I love Queen Latifah. She’s just got such a positive energy to her, even if she does pick some crappy movies (ahem, “Taxi” and “Bringing Down the House.” For shame, Queen Latifah, for shame). Queen Latifah has finished filming “Mad Money,” a comedy about three women bank robbers with Katie Holmes and Diane Keaton. Yeah, doesn’t exactly sound like a winner. It’s Holmes’ first role since hooking up with Tom Cruise. Way to choose wisely. Turns out the Queen became pretty protective of Katie and baby Suri.

“Queen Latifah didn’t exactly turn into a ragin’ Cajun while in Louisiana shooting Mad Money, but she wasn’t thrilled with the overzealous paparazzi on the hunt for pics of her costar Katie Holmes and baby Suri. ‘There would be photographers trying to get real close, so you just sort of get protective, especially when someone has a baby,’ Latifah says of their time shooting in Shreveport. ‘I don’t know if it’s a woman thing, but we watched out for her.’

“Mad Money, a comedy about three women (Latifah, Holmes and Diane Keaton) who plot to rob the Federal Reserve Bank, is Holmes’ first acting gig since hooking up with Tom Cruise. It’s due to hit theaters in January. Despite being one of the most photographed women in the world, Latifah says Holmes couldn’t have been more real: ‘She’s cool. She’s really down to earth.’”

[From E! News]

Somehow that movie just seems like a bad idea for all involved. I really can’t even begin to figure out how Diane Keaton figures into it. Latifah was awesome in “Chicago” but seems to have more bad films lined up – she’s remaking “All of Me,” originally starring Lily Tomlin as a dying woman who accidentally transfers her soul to her lawyer, Steve Martin. Seems fraught with dumb humor, but who knows. If nothing else, Latifah is good at putting her own spin on things. She’s currently traveling, promoting her new album “Trav’lin Light.” Asked what she misses most about being away from home, she said she missed riding her motorcycle, which she can’t bring on tour. And apparently, she’s not worried about being followed by the paparazzi. “‘They can’t keep up with me. I lose them in a couple of minutes.’”

Picture Note by Jaybird: Here’s Queen Latifah performing with the cast of “Hairspray” on July 20th. Inset of Katie Holmes with Suri in Berlin this past summer. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Both Katie Holmes and Nicole Kidman are potential cover girls for the December issue of Vogue. Tom Cruise’s ex and the woman said to be the mother of his youngest child both have movies that are coming out around the release of the issue and are in contention for the coveted spot on the cover.

Katie Holmes and Nicole Kidman are battling to be Vogue’s face for December, Star has learned. Nic, who’ll be promoting the children’s fantasy movie The Golden Compass that month, did very well for the magazine last year, a Vogue insider tells Star. Still, Katie, who’ll be promoting the indie heist flick Mad Money, “is a fresh subject who is worth exploring,” adds the insider. Stay tuned!

[From Star Magazine, print edition, September 10, 2007]

I bet they give it to Katie. Nicole Kidman’s latest film, the thriller remake The Invasion, tanked at the box office. Katie is married to Tom now and despite the fact that he’s a cult figurehead, he’s head of Paramount United Artists (thanks Jen) and is mighty powerful. Kidman is hitched to a country star with a known drug and alcohol problem, albeit one he may have recently conquered. With the Katie story they can always play up the mom angle given that Suri is so damn cute in all the photo ops recently. Other moms will eat that up. Nicole doesn’t have much that normal women can relate to, except for the fact that her husband is a f’up.

There was a story a short while ago that Anna Wintour loved Amy Winehouse’s new album and was keen to get her on the cover of Vogue. It turns out that Winehouse didn’t make the cover, and was included in a supplement by the Conde Nast company called Fashion Rocks. Maybe Amy’s recent mess cost her a Vogue cover, but it’s unknown if she was actually being considered for it, or if it was just a rumor. [Details from Jezebel]

Nicole Kidman is shown at the Kids’ Choice Awards on 3/31/07. Katie Holmes is shown pre-Posh cut on 3/22/07. Thanks to PRPhotos.

There was a rumor that originated in ever-reliable Life & Style Magazine this week that little maybe 16-month-old Suri Cruise was offered a lucrative modeling gig as the new infant face of Baby Gap. JayBird covered that story here, and Life & Style had Tom and Katie turning down the offer and choosing to stage their own photo ops for the toddler.

The story was repeated, changed and unsourced by ExtraTV, SFGate, and Digital Spy, among others and in the gossip telephone game it became changed to suit the hearers’ wishes. Suri was suddenly set to model khakis and romper wear in a national campaign.

Tom Cruise’s people say there’s no truth to the rumor that Suri will be modeling for Baby Gap, but they fail to mention if they were approached about it. I like to think that part of the story is true:

A rep for Tom Cruise is denying reports that his youngest daughter is going to be the new face of Baby Gap.

