Church and local officials are saying they won’t put their stamp of approval on Tom and Katie’s wedding, which is said to be taking place in the Italian town of Bracciano in just over a week. Tom and Katie haven’t filed the paperwork to make a civil marriage legal in Italy, and it sounds like they don’t have enough time left to do so:

The priest with jurisdiction over the dreamy lakeside castle tipped as the chosen location for the wedding says his parish won’t marry Cruise, and the mayor says she can’t because the couple haven’t done the official paperwork.

The small Italian town of Bracciano has been swimming with picture-snapping paparazzi since Il Messaggero newspaper reported that Castello Odescalchi in the town was chosen by the couple for their wedding later this month.

But rules of the local bureaucracy and the Roman Catholic Church appear to be a lot tougher than any of the macho super-secret spies Cruise’s character regularly defeats in the “Mission: Impossible” movies.

Mayor Patrizia Riccioni told Reuters she would like the wedding to take place, but that it was unlikely any celebration would be blessed with state recognition given that the couple have not provided the needed documents.

“I don’t think it will be legal,” she said. “On an Italian level, there are papers and documents that we certainly don’t have (for a wedding).”

But Cruise and Holmes’ Los Angeles-based publicist dismissed the notion that the American couple’s nuptials depended on official sanctioning by Italian authorities.

“They are making all the proper and necessary arrangements for their marriage to be legal,” said publicist Arnold Robinson.

Cruise and Holmes announced in October that they would marry on Nov. 18 in Italy, with Giorgio Armani designing Holmes’ gown.

Oops, it looks like Italy might not have been the best location for a wedding after all, if TomKat can’t get their act together enough to take care of all the red tape ahead of time.

Mike Walker of The National Enquirer offers a little more insight as to why the TomKat wedding might not be legal. A Roman Catholic official has to preside over a church wedding according to Italian law, but Tom wants to bend the rules of course and still have a Scientology-style church wedding instead of a civil one. He may have to get married to Katie in the states first to make it legal. Katie’s parents are not happy with that fucked-up Scientology-style mysoginistic wedding, and want a Catholic ceremony:

Despite reports that plans for how the ceremony will be conducted are set in stone, sources say Tom’s still pushing his people to cajole Italian authorities into bending the custom that a Catholic priest must “officiate,” or a big church wedding isn’t automatically legal! And it’s highly unlikely that a Catholic church would allow a Scientology minister to officiate. An Italian civil ceremony would legitimize the union, of course, but insiders say Tom’s okay with making it legal before a church wedding by having a prior U.S. civil ceremony. But Katie’s parents are NOT happy that he’s dead-set on a Scientology - officiated wedding, with a Catholic priest present only to “bless” the union. Mom and Dad keep repeating their heartfelt request: Let our daughter be married by a priest! Last-minute pleas are being beamed to CruiseControl… but so far, My Favorite Alien’s unbending.

Maybe Tom thinks that everyone will bend over backwards for him just like Madonna.

Here are Tom and Katie at the Black Ball in NYC yesterday. Iman and Alicia Keys hosted the event, and David Bowie performed. Anne Hathaway is also pictured. Proceeds went to the “Keep a Child Alive” foundation, which benefits AIDS victims.

Hopefully Tom will get his hair cut before the wedding. And is it just me, or does Katie look really annoyed like she’d rather be shopping? Pictures from KatieHolmes.com

All that frantic PR work by Tom and Katie seems to have paid off, because Tom has just been named head of United Artists film studio. He inked a deal that will gives him and partner Paul Wagner complete control over production at UA, along with giving him the freedom to star in films put out by other studios if they’ll have him:

The sweet deal gives the pair — whose film productions include the Mission:Impossible movies, War of the Worlds, and The Last Samurai — complete control of the studio’s production slate, expected to be about four films a year, and allows Cruise to appear in films from other studios. Wagner will rule the roost as chief executive of the storied company, owned since 1981 by MGM but founded in 1919 as a haven for artistes by D.W. Griffith and actors Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks.

