last December he flew from L.A. to New York and back to support Smith at his “I am Legend” premiere.

[From MSNBC]

It does seem odd that Cruise especially wouldn’t turn up for the movie premiere starring his son and his new BFF, Will Smith. His excuse is flimsy but at least he has one. What about Connor’s mom, Nicole Kidman? Her film “Australia” has basically tanked, so what’s her excuse? Surely she could leave the baby at home with her new husband and show up for her son’s first movie. Perhaps the reason for Nicole’s absence can be summed up in one word - “Scientologists.”

As for Tom - it sure seems like he is all wrapped up in his “new” family too. In recent days, Tom has talked non stop about daughter Suri and only mentioned Connor’s acting aspirations in passing. What gives? And did anyone from the family turn up to support Connor? I’m sure if Suri were making her acting debut the world would stop turning before Tom missed that.

It’s not easy recent finding photos of Connor Cruise that don’t involve Katie Holmes, Suri or the Beckhams. Here are some shots of Tom and Connor last January celebrating Connor’s birthday. Dad and son are almost the same size. Photo credits: WENN.

The Cruises and the Beckhams are really taking their paparazzi-friendly relationship up a few notches. The Beckhams arrived in New York on Tuesday and joined Tom Cruise for a matinee of Katie Holmes’ play “All My Sons” on Wednesday afternoon before heading out for dinner. Though that’d be enough of the photographers for most couples, the group spent much of Thursday out and about having what sounds like a pretty fun Thanksgiving.

Suri Cruise had something special to be thankful for this Thanksgiving: a few famous playmates.

Suri, 2, and the family – including parents Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and siblings Connor, 13, and Isabella, 15 – were joined by David and Victoria Beckham and their three sons, Brooklyn, 9, Romeo, 6, and Cruz, 3, to spend Thanksgiving in New York City.

The Beckhams left their three sons with a babysitter Wednesday afternoon to attend a matinee performance of Holme’s Broadway play, All My Sons, with Cruise, and then picked Holmes up for a double date at Il Cantinori.

The next morning, the entire clan woke up early to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan before taking a walk through Central Park to see the Big Apple Circus and ride in a horse-drawn carriage.

[From People]

A horse drawn carriage? And a circus? Are you trying to get Alec Baldwin to scream at you in public? Actually Tom Cruise vs. Alec Baldwin could be amazing – it’s quite the even match. Still it sounds like a pretty fun and busy Thanksgiving. Here are pictures of the Cruises and Beckhams yesterday. Images thanks to Fame.

The mysterious adopted offspring of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise came out of hiding to fly to Nashville and see their new baby sister, Sunday Rose. According to In Touch, Isabella and Connor Cruise were able to take time out of their busy schedule to hold the new baby and spend time with the mom they hardly ever see.

Until they arrived in Tennessee on July 19, Isabella and Connor Cruise had only seen their baby sister, Sunday - who was born on July 7 - in photos sent by their mother, Nicole Kidman, in e-mails.

“They were so excited to meet their new family member,” an insider says.

The kids would have come to Nashville earlier, but Isabella had been on a road trip with friends.

“Isabella loved holding Sunday,” the insider says. “It was a real bonding moment for her and Nicole.”

Nicole, 41, and her husband, Keith Urban, recently purchased a house in Beverly Hills so Sunday can get to know her siblings.

Isabella, 15 and Connor, 13, live with their dad Tom Cruise in L.A. “They have their own lives,” a pal said, “But they couldn’t wait to meet their new sister.”

[From In Touch print version, August 4, 2008]

I was wondering if Isabella and Connor would be allowed to leave the seclusion of the Beverly Hills Scientology Center in order to see the new baby. “Road trip.” Riiiiight. I’m sure Tom wanted to make sure they were both up to speed on their copies of “Dianetics” before being released to Mommy’s house, where people might be allowed to think for themselves. I don’t know what kind of parenting style these two employ, but since when do 13-year-olds have their “own lives?” My 13-year-old would love to have her own life, I’m sure. It would probably involve the world’s messiest room, lots of Green day, a ton of eyeliner and unlimited text messaging. But it’s not gonna happen. I guess it’s different when you’re the kid of a rich crazy guy.

