Tom Cruise Fights to Keep Suri in the Wings

NY Team/Most Wanted

Try as they might, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes can’t seem to keep their 2 ½-year-old daughter Suri from the spotlight. At no time was that more apparent than during a recent performance of Katie’s Broadway smash All My Sons. Tom — who has famously attended the show more than 20 times — was watching from the wings with Suri, when he noticed her tiny feet slowly making their way towards the stage. “I say, ‘Sweetheart, stay right here,’” the 46-year-old actor recalled during a Friday appearance on The View. “She turns to me and sort of taps my hand away, and I realize, she’s going to go on stage.”

“Everyone is acting! So then she [got down on hands and knees and] was going to crawl out on stage. At a certain point she’s crawling, and I’m holding on to her dress, just quietly, because I don’t want her to say anything too loud. And so I finally just picked her up and said, ‘You can’t go on stage.’ And she goes, ‘Why?’ [I should have said] ‘you can’t go on stage yet.’”

New Years Eve for Tom, Katie and Suri was spent quietly at home, and Christmas was “low-key,” he revealed. “It was more about the giving,” he explains. “We never really have the gifts be a big thing.” When asked about the public fascination with his youngest daughter — viewed by some as a fashion icon — Tom admitted that he is torn. “It’s both very flattering … and you kind of go, ‘It is what it is,’ he says. “We all think our children are incredible, and I feel that way about all three of my kids.” That was about as much information as Tom was allowed to divulge with regard to 16-year-old Isabella Jane and 13 ½-year-old Connor Antony, however!

“I’ve been given very strict instructions not to discuss their personal lives. The kids are to this point where they’re just like, ‘Dad, don’t talk about my life.’ [Bella]‘s a good girl…I feel lucky to have the teenagers, and Suri.”

Bella and Connor are Tom’s children with ex-wife Nicole Kidman. Valkyrie, Tom’s latest film, is in theaters now.

Source: The View

Comments

MZ on January 11th, 2009

Seeing what Tom said about the older kids’ wishes, my guess is this is why we don’t hear anything about them from Nicole much. She’s always been kind of private about that anyway, so I am sure she is just trying very hard to honor their wishes. I feel bad she tends to get a bad rap here.

Anyway, very cute story about Suri! Wonder if we’ll see her on stage/in the movies in a few years?

Kellie on January 11th, 2009

I try so, so, so hard to forget what he said about mothers with PPD. I still feel so much resentment regarding his attitude even though he came out and said he was misunderstood. Right.

I will say that his children are gorgeous and he is a blessed man in that regard.

JK on January 11th, 2009

It was really sweet the way he talked about all three of his kids on the show.

I really liked how he decided not really to comment when asked if Bella was dating. He seems like a great dad!

CelebBabyLover on January 12th, 2009

MZ- ITA! When I saw those comments from Tom, my first thought was, “I’m glad he said that! Now maybe people will lay off Nicole!”

Lauren on January 12th, 2009

Nicole has said for years-ever since the kids were pre-teens-that they had essentially “banned” her from talking about them publicly in interviews and didn’t want any part of being discussed. Glad Tom finally clarified.

gggg on January 12th, 2009

After I heard the things he said about PDD, I was disgusted, but we all say thing we regret or say things that just do not come out right. Anyways, he seems like such a good person and great Father.

He and Katie seem like great people.

JM on January 12th, 2009

I have heard Nicole say in the past that Bella and Conor wish to not be spoken of and she seems to obey those rules lol. But it is nice though that Tom atleast makes small mention of them. And I can def. see Suri on stage someday. The girl has got the personality for it!

Mary-Helen on January 12th, 2009

I understand not wanting your famous parents to talk about them, but I think alot of the scrutiny from Nicole is the comments about how “giving birth to a child is so much more meaningful” than adopting her two elder children. Even though he doesn’t talk about them in depth, Tom always finds a way to compliment his eldest children, while it appears Nicole needs reminding that they exsist, moreso now that she has Sunday.