The rumor is “totally untrue,” according to the actor’s publicist.

Reports surfaced on Wednesday that Suri had signed a lucrative contract with the kids clothing company.

[From US Weekly]

US Weekly also points out Suri’s eventful summer, mentioning that she’s been all over the globe from Louisiana to the South of France, Italy, and Germany. While Brad and Angelina are always getting flap for bringing their four children along with them around the world, no one ever mentions how little jet-setting Suri gets moved around a lot too. Maybe that’s because she’s younger and doesn’t have any siblings yet.

It had to happen … the ultimate blended family is working it out Brady style. No need for Tom - the redhead and the brunette have it all well sorted. I guess he could bleach his hair and they could be Josie and the Pussycats, but that midget is an afterthought

Yes Nicole and Katie are large and in charge … sisters are doing it for themselves.

Katie Holmes became stepmother to Nicole’s adopted children, Isabella and Conor, when she married Nicole’s ex-husband Tom Cruise, and both actresses worker together on how to handle their kids.

A source said: “Katie was having lunch with friends in Beverly Hills when Isabella rang her to talk to her about a party she was going to.

“Katie said, ‘That was Bella. She wants to wear a dress to a birthday party but I think it is much too grown up for her. But she says her mother approves. So I need to check with Nicole.’

via intogossip

Any second now they will be comparing notes on life in flat shoes. the heartache of car pooling to the Scientology temple, how often to replace bounced out sofa cushions. I think this is absolute proof that very sensible women keep marrying that no-talent munchkin because money is an aphrodisiac. He used to date Penelope Cruz as well … its too much hotness for one wee leprechaun.

The Bella has Two Mommies tale continued:

Then after she’d made the call to Nicole she told her friends, ‘Nicole agrees with me. The dress is all wrong. The drama of it all! If I’ve learned one thing about teenagers, it’s that little things mean a lot.’

A life on Dawson’s Creek never taught her the lessons that one Academy Award winning phone call could deliver.

pics via shotsdaily

The gossip rags have moved on from calling wan Katie Holmes a brainwashed Stepford wife to championing the changes in her after she made an appearance at Paris fashion week without Tom. I guess a new face makes all the difference.

In Touch says she’s calling the shots now, and claims she’s trying to get her career back and is taking advice from Victoria Beckham to make sure her man is under control:

Until recently, Katie has rarely been seen unless she is attached to Tom’s hip at his kid’s soccer games, on the red carpet and at charity events. After she met Tom, Katie shut out most of her old friends in order to give Tom constant attention. However, her new, close friendship with Victoria Beckham is changing everything.

The duo travelled to Paris on January 23 to attend Couture Week. Strong, confident Victoria, 32, “is helping Katie assert her power and independence,” and insider says, and - as the mother of three boys… giving her tips on how to be a working mom…

Lately, Katie seems stifled around Tom. At a party for musician Prince at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on January 15, “Tom practically had to drag her around,” an onlooker tells In Touch. And when Tom had a conversation with 24 star Keifer Sutherland, “Katie just stood there, looking totally bored,” the witness says.

[From In Touch print edition, January 12, 2007]

The article goes on to say that Katie is focusing on her career now and that she is in talks to star in what is sure to be a crappy movie with Queen Latifah called Mad Money. They say Tom wants more kids but that Katie probably won’t be popping out another one soon.

In Touch is most likely checking out the pictures and making this story up, but it seems fundamentally true. Katie is branching out, and if we can be forgiven for engaging in this same overanalysis of paparazzi photos, she looks like she’s having a good time, but also that she’s acting for the cameras and no longer thinks Tom is a God like everyone else in his cult religion.

If you check out the pictures of her out with him in Miami on Superbowl weekend she has this faraway look in her eye. It’s possible that she’s planning her next move, and that she really has broken out of that Stepford mold. Those must be the thetans talking though, and some intense auditing should cure her.

Here are Katie and Tom leaving their hotel in Miami on 2/3.

Story via Sammie’s Effluvia. Pictures from KatieHolmes.com.

or What Katie Didnt Do …

Lovely Liz Smith at Page Six reports that Katie Holmes suddenly remembers she’s an actress. Maybe they had to take her off the Stepford sedatives while she was recovering from her brash new rhinoplasty … don’t want to mix medications after all. Not when she has some good Thetan breeding years left in her yet.

Agency CAA is developing a new career plan since Katie has not worked during the two years since she fell for Tom. … [Moviefone] describe her connection to Tom Cruise as “a tabloid free-for-all” that didn’t do her any good, creating negative publicity. They say her “likability” rating has dived. And she’s been off the screen too long.

