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In our continuing attempts to come to terms with the purity-despoiling nightmare represented by the relationship of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, we start asking ourselves a rational question: Could we have seen it coming?

Posted today at Overheard in NY:

Katie Holmes: He introduced me to his kids! And he's taking me to Rome on a private jet this weekend. —Starbucks, Waverly Place

Nope, even if it's a fabricated quote, we don't feel any better. And then there's this incredibly disturbing tidbit on Holmes' bio page at IMDb:

Personal quotes:
 "I think every little girl dreams about her wedding. I used to think I was going to marry Tom Cruise."

We're in our happy place (which is anywhere, two days ago), chanting "It's just for publicity, it's. Just. For. Publicity.BatmanAndWarOfTheWorldsThisSummer." But if we can step outside the collective grief of Wonderboys fans everywhere and realize that we can't kidnap poor Katie and deprogram her back in Toledo, we really have to throw some props to LeAnne DeVette, Cruise's sister/publicist. We thought she was making rookie mistakes by letting Cruise run wild with the Scientology stuff, but wow...coordinated press coverage in every media outlet on the planet, cute photos leaked from their trip in Rome—she's really knocked it out of the park on this one. She's got Tom publicly laying The Girl Next Door! It's a masterstroke so diabolical that we're even going to nod along the first time we see little Katie telling someone from Access Hollywood that she can't understand why everyone's so interested in her love life. And then, of course, we're going to have a good, solid cry.