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September 7, 2006updated 22 Nov 2022 8:56pm

How Vanity Fair got Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise baby scoop

By Press Gazette

 

And the winner was? No, not one of the weekly tabloids. Not even People magazine!. The publication with the first pictures of Baby Suri, the infant born to actress Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, turned out to be Vanity Fair, the monthly that specialises in celebrity stories, but is not regarded as a gossip magazine. Confirmation that it had pulled off the coup was a brief glimpse of the magazine’s upcoming October issue’s cover on the CBS nightly news. Which just also happened to be the heavily-promoted initial programme of its new anchor woman Katie Couric. Scoops all round!

 

Vanity Fair relished beating the tabloids. Just how much it paid, if anything, for the exclusive pictures it hasn’t said. But the pictures were taken by one of America’s most famous photographers, Annie Liebovitz. They were taken back in July at Tom Cruise’s retreat in Telluride, Colorado. This was about the time everyone was beginning to ask “Where’s the baby?” Even suggestions that she might not exist!

 

The 22-page spread in Vanity Fair, which hits the news-stands this week, dispels that notion. But the stories – including jokey references to "Where's The Tom Kat ?" and "Who's Hiding Tom Kitten? " – went on for weeks and reportedly very much upset the baby's mother. In fact, according to Vanity Fair’s features editor, Jane Sarkin, the actress was "heartbroken " by some of the stories. She was especially upset by suggestions that her family did not hit it off with Tom Cruise It was even suggested he was holding out for several million dollars for exclusive rights to the baby's picture – even though he is one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. One tabloid even ran on its front page a pseudo Wanted Poster with the caption "Where's Baby Suri?" "She couldn’t.believe," said Sarkin," how things could be so twisted."

 

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The Vanity Fair features editor spent five days with the family and the new baby at the Cruise compound, sharing meals, taking hikes. Two children, Bella and Connor, who Tom Cruise and actress Nicole Kidman adopted during their marriage were also there, As too were Katie Holmes’s parents, Cruises’s mother and sister and other family members. Sarkin reported that Cruise and Holmes cooed over the baby like any new parents, At the same time Holmes confided that she had enjoyed being pregnant, And the stories that ran in the tabloids? All invented..

 

But how about their reluctance to let photographers in to take pictures of the baby? Cruise claimed he was taking his own photos – and planned to release them when he thought the moment was appropriate.. “Then all the craziness began” the new mother was quoted saying.

The reason Annie Leibovitz was chosen over all others to take the pictures was, according to Tom Cruise, because she was the only professional photographer who ever shot his other children when they were young, And they were very happy with the results, said Cruise

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

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