52 / Is this the most daft thing about human relationships ever?
A cursory glance across the back-page of my newspaper's 'Stay In Touch … With The Gossip Magazines' brought to my attention a few numbers … $2m, $3m, $5,5m, $11m. These figures are being thrown around by Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise as payment for - wait for it - her having his babies.
According to a report in a US mag, Star, Tom Cruise is again at loggerheads with his wife, Katie Holmes, this time over renegotiations of their ''marriage contract''. The Star's report says the contract is due to expire this month on the couple's third wedding anniversary and Holmes is upping her demands on everything from her clothing allowance to her negotiated fee for providing a sibling for the couple's daughter, Suri. According to Woman's Day's version, Holmes has called in her lawyer father to help with her demands for an extra $US500,000 for supporting Cruise's chosen religion, Scientology, an increase in her annual clothing allowance from $US750,000 to $US2 million and a role in the next Mission: Impossible film.
According to Famous, Holmes received a $US3 million bonus from Cruise when she had Suri. He now wants more children and ''increased the additional offspring offer as an incentive for Katie to get pregnant again". Now Cruise is supposedly prepared to pay up to $US5.5 million for Holmes to fall pregnant, with a $US2 million bonus if she has a bun in the oven by 2011. However, according to the mag, this is not near enough for Holmes, who wants at least $US11 million if she produces more progeny, and $US5.5 million if she tries and fails.
There is more to the story, of course. My own Hollywood spy has it on authority - and apparently in that parallel universe it is an open secret - that Cruise is gay. The marriage to Holmes is one of convenience, obligations and profit - to 'keep up appearances' - for a limited time only and with well-defined contractual parameters. Apparently Holmes was second choice, first choice was a certain Jessica Alba. Wow!