Lovely Liz exhibits some of the problems of an overly kind granny reading of gossip (usually a welcome change from the venom for venom’s sake). In trying to prove that launching the Tom Cruise Missile into a girl’s career is a force for good not for evil - Liz undermines her own kindly case.

Of course, Tom Cruise could produce his own movie to star his beloved. If you think such loving nepotism doesn’t work, think back to Norma Shearer and hubby Irving Thalberg. Being associated with Mr. Box Office didn’t hurt Penelope Cruz, his short-term girlfriend. She’s up for a Best Actress Oscar. And since her divorce from Tom, Nicole Kidman has come into her own.

Okay she gets points for going all ol’ skool with the Shearer/Thalberg reference, but the rest of the argument falls to bits … only proving that getting free of the TC works wonders. Sort of like time served in purgatory that might eventually get you the Keys to the Kingdom. As for producing a film for Katie … does the idea of Battlefield Earth Returns frighten anyone else down to their cotton socks.

Penelope Cruz’s Volver nomination is generally considered a Hail Mary (or I guess Ave Maria) pass from a Hollywood career with not a single good role. She had to basically rewind back to her pre- Cruise Hollywood days to get back on track. I think working with Almodovar again is clearly the key, not her year of T.ender L.oving C.ruise.

Kidman’s divorce let her wear heels again and start winning Oscars worthy roles et al. Isn’t the real lesson that Katie Holmes is either up Dawson’s Creek without a paddle or married and in flats? Success will follow when she’s paroled or granted a pardon.

I wonder if CAA stands for Cruised Actresses Anonymous - in certain knowing circles?

Pictures added by Celebitchy: Here’s Katie Holmes outside of CAA on 1/26, which Just Jared says stands for Creative Audio Associates, which handles music and sound for TV and film. There’s also a Creative Artists Agency, which is what I figure it stands for. Pictures are from KatieHolmes.com

For the one person who thought those pics of Katie looking different were somehow Photoshopped, Katie Holmes’ new nose is definitely real. She’s revealing her new face all over Paris, and was seen out in this lovely but safe ensemble at the Giorgio Armani Prive show last night.

She’s not one to suffer a waldrobe malfunction, and showed that her goods were carefully conceled by what looked like control top pantyhose, but was likely a high-priced multifunctional undergarment, as she exited a car.

The press is quick to comment on Katie’s fashion sense, with The NY Post noting that her high-collared velvet number yesterday was a little bit Scientology spacey, and Britain’s Daily Mail saying she looked gorgeous and coordinated well with BFF Victoria Beckham’s prom-like black number.

The National Enquirer’s recent cover story claims that Katie Holmes is a shadow of her former self and has all aspects of her life controlled by her pint-sized cult-loving husband, Tom Cruise. They say he limits her phone calls to fifteen minutes, controls her extracurricular activities, and makes sure she approves all of her outfits before she is permitted to leave the house.

Pals of the 28 year-old actress are terrified that Tom and his fellow church members have virtually taken over eager-to-please Katie’s life, reducing an independent and free-spirited young woman to a submissive shell of her former self. Some insiders have even started calling her “The Stepford Wife” behind her back.

“It is like she obeys him like a pet or robot,” said a family insider. “It’s really creepy…”

Raised Catholic, she’s now dutifully following Tom’s lead and has immersed herself in Scientology, severing nearly all ties with her past.

“Any friends that Katie calls, and there are very few left since she hooked up with Tom, are cleared by him,” claims the insider.

Whats more, she spends only about 15 minutes per phone call, even when she’s speaking with family members….

Tom also approves his wife’s wardrobe, banning anything he considers too sexy.

“Tom doesn’t want Katie wearing anything flashy - and nothing too revealing either,” added the insider. “He’s very specific about what she wears - and if it’s not to his liking, she changes before leaving the house.”

[From The National Enquirer print edition, January 29, 2007]

To me, this sounds like a re-tread of an In Touch story from two weeks ago, in which they basically said the same thing about Katie. In fact, this Enquirer story even went on to repeat the anecdote about Tom overhearing Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom invite Kate to Hyde and putting the kibosh on their plans.

There’s not much new information in that Enquirer story, and it seems likely that the insider is just a person who read the In Touch story and filled in some more details. Of course it ’s probably true that Katie doesn’t have a lot of freedom under the evil watch of the Scientology cult, but she could also just be tired or worn out from being a mom or whatever.

A jucier story is the one that Tom and Katie were seen celebrating what looked like little Suri’s birthday while out at a restaurant recently. The catch is that it’s January, and they claimed Suri was born in April of last year. This lends some credence to all those “conspiracy theories” about Suri not being Toms or being older than they claim. It’s not a conspiracy if it’s true.

