Holmes Sucked Into Cruise Vacuum

From FOX:

Katie Holmes fired her publicist of nearly eight years on Tuesday. During her conversation with Leslie Sloane-Zelnick, Holmes did not mention that she was pregnant by fiancé Tom Cruise. The next day, the news broke.

In short order, since meeting Cruise in April, Holmes has now fired her manager, changed agents and discharged her publicist. All had been her longtime allies. And let's not forget the broken engagement to actor Chris Klein back in March. That's a lot of activity for seven months.

Where does that leave our Katie? I'm told that Holmes has claimed Cruise's sister, Lee Ann De Vette, as her new publicist.

Pictures of Holmes from just a few days ago with Cruise on the set of "Mission: Impossible 3" are circulating on the Internet. There's no sign of a pregnancy, but there is a woman in the background of every picture. She's been identified as Jessica Feshbach Rodriguez, Holmes' best friend since the spring and a high-level minder from the Church of Scientology. Her family has donated millions to Scientology.

As for Holmes' friends here in New York, the word is that not one of them has heard from the actress since she flew to L.A. to meet Cruise for the first time last April. Since Holmes first became associated with Cruise, her career has come to a standstill. Pretty much the only project she has coming up is the DVD release of "Batman Begins." That release coincides with the release of the "War of the Worlds" DVD. The timing of the releases and the pregnancy announcement are probably coincidental. A more recently announced Holmes part, a smallish one in a Dennis Quaid-directed feature about the 1961 murder of a woman by her bandleader husband, will probably have to be tabled now.

Holmes also makes an appearance in "Thank You for Smoking," currently playing the festival circuit. Otherwise, her career trajectory — which was on the upswing with "Pieces of April" — is over. All of this still leaves the issue of Holmes' family members back in Toledo. They're putting on a brave face. But they can't be too thrilled about a pregnancy without a marriage.

So I guess we can expect an adrenaline-filled, paparazzi-crazed wedding sometime in the next month. Gentlemen, start your helicopters.