Picture Note by JayBird: Here’s Connor and Isabella walking the dog with a friend in 2006. Header of Nicole on Sunday. Images thanks to Fame. Update by Celebitchy: you guys are right, that’s not Isabella

Things looked pretty tense for the Cruise family as they sat in a box at an LA Galaxy Game on Saturday. It was the first time Tom, Katie, Suri, Isabella and Connor have all been photographed together at an event or by the paparazzi since December, 2006. In the fall of 2006, Katie and Tom were pictured sitting on the sidelines and cuddling at Isabella and Connor’s sports matches near constantly. After Suri was born Tom’s older kids pretty much dropped out of site. Connor was seen out on his 13th birthday having dinner with his dad in January, but that was a rare sighting.

There may be a good reason for the palpable misery and tension among the Holmes-Cruises - The LA Galaxy soccer team featuring David Beckham lost that game on Saturday 2-1 to the New York Red Bulls.

Three of David Beckham’s sons, Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz, were in the box with them, but their mom was not at that game. Victoria Beckham caught a flight from LA to London earlier that day, which may have made it convenient for her to avoid being seen with the Cruises. Victoria and David recorded a tribute to Cruise that aired during the Oprah special, but it primarily focused on his films and they did not talk as much about their friendship with him.

Little Suri, two, held her ears when the crowd cheered. Her older sister, Isabella, 15, is shown handing her a doll to try and make her feel better.

Thanks to Splash for these photos.

Nicole Kidman is obviously getting a bit tired of the speculation about her puny baby bump, doing her best to make it look bigger at a United Nations Conference.

Nic’s in NY raising awareness of violence against women, in her role as a UN Goodwill Ambassador.

I can sympathize with her small bump – I had a minor bulge that well into my eighth month meant I didn’t look terribly pregnant. Unlike Nicole, I didn’t have the entire world aware of my pregnancy, and people just thought I was getting fat.

I was a little surprised to see Nicole Kidman in New York, as on that same day her father was undergoing scheduled heart surgery.

The actress’ sister Antonia revealed the news on Monday (21Apr08) at a TV prizegiving in Sydney.

Collecting the ASTRA Award for Favourite Female Personality, Antonia held back tears as she accepted the honour onstage at the Hordern Pavilion.

She said, “It is a sweet end to a sad day because my dad’s in hospital.”

She refused to reveal more, but reports suggest the Kidman patriarch, a renowned psychologist, underwent scheduled heart surgery hours before his daughter collected her TV award.

Contact Music

I guess the surgery must have been very routine and simple, but they’re still cutting open your chest, swinging open your ribcage and poking around in your chest. I think I’d make the trip to be by dad’s side if I could, and I’m pretty sure the UN would give you the day off. Even the women being subjected to violence would probably understand you needing to be with your dad on that kind of a day.

I guess there was no danger, and Nicole really wanted to fulfill her commitments. She hasn’t got much time left to perform her Ambassador duties with a baby on the way.

Nicole made no mention of her son Connor entering into the film industry, appearing in Seven Pounds with Will Smith. While I think the news was released after her appearance, I also get the impression that Nicole doesn’t see as much of her adopted children with Tom Cruise as what she once did. They (Isabella and Connor) are now 15 and 13 respectively, and probably want to spend more time with their friends than with their parents. Nicole has just bought a home near the Cruise compound in LA, so she might be able to start using that 50/50 shared custody agreement she has with her ex-husband, although it might be too late to reverse the Scientology brainwashing.

For five months along, Nicole Kidman sure is doing a good job of hiding her growing stomach. Especially because it seems from these pictures that she’s not trying to hide it at all. Nicole is supposedly five months along. I am no pregnancy expert, but I had no idea a person could have such a small stomach at that point. That’s what J-Lo looked like 48 hours after conception. I have don’t know what’s going on here, but something is fishy. Nicole was out and about promoting her film “The Golden Compass” in Japan. Depending on who you believe, the film supposedly promotes atheism.

“These books denigrate Christianity, thrash the Catholic Church and sell the virtues of atheism,” asserted [Bill Donohue, president and CEO] of Catholic League, who earlier this month called on Christians to boycott the movie.”

[From the Christian Post]

Interestingly, Nicole said that both of her children, who are being raised as Scientologists by ex-husband Tom Cruise, have seen the film. One would think this could cause quite the parental skirmish between the former spouses. Though Scientologists aren’t Christians, many say that the film promotes atheism on the whole. However it should also be mentioned that Nicole has said she considers herself Catholic, and yet she starred in the film.

In the story, a malevolent governing body called “the Church,” which answers to the “Vatican Council,” is known to kidnap children for experimentation. With the help of a golden compass that reveals a coded answer to any question asked by the user, Lyra, by the trilogy’s end, gets to the bottom of the missing children and kills a character called “God.”