Tanya on January 12th, 2009

I understand teenagers Bella and Connors need for privacy completely.That they doesnt want their parents to talk about them in the press, cute little stories from the parents point of wiew, but really embarrasing for a teenager. Which teenager would want their mom or dad to tell those stories about them to the whole wide world?! I know that if I were a teenager with famous parents, I would probably refuse to let them talk about me in public too. Maybe even Suri will beg her parents not to talk about her in public when shes getting older as well?

Sarah on January 12th, 2009

Mary-Helen, I don’t think Nicole has ever actually compared adoption v. birth. She has talked about how meaningful it was to give birth when asked. But NEVER has she said that it was more meaningful than adoption. That comparison is something the media and the rest of the public trump up because everyone loves a scandal.

Bella and Connor were her only children for 15 years. That love doesn’t just go away when another child is added to the family. It’s a shame that she needs to constantly reassure the public that she does love ALL of her kids. Shouldn’t that just be assumed?

I’ve seen many interviews where she does brag about the older kids (Connor’s soccer games and his work on her movie set; Bella’s “kind heart” and her “beautiful” picture with her little sister; Nicole saying that they are a “huge part of her lives”). But, both her and Tom and have repeatedly said that their kids have asked not to be discussed publicly. It’s pretty sad that the public is constantly criticizing her for respecting her kids wishes.

Sarah on January 12th, 2009

Sorry for my never-ending rant but I just thought of a couple of more examples in which Nicole mentioned her older kids. In her acceptance speech for The Hours, she dedicated part of the award to Bella and mentioned that just that day she had taken Bella to get her first pair of heels. She has also mentioned that her and Tom have spent a couple of holidays together after their divorce for the sake of the kids. What a mean mom! (sarcasm)

Marie on January 12th, 2009

I think generally there is, and always will be, more fascination with someone’s biological child especially when they are in the public eye because of the whole genetic thing and who do they look like? I don’t think it’s necessarily meant to cause offence; it’s just a human interest thing.

So automatically, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman are going to be asked more about Suri and Sunday. And probably part of the reason each of them might talk more about their youngest child is because people do when it comes to babies! They go all gooey. Nothing unusual there. In a few years time, they’ll each have settled into new parenthood again.

I have to say though that my feeling has always been that Tom and Nicole perhaps don’t talk about Isabella and Connor so much not just because the children themselves have requested that they don’t, but, because this has been the case their whole lives, that since the entire world knows they are adopted, they need to have something for themselves i.e. a private life.

Everyone knows half the Brangelina brood is adopted, but that’s different. Tom and Nicole, when they were together and like the majority of adopotive parents, just adopted and welcomed two children into their homes and hearts. Except it made news and stayed news.

So I just think the whole issue of privacy is maybe more pertinent and important where Isabella and Connor are concerned.

maggie on January 12th, 2009

aww what a cute Suri story. She sounds hilarious!!

Jen1 on January 12th, 2009

That’s adorable. And I agree, Tom really sounds like a wonderful, protective father.

Mary-Helen on January 12th, 2009

I never meant that Nicole is a “bad” mother, I don’t know the woman. My point is her reluctance to talk about the children completely and some of her comments about Sunday can be misconstrued to indicate that her relationship with her elder children has fizzled since she married Keith Urban. For example, Nicole has said the kids don’t call her Mom, but it’s been said that they call Katie “Mom”. She mentioned the kids don’t live with her, she is rarely if ever spotted with the elder kids and comments about how childbirth is something every woman should go through and she didn’t know what love was until she gave birth to Sunday, etc. It’s easy to see how these comments can be taken to believe now that she has Sunday and her new husband, her desire to parent her teenagers has wained. But on the flip side, Tom & Katie are @ soccer games, Conner’s audition for 7 pounds, Bella’s events etc. There is always a brief mention of how proud he is of Bella and Conner, even if is just that small a reference. He doesn’t talk about them alot, but he makes it a point to stress his pride in his eldest. Like you said, the public loves a scandal and Nicole’s offhanded comments (which likely sound alot worse in print than when uttered) are giving people fodder. A simple “Bella and Conner are doing well, but they are teenagers and need privacy,” would stop the public scrutiny.

