Suri debuts in Vanity Fair

Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Los Angeles (Reuters): Actor Tom Cruise's infant daughter made her debut, as freshman CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric broke the story of Vanity Fair magazine landing the much-anticipated first photos of baby Suri. The photographs of the dark-haired baby born to Cruise and actress Katie Holmes on April 18 were televised yesterday about midway through the newscast, marking the first public glimpse of the actor's first biological child. Given to CBS News by Vanity Fair as an exclusive to promote the magazine's 22-page Suri photo spread hitting newsstands on Wednesday, the pictures were taken by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, magazine spokeswoman Beth Kseniak said.

One shot aired by CBS News and later circulated on the Internet was the cover photo showing the smiling parents with their daughter peeking out from inside the actor's leather jacket. A second showed Holmes lying on her back holding the baby over her. The photos put an end to speculation that had swirled in the tabloids about why baby Suri had remained out of the public eye for so long, including rumors questioning the child's existence. The pictures were shown during a segment called ''Snapshots,'' part of the revamped format inherited by Couric as she began her tenure as the first woman solo anchor of a major US network newscast.

''We knew this would be a very exciting show -- that everyone would be curious to see Katie on her first night. So, what better place to debut Vanity Fair's exclusive cover featuring baby Suri and her parents,'' Kseniak told Reuters. She said the magazine paid nothing for the photographs and unlike pictures of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's first child together, there was no distribution deal tied to charity. Suri was born after months of nonstop publicity generated by the courtship of Cruise and Holmes, which burst into the open in May 2005 when the actor giddily professed his love for the actress during a notorious couch-hopping appearance on ''The Oprah Winfrey Show.'' A month later, Cruise announced he had proposed marriage to Holmes at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which was followed later by Cruise's statement that his fiancee had embraced his faith in the Church of Scientology.

Cruise made headlines again last month when Viacom Inc Chairman Sumner Redstone revealed that his Paramount Pictures studio was severing ties with the actor's production company after 14 years, citing the star's off-camera behavior.

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