Here’s Katie at the opening of Georgio Armani’s shop in Paris yesterday with Victoria Beckham. She dresses a bit frumpy, and maybe that’s why The Enquirer is saying Tom approves her outfits, but it could just be her style. She looks pretty happy and normal here.

Update: Oh No They Didn’t! has before and after photographs that suggest that Katie Holmes had a recent nose job. It looks like it to me.

Pictures from KatieHolmes.com

One of the ways the Scientology cult ropes in vulnerable recruits is through their sham drug rehab front, Narconon. Narconon tries to sound official with a name that can easily be confused for the legitimate self-help group, Narcotics Anonymous, with which they are in no way affiliated. They make addicts go cold turkey and advocate a medically unsound detox regimen that includes saunas and vitamins. Narconon uses mind control tactics to convert people to Scientology.

It’s not surprising, then, that Cruise is said to have recommended Narconon to Keith Urban, who was just released from an accredited rehab for alcoholism treatment. The National Enquirer reports that Tom Cruise and his ex, Nicole Kidman, are battling a religous war over how to raise their two children, Isabella, 14 and Conner, 11.

Now Cruise is pushing Nicole to get back into the fold and to bring her troubled new husband along with her.

Tom has suggested that Keith explore Scientology as a means to conquer his addictions, continued the friend.

That opened up a lot of old wounds from Tom and Nicole’s previous religious clases.

Tom, 44, also is worried about the children being around Keith until he can be sure Keith has conquered his demons, and he’s made that clear to Nicole…

Another close source confirms that Tom and Nicole’s long-standing friction over Scientology has resurfaced with a vengeance - especially since Tom has offered to help Keith get clean through the religion.

“Nicole feels she’s got everything under control and Keith is well on the way to a full recover,” said the source.

“The last thing she wanted to hear was a Scientology pitch from Tom - especially regarding Keith…”

[From The National Enquirer print edition, January 22, 2007]

They also claim that Tom’s new Stepford bride Katie Holmes backs him on the Scientology issue, and that Nicole probably feels like she’s being teamed up on.

The article quotes a cult expert who says that Nicole, who has left Scientology and is now a Catholic, risks losing her children entirely if she says one bad thing about the cult. It sounds like Tom is threatening to take away her children if she doesn’t play along. She seems to barely see them as it is.

Keith Urban has been released from rehab and was seen out at a Golden Globes after party with Nicole. He will start touring Europe in April, which is sure to test his newfound sobriety.

Here are Katie and Tom leaving a Golden Globes after party. Pictures from KatieHolmes.com.

The latest issue of In Touch, not the most reliable source I know, claims that “The Honeymoon is Over” for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and that Cruise limits Katie’s time on the phone with friends and has tried to change her interests and hobbies. They say that Katie was chatting with Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom at their second wedding party/stateside Scientology recruiting blitz, and that Tom shut her down when she mentioned an interest in going to the exclusive nightclub Hyde. The article draws a lot of conclusions about Tom and Katie’s home life and implies that Katie is Tom’s shadow of her former self:

Tension was already in the air at Tom and Katie’s LA wedding reception on December 9, where a guest saw Katie talked to Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom about the Hollywood hotspot Hyde.

“Katie was asking what it’s like and saying she’d never been,” the onlooker shares. “Kirsten and Orlando were telling her that a lot of their friends go.” But when Tom walked up and joined the conversation, the tide turned. “Kirsten said they had invited Katie to Hyde, and Tom got a concerned look on his face. He said, ‘Oh, that’s no plance for you or me to go, Kate.’”

When Katie walked off with Tom, 44, “she looked really embarassed,” the witness says. “It was like she’d just gotten into trouble.”

[From In Touch print edition, January 8, 2007]

If this is indeed a true quote, I would guess that the “guest” that overheard it was one of the servers, but who knows if it’s accurate?

The article goes on to say that Tom forces Katie to keep her phone calls with girlfriends short, and has convinced her to give up her favorite hobbies like ceramics, painting and singing Karaoke. The only things that she seems able to do are Tom-approved activities like shopping, attending his children’s sports games with him, and taking up his hobby of learning to fly an airplane. He is also controlling her career and insists on having approval of any new projects she takes on.

They say that Katie seems to be comfort shopping as she routinely drops tens of thousands of dollars on clothing and shoes with no concern for the price.

If all this is true and is more than conjecture on In Touch’s part it wouldn’t be surprising. Cults retain power over new members by limiting their social contacts with outsiders and coercing them into adopting a new identity so they can’t escape back to their old one. It seems like Scientology’s most visiible spokesperson Tom is using those same tactics in his relationship with Katie. I for one am not fooled by their PR wedding and cute baby.

Here are pictures of Katie out shopping on 12/19.