The carcass of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' marriage gives the gossip mags plenty to chew on this week.

"Katie's great escape! How she broke free to save Suri's soul," Woman's Day exclaimed on its cover.

"The bitter battle for Suri," said New Zealand Woman's Weekly.

New Idea promised "I  know Tom's big secret".

Holmes' dramatic decision to seek sole custody of the couple's six-year-old daughter Suri raised the spectre of dirty laundry being aired in a no-holds-barred legal battle, New Idea said.

The high stakes tactic had sparked speculation in Hollywood about what "dynamite evidence" Holmes was prepared to use against Cruise.

Possibilities discussed include Suri's paternity, information Holmes' family had about Cruise's ties to the Church of Scientology, or something Cruise's ex-wife Nicole Kidman may have to say.

New Idea also questioned what importance the number 33 may have to Scientology.

All three of Cruise's marriages ended when his wives reached 33. The three wives - Mimi Rogers, Kidman and Holmes - were all born 11 years apart, and each divorced Cruise 11 years apart, "again adding up to 33".

Any meaning that may be attached to the number by Scientology was unknown to outsiders, but L Ron Hubbard had founded the beginnings of the group in Phoenix, Arizona which was on the 33rd parallel of northern latitude.

In numerology the number symbolised a mother protecting her family.

Woman's Day said Holmes had enacted a point-by-point plan masterminded by her lawyer father Martin.

"She had long been resigned to the death of her own relationship and, say friends, had not even slept with Tom for more than a year."

But she was desperate to stop Suri, often her sole companion, sinking deeper into Scientology.

"...the heart of the divorce is nothing less than a battle for Suri's soul."

Meanwhile, Cruise spent his milestone 50th birthday as a "broken man", Woman's Day said.

In his darkest hour he had found a beautiful Kiwi confidante - stuntwoman and actress Zoe Bell - to help ease his pain.

Woman's Weekly said Cruise's new movie was called Oblivion, and that was what the star could be facing without a carefully orchestrated public relations campaign.

A messy divorce and bitter custody battle could wreak havoc with his career.

Apart from the Tom and Katie and Suri saga, the Woman's Weekly reported on Dancing with the Stars judge Brendan Cole and his wife model Zoe Hobbs expecting their first baby.

The former "bad boy of ballroom" tweeted from Mallorca: "Check out my beautiful wife, if you think it looks like she might be "glowing" then you'd be right ... she is!"

Woman's Day told how actor Tammy Davis - Munter in Outrageous Fortune - proposed to his girlfriend of more than a year Cypress Vivieaere.

In "true Munter fashion" Davis had been unable to afford a ring, until he won an international award for his short film Ebony Society.

New Idea talked to All Blacks Andy Ellis and Kieran Read about fatherhood, while also returning to favourite speculation subject: the parenthood prospects of the "admittedly clucky" Duchess of Cambridge.

As well as picking out the furnishings and fittings for the main rooms in the Kensington Palace home she shared with Prince William, Kate Middleton had been busy "kitting out a nursery", the magazine said.

On a "top secret interior design trip" in London's posh Chelsea district, Kate visited upmarket supplier of fabrics and soft furnishings Turnell & Gignon. It had a new display of Lulu DK for  Schumacher nursery fabrics.

- © Fairfax NZ News

Comments