Regardless, it seems like Tom adores all three of his children (since this article is about him) and Suri sounds like such an animated little girl. I would love to see another addition the Cruise-Holmes clan, I can just imagine what Suri the big sister would be like.

Marie on January 12th, 2009

I almost forgot, this is what makes me think that Nicole (and Tom) are more careful of their older children. Nicole gave an interview to either Vogue or Vanity Fair (this was after her divorce but before she met Keith Urban and when the children were very young) in which she spoke about her desire to protect Isabella and Connor. I’m going to have to paraphrase here because I can’t find the article and it’s been a while but she said that from the moment she adopted each of them, she felt that it was her job to love and protect them and guard their privacy and that as such, she would decline to talk about them as individuals until they were older and permitted her to. She said that when they are old enough, if they want to go to a premiere or an awards ceremony, they can but that for the time being, she would keep them away from the limelight.

I remember it as a lovely interview and very interesting.

Yes, you could say she talks about Sunday but she doesn’t flaunt her either, she’s protective of her too, but imagine being adopted into a famous family. You’d want some privacy since that most basic thing about you is known the world over. I think that’s what Nicole was referring to as well.

Sarah on January 12th, 2009

Suri sounds like such a little firecracker! lol.

Mary, I don’t think Nicole’s interest has waned any. She’s a divorced, working parent, who lives a pretty good distance from her kids. I know my brother-in-law who has a daughter with his first marriage feels horrible that he can’t make it to her ball games, but he lives across country from her. He makes an effort to get her whenever she’s out of school, and once drove non-stop for 18 hrs just to make it to her last game of the season. On the flipside of that his step-daughter (my niece) calls both him and her real father ‘dad’, because she’s young and she doesn’t get to see her dad everyday. Her actual dad is however involved and sends her letters and such and she loves him probably more than her step-dad. Sometimes in a divorce a parent will take the child and move away, and it leaves the other parent in an awkward position. My point is there is tons of parents in these situations, and I’m sure Nicole has been to a game or two of Connor’s and Isabella’s, in fact I’ve seen pictures in US weekly of her going to them. We see snapshots of these people’s lives, not the whole thing. I’m sure Nicole loves her children dearly and feels badly when she has to miss the day to day things because she doesn’t live close to them (and according to Tom they’re always moving around). Also, I can’t help but feel if this was a reverse situation, i.e. if it was Tom (the father) who lived away then not as much would be said because it’s more common for the father to be the absent parent. I do not think it’s fair for anyone to make any assumptions however as we don’t know what goes on behind closed door, whether there’s phone calls, or web cams or whatever means Nicole uses to keep in touch with her children. And as for Connor’s audition isn’t Tom a friend of Will Smith’s? In that case it just makes more sense for the dad to be the one to take him. I don’t think Tom and Katie are the perfect parents you make them out to be, nor is Keith and Nicole, but I think all parties here love their kids and that’s all that matters.

Sarah on January 12th, 2009

Haha, there are two of us (Sarahs)

And, I agree completely with you Marie. It seems so counter-intuitive that in order for Nicole to prove to all of us that she loves her children she needs to ignore their wishes and blab about them. Her responsibility is to her kids not some random reporter. I have a lot of respect for a parent who puts her kids needs and wants (privacy, for example) above what people think of her. Bella and Connor didn’t ask for a life in the spotlight, but they did ask for their parents to keep their private life private.

Mary-Helen, she has mentioned both kids more than once since her re-marriage and Sunday’s birth. There are quotes that are on this blog if you’re really skeptical. There are also pictures of her holding hands with both Keith and Bella.

