People Magazine: How Katie Holmes Took Control; Secrets Of The Split
July 11, 2012 by Hollywoodite
The tabloid covers are out this week and it’s more of the same. Prepare for predictable, mostly regurgitated news. For example, this week’s People Magazine cover. On Monday, People made a big deal about posting a blank dummy cover and taking a Lunchtime Poll asking its readers whom they thought would cover this week; Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes won that poll by a landslide, although the comments seemed to indicate that readers were over hearing about it. But, here we are again.
People Magazine has taken as much of a whitewashed, reductive approach to covering Scientology as has TMZ.com, Us Weekly Magazine, and others pasting spoonfed propaganda from the Church of Scientology rather than doing actual research (conjured attendance figures meets a jejune attempt at parsing church beliefs).
This week’s cover is more of the same, with the tabloid switching sides depending on who’s spoon-feeding them PR soundbites that week. And it’s a repeat of information from last week. For example, a big deal is being made of the fact Holmes used “burn phones,” pre-paid cell phones provided by a friend in order to contact lawyers without the church being able to spy on her phone records. That’s really, really old information but it’s everyone’s lede today as though it’s somehow new. It’s not, it’s old ground.
There is a little new information in People though, mainly exposition about the escape. With what’s becoming habit in People; a random, biased, pro-Cruise soundbite fed from the church right at the end. In this case, we’re supposed to be sad he’s emotional about the same dirty tricks he played on Nicole Kidman in 2001.
Here’s the story, and the cover says “How Katie Took Control. Secrets of the split. Inside the final days: The phone call that changed Tom’s life; Their intense negotiations; Suri & Scientology, what’s next?; Why Tom settled so fast.”
Katie Holmes knew she had to make a drastic change. The actress, 33, was increasingly unhappy in her five-year marriage to Tom Cruise as she realized “she no longer had the life she wanted, in terms of her career, her way of life, everything,” a source tells People in this week’s cover story. So she took action, quickly.
“Once she decided to go, she was done,” says the source.
With help from her unflinching attorney father Martin, she orchestrated a secretive exit strategy that included moving into a new downtown Manhattan apartment, switching cell phones and keeping her megastar husband in the dark; until a bombshell phone call in which she broke the news to him.
“She knew she had to have everything locked down before she pulled the trigger,” says the source, “because there could be no wiggle room if she didn’t want this to turn into a long, drawn-out battle.”
The strategy worked, and on July 9, just 11 days after Holmes revealed her divorce filing, lawyers on both sides announced they had reached a lightning-fast settlement that sources say gives Holmes what she wanted most: primary custody of their 6-year-old daughter Suri.
Cruise, 50, will have generous visitation rights.
The still-stunned actor “was a happy man and thought he had a happy life,” says another source. “He keeps asking, ‘What’s happening?’” – via People Magazine.
In related news, Cruise’s lawyer issued a self-pitying statement taken from the Scientology playbook of how to handle negative PR, like this week’s, in which the church is being blamed for its failings and its apparent role in the divorce. Former high ranking Scienologist Marty Rathbun called the playbook accurately the day before the settlement was announced; in short, Rathbun said on Sunday, ahead of Monday’s announcement, the church would pressure Cruise to settle then it would try to shame the media for suggesting his religion destroyed his third marriage (hence the joint statement clearly written by his people about respecting each other’s different beliefs). And, Rathbun is right again because here’s what Cruise’s lawyer is saying today: “The Church of Scientology played absolutely NO ROLE in the divorce settlement talks at all. Period. The mere suggestion that the Church was involved in any element of the talks and ultimate settlement is categorically false. Anyone suggesting otherwise is just wrong.” Yep, on the nose.
IMAGE CREDIT – PEOPLE MAGAZINE
