Showbiz411

Did Tom Cruise short circuit Katie Holmes’s plans to send daughter Suri to Catholic School? Remember earlier last month it was widely reported that Suri would be attending the Convent of the Sacred Heart, which is near Katie’s apartment in Chelsea on Seventh Avenue? That dream seems to have died.

If Life & Style magazine is right, Suri is now going to be in the first ever class of the new Avenues school, also in Chelsea. Avenues is non denominational. It’s also run by Chris Whittle as part of his Edison Project, with former Yale University head Benno Schmidt as CEO. Whittle, who owned Esquire magazine back before cell phones, went off to start schools all over the country.

Holmes is Catholic and wanted Suri in a Catholic school. But Cruise –as anyone knows who isn’t living in a space ship–is a Scientologist. He told Diane Sawyer once that there are “Jewish Scientologists and Catholic Scientologists. We’re just Scientologists.” If Holmes disallowed Suri from Scientology school, Cruise may have countered with anti-Catholic request. Hence, Avenues. Calls to Holmes’s publicist were not returned. Either way, Suri should do fine with an Edison school. And she won’t have to wear a uniform!

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.