Who Will Save Katie Holmes?

By SAMANTHA ETTUS
22-JUN-05

Katie Holmes was just five years old when Tom Cruise was starring in Risky Business. Now, 22 years later, they have become a painfully public pairing that has evolved into the freak show of celebrity romances. If this were an on-screen romance, we would have walked out of the theater decrying the trite and implausible plot: movie star sweeps young starlet off her feet, convinces her to convert to his religion, and proposes only eight weeks later at Eiffel tower. While this column has already discussed the relationship's damaging impact on the Tom Cruise brand, we have remained mum on the subject of Katie Holmes. But our deepening concern means we can stay silent no longer -- Holmes is dangerously close to destroying a career that was just poised for takeoff. Will the Katie Holmes brand die before it begins?

When Cruise proposed to Holmes on June 17, just two months after their first encounter, he promptly rushed to a press conference to announce the engagement. This very public behavior marked a glaring departure from the privacy that used to be a Hallmark of the Tom Cruise brand, but was consistent with his conspicuous recent efforts to be publicly associated with the young starlet and his desperate attempt to maximize his exposure. With his new film, War of the Worlds, coming out this summer and Holmes' latest feature, Batman Begins, just released last week, the timing of the media frenzy is more than a bit suspect. But ironically, Cruise’s strategy has backfired, with more than 60% of People Magazine's readers believing the romance is a hoax.

Disturbing rumors even suggest that Cruise "auditioned" a handful of young women to become his next off screen leading lady, including Scarlet Johansen, Jessica Alba and Kate Bosworth. Holmes was the one that took the bait. When asked why they connect, Cruise repeatedly says Holmes is a magnificent woman, but, perhaps reflecting the brief courtship, he is unwilling or incapable of expounding further.

Holmes has all but disappeared amidst the hoopla, but at the heart of this curious drama is a little girl lost. After emerging on the teen soap Dawson's Creek, where she spent five years playing the loveable Joey, Holmes adeptly parlayed her TV fame into a string of increasingly prominent film roles. But the 26 year old has not yet earned her place as an established leading lady, and now she has managed to eclipse her big Hollywood breakthrough with her off screen antics with Cruise. In only eight weeks, Holmes has overshadowed her own leading role in a blockbuster, adopted Cruise's religion, The Church of Scientology, abandoned her old friends, and jettisoned her old agent and manager for Cruise's team. Isn't anyone alarmed?

Perhaps Holmes' Midwestern parents thought something was amiss when they were asked to meet their daughter's beau and his mother only weeks after the pair had met. More disconcerting than the timing was Cruise's selection of The Ivy, the number one paparazzi hangout in Hollywood, as the location of the gathering. Holmes claims that she grew up dreaming of marrying the man she saw in Risky Business and Top Gun, but the Tom Cruise she has fallen for is not the man in the posters. This Cruise has a big agenda and Holmes is merely a pawn in his game. Katie Holmes needs to save herself if she hopes to fully develop the career she has worked so hard to achieve.

Remember: the most dependable road to the top is to treat your brand as your greatest asset.

(Samantha Ettus is the author of "The Experts' Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do" (Random House). Share your thoughts on this column at Samantha@celebrityassets.com.)