Cruise and Wagner Cruise hit biz-bottom in August when his and Wagner’s 14-year producing deal with Paramount was not renewed by the studio. Sumner Redstone, chairman of Paramount parent company Viacom Inc., publicly blamed Cruise’s bizarre behavior — his unhinged love declarations for Katie Holmes on Oprah and elsewhere, his dogmatic defense of the more contentious aspects of Scientology, in particular the wholesale rejection of psychiatry and medication — for suppressing public enthusiasm for their Mission:Impossible III film, a “disappointment” at the box office, even though it generated over $390 million worldwide.

“As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal,” Redstone told the Wall Street Journal. “His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount.”

Putting it even more bluntly, Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall slammed Cruise’s behavior in an ‘05 Time magazine interview. “His whole behavior is so shocking. It’s inappropriate and vulgar and absolutely unacceptable to use your private life to sell anything commercially, but I think it’s kind of a sickness,” she said.

Cruise and Wagner 2 Apparently UA/MGM felt otherwise. “There is a complete alignment of interests in this deal,” MGM chief operating officer Rick Sands told the AP today. “They are equity owners in the company and they share with us in the upside.”

Good for him I guess. I’m going to mention this as an aside instead of running a separate story about it, but I spent a week e-mailing with a guy who claims to be “Big Red,” the male hooker that supposedly had a rather tame gay wrestling romp with Tom in the late 90s. The guy didn’t tell me his story and I kept e-mailing with him back and forth, hoping that he would write something I could publish.

He claimed that the story told by another guy, Barresi that we published here was inaccurate, and that it didn’t go down like it was claimed, but the guy wasted my time and didn’t give any details. Here’s the relevant part of our e-mail exchange. Again, I cannot verify that this is the person he claims to be or that this is anything more than a person who strung me along via e-mail for a week, but here’s what he said:

Segment of one e-mail toward the end of our exchange: I just do not think the story I have to tell is what you are looking for but I will think about it.

Another e-mail: I am actually looking to build Tom Cruise up not break him down

Last one I received: I’m not getting a good vibe from this at the moment - - I think I will wait and I may neveer publish the real story - - afterall, I believe in Karma and Barresi will have to deal with his.

It sounds like whatever happened, it was even less sensational than was claimed, at least according to this person who contacted me and got my hopes up about running this big exclusive. (I even contacted a lawyer and a cult expert about how to proceed, which may be why he got a bad vibe. You can’t be too careful with the c0s.) This guy claims to live in Europe now. The book by Barresi says that he left the states after the news of his supposed romp with Cruise got out, but I can’t be certain what’s true at this point. Tom Cruise is weird and is involved in a harmful freaky cult, but whether he actually had a gay wrestling session is up to question.

Gee, guess that absolves him of all the gay rumors so he’s definitely fit enough to run a studio. Look - he even reproduced and he’s getting married! There are photos of his baby in Vanity Fair and everything.

Here are Tom and Kate at Connor’s soccer game on 11/5. That’s what the photo credit says but it looks like they were taken on two separate days as Tom is wearing a different shirt and got a much-needed haircut in the interim. Katie is wearing the same outfit though so maybe it’s just the angle and Tom changed his shirt. Thanks to KatieHolmes.com for these pictures.

“I now pronounce you Man and Girl.”

If you thought the Scientologists’ way of giving birth was crazy, you won’t believe what they do at the wedding. MSNBC Scoop has reported that TomKat’s wedding is going to be done in traditional Scientology fashion, where the groom is going to be addressed as the “Man” and the bride will be addressed as the “girl”. The name of the “girl” will not even be spoken, she will only be referred to as “girl” or “you” by the minister, but Tom’s full name will be declared to all who are present.

If the wedding will be a Scientology ceremony — as has been reported — any feminists in attendance might be a tad miffed. The vows for Scientology’s wedding ceremony refer to the groom only as a “man” while the bride is sometimes called a “girl,” notes the Web site, Secrets of Scientology. And some of the notions of marriage seem a bit retro.

Quoting from the book “The Background Ministry, Ceremonies & Sermons of the Scientology Religion,” the site reports that the minister asks the bride:

“And do you take
His fortune
At its prime and ebb
And seek
With him best fortune
For us all?
Do you?”