[From the Christian Post]

“The Golden Compass” sounds very interested and complicated – surprisingly so for a children’s movie. Nicole said both her kids have seen it, and she’s glad to make a kid’s movie once in a while.

During the press conference, the five-month pregnant star revealed she had deliberately chosen The Golden Compass script because it’s child-friendly.

She said: “My Bella and Connor are 13 and 15. So they have seen the film and they loved it… my child inside won’t see the film for a long time.”

“But I think once you have children you want to balance the work you do because they give up so much of you to your work. So occasionally you want to make films that they can take their friends to, they can go to the premiere of, that they celebrate.”

[From the Daily Mail]

I can’t help but wonder how much Nicole runs by Tom and visa versa. I would love to know what went on behind closed doors in terms of Connor and Isabella’s religious upbringing. Since her divorce, Nicole has gently said that she considers Scientology to be hogwash, and always did. Her father is a very prominent Australian psychologist, and Scientologists are famously opposed to psychiatry. However her kids were obviously already being raised as such, so whether due to Tom’s insistence or Nicole’s acquiescence, their kids still go to Scientology camp every summer. It’s hard not to wonder if “The Golden Compass” got them thinking. Reading about it has gotten me thinking too. Though I’m still mostly thinking about Nicole Kidman’s confusing lack of visible stomach.

Nicole Kidman is shown at a press conference for The Golden Compass in Tokyo yesterday.

the last time Connor, Isabella, Tom and Katie were photographed together, 12/10/06.
Doesn’t it seem like Tom Cruise stopped pimping out his two older kids once Suri was old enough to start generating “aww, shucks” photo ops every few days? I was looking through the photo agencies trying to find pictures of Isabella, and the last time she was photographed out was when she died her hair blue while visiting her mom in Australia way back in May. Then we heard that 14 year-old Isabella and her 12 year-old brother, Connor, were busy being indoctrinated into the illogical and soul-sucking Scientology cult this summer, which may have explained why we haven’t seen them in a while.

But what about their sports games? Didn’t Tom and Katie show up at a soccer or football game constantly last fall? The Cruise kids are home-schooled and spoonfed cult nonsense, but at least they had the semblance of a normal life through involvement in sports. Isabella and Connor might still be playing sports this year, but if they are Tom and Katie aren’t showing up to cheer them on and embarrass them with well-documented PDA on the sidelines. They haven’t been photographed at a match since December, 2006.

So what’s up with Isabella and Connor? Are they even still around? Star Magazine says Isabella is at least home enough to swipe her stepmom Katie Holmes’ clothes, and that sounds like refreshingly normal behavior for a ninth grade girl. Of course her marathon-running stepmom is a bit too small to provide an endless supply of couture, but a lot of her shirts fit Isabella, and since Katie never wears anything twice she doesn’t seem to mind:

When Katie Holmes got back to L.A. from a recent visit to see hubby Tom Cruise in Germany, she discovered something amiss with her wardrobe. Her designer duds had been plundered - and the culprit was her stepdaughter Isabella!

“Bella has a wild streak in her that she expresses in the ay she dresses,” a friend of Katie tells Star. “She loves an eclectic look and gets that by mixing and matching her own clothes with designer pieces of Katie’s.”

The 14-year-old… is tired of the “conservative and old-fashioned” clothes her parents buy her, says the friend.

They get her things like Theory basics, “but she’d much rather go through Katie’s closet and find a Chloé shirt,” another insider reveals.

[From Star Magazine, print edition, November 19, 2007]

There are too many insiders for this story to be plausible, but it sounds likely. Maybe a writer at Star has a teenage daughter and is getting her stuff swiped too. I know I had a huge issue with my mom when I was that age because I was constantly wearing her shoes and rifling through her jewelry. Once you hit the age when you realize that there’s all this great stuff in your house you could be wearing there’s no stopping you. It doesn’t matter which family member it belongs too.

As it is, Isabella would have to be home to get Katie’s stuff, and she hasn’t been seen out with Tom, Katie, or Nicole in six months. Are Isabella and Conner children of convenience for Tom or are they so sucked up in the cult that they never see their parents anymore?

Header image is of Connor, Isabella, Tom and Katie on December 10, 2006, the last time they were all photographed together from what I can tell. That was when Tom got fat for like a month. If you have seen photos of them together or heard that they attended an event with any of their parents in the last six months let me know. Katie did go out shopping with Isabella way back in December of last year. And Connor and Isabella went to the Kids Choice Awards with Nicole in March of this year.

Isabella is also shown below with those blue streaks in her hair on 5/5/07 in Australia. You know that had to piss off the COS. Thanks to Splash News.