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!

Tony Bennett is quite amazing. He turns 86 tomorrow. So what’s he been doing? Playing golf? Napping? No, Tony has recorded a whole new set of duets with Latin superstars. Jeez, Louise. The guy never rests. The album, “Viva Duets,” will hit stories in late October. Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan and Vicente Fernandez are among the artists. On Friday August 3rd at 9am you can hear his duet on “The Best is Yet to Come” with Chayanne at www.tonybennett.com. It’s his birthday gift to us!

Here’s the track listing:

“For Once In My Life” with Marc Anthony
“Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” with Miguel Bosé
“The Very Thought of You” with Ana Carolina
“The Best Is Yet to Come” with Chayanne
“The Good Life” with Franco DeVita
“Who Can I Turn To?” with Gloria Estefan
“Return to Me (Regresa A Mi)” with Vicente Fernández
“Blue Velvet” with Maria Gadú
“Just in Time” with Juan Luis Guerra
“Are You Havin’ Any Fun?” with Dani Martín
“The Way You Look Tonight” with Thalía
“Cold, Cold Heart” with Vicentico

Julia Fordham has a loyal following, but you may not know about her. Her voice is gorgeous, maybe the best in pop music right now. Of course, she’s not 19. Today is her birthday, and Fordham, who’s British but lives in Santa Monica, will play a special show tonight at Molly Malone’s on South Fairfax Blvd. in Los Angeles. I wish I could be there. Actor-musician Paul Reiser, who collaborates with her, will be among her special guests along with Celia Chavez. Julia’s first hit was in the late 1980s with “Happy Ever After.” She’s made many stunning albums since then including “Concrete Love” and “East West.” Just listen to her “Stay” or “Manhattan Skyline,” or “Porcelain.” It’s kind of criminal that she’s not recording for a big label. (Hello Verve? Blue Note? Decca?) Maybe if Julia covers “Call Me Maybe,” things will change. In the meantime, here’s a great great singer at the peak of her career. Happy Birthday, Julia. Today all of the videos at the bottom of our home page are yours.

Julia Fordham and Paul Reiser: “Stay”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s4BS3NVCqo

More videos in the video player

I don’t know how she does it: it was only six years ago that Oprah Winfrey was touting new age nut Eckhart Tolle as the all time genius of the world. He was her spiritual mentor. Winfrey actually ran podcasts and internet classes with the guy who has since quietly vanished from the spotlight. Now, maybe because she’s in her own personal crisis with her OWN network, Oprah is pushing a new guru. (She still hawks Marianne Williamson.) This guy is named Michael Singer, author of a book called “The Untethered Soul.”

But Michael Singer is indeed better known in his hometown of Alachua, Florida as Mickey Singer. And in 2005 he was indicted in a massive government fraud case against his company Medical Manager Health Systems, which was an offshoot of WebMD. http://www.gainesville.com/article/20051216/LOCAL/212160339 Singer was accused with nine others of inflating Medical Manager Health Systems profits, and of conspiring to launder money.

Two years after the indictment, Singer donated $100,000 of new computer software to the Alachua Police Department. By the time the case was over in 2010, Singer settled with the government by paying a $2.5 million settlement. The government dropped all charges. Singer acknowledged that the accounting practices of his company were illegal but–according to the agreement hammered out between his powerful Washington DC lawyers from Baker Botts and local Florida prosecutors–didn’t know it was taking place at the time. http://tinyurl.com/c9u3y4m

Later, the people actually convicted by the government had their verdicts overturned based on a lapsed statute of limitations. http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100303/articles/3031013

Now Singer will appear on Oprah’s Sunday Soul show this weekend on OWN. After his long adventure with the government, Singer–who was an early software multi-millionaire in the medical systems field–became a guru. He started something called the Temple of the Universe outside of Gainesville, Florida. He has lots of followers, but I’m not sure you could call it an actual cult. Temple of the Universe is registered with the IRS as a religion and has non profit tax status. But they’ve filed no public papers about their finances. They don’t even come up on Charity Navigator. But Singer is selling books and CDs and conducting new age classes and lectures.

Odds are Oprah will not be asking him about all this other stuff on Sunday’s show.