The minister then tells the groom:
“Now, (groom’s name),
girls need clothes
And food and
Tender happiness and frills
A pan, a comb, perhaps a cat
All caprice if you will
But still
They need them.
Do you then
Provide?
Do you?”

Do you, well, do you, do you?

I think Katie should take that pan she’s getting from His Fortune and whack him over the head with it. This shit is beyond misogynistic, it’s mind-control.

Tom and Katie are said to be tying the knot in November and perhaps in Italy. There was a rumor that they were going to use George Clooney’s Lake Como villa for their wedding, but that was also rumored about Brad and Angelina’s non-wedding. Clooney’s representative has said that Tom and Katie are definitely not getting married at his estate.

Victoria Beckham looked at locations in Italy on October 7th, fueling rumors that she was helping Katie finalize wedding plans.

Georgio Armani is said to be the designer Katie Holmes has chosen to create her fantasy wedding dress. It was thought that Katie would choose a Chanel dress by Karl Lagerfeld after she was photographed with him at a Paris fashion week party, but Women’s Wear Daily is reporting that Katie has gone with Armani instead.

All of this seems rather vague, and while Katie proclaimed “I have my dress!” and Tom and Katie’s publicist has said that they’ll be married within a few weeks, I’ll believe it when I see it. These two enjoy the publicity, but need to follow through on their plans soon if people are ever going to start taking them seriously.

Meanwhile Tom Cruise parody site Scientomogy.info is standing it’s ground against a threatened lawsuit by Scientology thugs. The cult regularly uses strongarm legal tactics to slience dissent and scare anyone that dares speak out against it. They sent a cease and desist letter to site owners over a year ago claiming that it infringes on their trademark, but they’re just trying to censor negative press. YouTube has removed most of the videos linked by Scientomogy.info after undoubtedly being threatened by Scientology as well.

Here are Tom and Katie at Isabella’s soccer game on 10/14. [via]

Tom Cruise got annoyed when he noticed that his son Connor’s team wasn’t doing that well during a recent football match. He marched up and gave them his own pep talk, no doubt thrilling 11 year-old Connor:

[From the PopBitch e-mail newsletter]

With pictures like these of Tom running across the field with Connor, that’s an easy story to believe. You can tell that Connor is not thrilled with the attention that’s paid his manic father, but he looks like he’s quietly putting up with it.

Katie Holmes has made it known that she’s found her wedding dress. She won’t tell the press which designer she’s picked, but speculation is that it could be Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld, who she was pictured with at a recent party he threw in Paris.

Tom and Katie are expected to get married next month.

Pictures from lime-light.org.

Katie Holmes was spotted out at a high-profile lunch with what many people assume was a wedding planner this Tuesday. The woman gestured as she spoke at length, and from the expressions Katie is making she seems to be talking about something important. X17 has a video of the lunch, and there were clearly plenty of photographers on hand to capture the moment.

Katie has lost all of her baby weight and then some, sparking people to speculate that Tom somehow made her shape up quickly. There was a report that Tom was “very concerned” about her weight, but I call bullshit on this story. It’s an old rumor based on false stories earlier in the year that Tom was overseeing Katie’s fitness plan from Buff Brides. As I mentioned at that time, I e-mailed with the owner of Buff Brides and she assured me that Katie was not working with her personally and that all quotes from here were fabricated, as was reported at the time.

Tom and Katie are said to be on “PR Offensive” since they released pictures of Suri in Vanity Fair. They’ve gone to several of Isabella’s soccer matches and have taken care to be seen out at dinner. Suri certainly has never been seen out with them - not even in a stroller, so I’m still saying there’s something strange going on there, even if the baby is being kept at home for religious reasons.

A wedding would be the next logical step for Tom and Katie. They’ve managed to raise themselves in the public estimation by getting out a lot more, and a fairytale wedding would do wonders for their image.