Also, the quote from Katie about the kids calling her “mom” seems very odd if you read the interview. It seems like the whole interview was edited and reworked to sound more juicy. In the paragraph where its quoted, Katie is talking about Tom growing up around women, then how the kids are sweet, then randomly that they call her “mom.” The paragraph has nothing to do with the question asked of her and seems like a lot of what Katie said about that was taken out. Furthermore, when Nicole is talking about how the kids call her by her name, she’s laughing about it. If they were serious about disowning her as their mother I doubt that would be her reaction.

Anna on January 12th, 2009

I just don’t understand a parent (mother or father) moving away from their children. It’s strange to me and just doesn’t make sense.

CelebBabyLover on January 12th, 2009

Marie and both Sarahs- ITA! Just as Katie’s comment about Bella and Connor calling her “mom” appears to be taken out of context, so was Nicole’s comment about them NOT calling her “mom”. She went on to say that they call her “mum” (which is the British/European/Australian term for “mum”, and since Nicole is Australian, it makes sense her kids would call her that), and sometimes they jokingly call her Nicole (Angelina Jolie once said the exact same thing about Maddox, that sometimes he teases her and jokingly calls her “Angie” instead of “mom”!).

Also, I know this isn’t really all that comperable to Nicole’s comment about Connor and Bella, since she said they say it jokingly and they’re teenagers, but some kids (usually very young ones) go through a phase where they call one or both of their parents by their first names. My mother, for example, went through a phase as a preschooler where she called her mom by her first name. Most of my grandparents’ friends thought this was horrible, but my grandmother actually didn’t mind (and she’s about the last person you’d expect to be okay with something like that!) and actually thought it was kind of cute. She also knew that it was a phase my mother would grow out of, and she did!

Anyway, very good point about there generally being more fascination about someone’s biological child than they’re adopted one. Angelina and Brad also tend to get asked about Shiloh and the twins more than about Maddox, Pax, and Zahara. Just like Tom, however, Brad always makes sure to include all of his kids in interviewes (in fact, one interviewer recently specifically asked how the twins were going, and Brad made a point of saying that the whole family was doing well). Angie generally does as well.

Unfourntately, I also think the media sometimes takes it too far. For example, I have seen the, countless times, the media talk about Shiloh and Suri as if their older siblings don’t exist. Granted, in Suri’s case that could also be because Bella and Connor are so much older than her, but still! Also, in the Jolie-Pitts’ case, the media constantly divides the kids by pointing out that the eldest three are adopted. I don’t see that happening all that much with Suri, Connor, and Bella, but there again I think it’s because Connor and Bella are older and not in the public eye as much.

Finally, I want to point out that Nicole has just gone through a full pregnancy and has given birth for the first time. Therefore, it’s natural that she’s going to talk about that experience and what it was like for her. Tom, on the otherhand, did not actually give birth to Suri (Katie did that, obviously!), so for him the experience of welcoming Suri into the family probably wasn’t all that much different than when he and Nicole adopted Bella and Connor.

CelebBabyLover on January 12th, 2009

Oh, and I always have to chuckle at these types of comments about Nicole, because they just remind me that celebs can’t win no matter what they do. Angelina gets critcized (albeit not nearly as much since the birth of Knox and Viv) for loving/talking about/being seen with her adopted kids more than her biological kids. Nicole, on the otherhand, gets criticized for the exact opposite: loving/talking/being seen with her biological child more than her adopted kids!

CelebBabyLover on January 12th, 2009

Anna- No one said you have to.

Sarah on January 13th, 2009

Anna- Sometimes it’s unavoidable. In my bro-in-law’s case, he got a forced job transfer (he’s in gov. construction). And it was really bad for everyone, as it seperated two daddies from their daughters. It wasn’t anything anyone planned or wanted but it was necessary and though it’s hard and painful to be away from your child, sometimes it’s a casualty of divorce. You have to learn to live and work with it. In Nicole’s case, she works, and remarried and her husband lives in Nashville. And since Tom and Katie move around so much it would be a little unreasonable to ask Nicole and Keith to just follow them around.