Katie Holmes Fires Old Staff, Church of Scientology Denies Sea Org Claims

Posted on July 2, 2012

TMZ reports that Katie Holmes fired her security team and her driver, because they are employees of Tom Cruise. The team was assigned to Katie by Tom himself after their marriage. Katie also dumped her publicist that was picked out for her by Tom and has gone back to the PR firm she used before she became Mrs. Tom Cruise.

Katie now has a new apartment in Manhattan and a new security team. Reports today say the last straw in the marriage was a big argument over Tom's wish to send Suri off to join Sea Org, the elite Scientology unit that ex-scientologists say is run like a military operation and which uses child labor. Reports say Tom wanted to send Suri off to the Sea Org early, all on her own, without her parents. The Church of Scientology took the extraordinary step of issuing a statement to TMZ denying the Sea Org stories.

The Church's attorney said that no one under the age of 16 is allowed to join Sea Org. The attorney also said that minors must have "consent of both parents and/or all legal guardians" in order to join, and that "There are no exceptions to that policy." There has been no denial of claims that Cruise wants Suri's participation in Scientology to increase substantially now that she is six years old.

Tom has not yet filed a response to the divorce petition. However, reports say he will file a motion to move the case to California claiming that Katie does not meet the residency requirement to file in New York. If he does that, it's going to get very contentious indeed.

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