Whatever motivated Katie to shape up, she looks great. Let’s hope she’s not too influenced by her friend Victoria Beckham’s waif-thin look. Katie is said to be jetting off to Paris to attend fashion week with Victoria this weekend. Earlier reports that Katie was slated to play Posh in a movie about her life were false.

Here are the pictures of Katie’s day out, courtesy of KatieHolmes.com

The Cruise-Holmes merger is said to be about six weeks away. While Katie has shaped up with the help of a trainer using the Buff Brides program, Tom looks like all his PR appearances have him stress eating.

His face is all puffed up and he looks like he’s trying to suck it in. He also needs a haircut badly. What happened to him?

I remember seeing the pictures of his visit to Yahoo! and thinking “He may be batshit crazy, but he still looks hot.” Now he’s just crazy.

In amusing related news, a guy was arrested for taking a leak on the grounds at the Cruise estate. It’s unknown how he got on the premises is in the first place:

Cruise, Holmes and Suri were said to be home at the time, but their place is so huge they might not have even known about it.

Here are Tom, Katie and possibly Tom’s mom at another one of Isabella’s soccer games on 9/16. Thanks to KatieHolmes.com for these pictures.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are in full-on PR offensive, according to sources. After spending months holed away with mysterious baby Suri, they released her to the public to great fanfare with a huge spread in Vanity Fair. Next they went out to dinner several times at paparrazi target restaurants, took in Tom’s daughter’s soccer game, and were seen out with both of their moms, suggesting they’re planning something.

Now it seems to be true, and their publicist has confirmed that they’re in the “planning stages”:

It seems rather suspect that this news comes out right at the same time that Tom’s “gay sex” scandal is getting press. What better way to distract the public from Tom’s interest in sweaty jerk-off sessions than to have a wedding? I’m not saying he’s not interested in Katie Holmes or that he’s not in love with her. People say she’s his beard or whatever, but maybe he likes to go both ways and is fond of young impressionable women.

Regardless he’s done too much damage to his career by defending his weird Scientology beliefs, and a high-profile wedding isn’t going to make him into a box office superhero again.

Tom and Katie have been spotted on high-profile outings multiple times in the past few days. TMZ reports that the famous couple’s choices are highly orchestrated, and that it’s no coincidence that they’re turning on the cuddly charm for the paparrazi right after Suri’s big Vanity Fair spread came out:

TMZ reported this on Sunday, and they seem to be dead on as Tom and Katie have since attended Isabella’s soccer match with Tom’s Mom, and were photographed at a restaurant later that night. Next they were spotted with Jamie Foxx at a Washington Redskins game. One of the major “Plan D” investors in Tom’s new production company is Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder, making Tom and Katie’s visit more business than recreation.

Sky News analyzes Tom and Katie’s soccer-side PDA in comparison to their kissy-face antics before Suri was born, and comes to the conclusion that they’re still crazy, um, about each other, but that the blush of fresh love has faded a little.

Here are more pictures of TomKat than you can probably stand. They’re shown at the Minnesota Vikings vs. Washington Redskins Game in Washington, going out to dinner in Santa Monica, and at Isabella’s soccer game with Tom’s Mom (One of my fellow gossip bloggers pointed out that Tom is holding both his momma and fiance’s hands at the same time. I would link it if I could remember the source.)

Tom must have gained a few pounds, because he’s looking rather jowly.

Pictures from WhereIsSuri.

Tom and Katie were spotted out to lunch with Katie’s mom at the Polo Lounge restaurant at the Beverly Hills Hotel yesterday. Speculation was rampant that they were planning their wedding, and now that the pictures of Suri have been released they have reason to celebrate.

Katie looks really happy to be out with her mom, and it looks like lunch went well. These two might actually get married, but I would be surprised if it happened anytime within the next few months. Tom might be waiting for Katie’s indoctrination to be complete, and perhaps for good reason. I believe the “conspiracy theories” about Suri because something’s not quite right with this picture.

I wonder where Katie’s dad was? Katie’s dad is said to dislike Tom, but it’s hard to tell what he thinks since a lot of quotes attributed to him are simply fabricated.

Pictures from KatieHolmes.com via JJB.