June 28, 2006

Suri Too Worthy for Photos

Having a baby brings new stress to the parents and often causes strain in the relationship.

Suddenly there are two people in the family interested in Mom’s breasts. The daily schedule is broken down into three-hour intervals and comes complete with its own alarm system.

Safety precautions are necessary and include everything from padding the crib to not letting strangers (and their bacteria) anywhere near the bundle of joy.

Unless they’re willing to pay.

Celebrity babies make millions before they open their eyes, as the world’s leading entertainment magazines bid for the rights to publish the first pictures of the baby.

Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt’s picture earned the proud parents a pretty penny when they sold the pictures for $4 million.

You’ve also seen the purchased snapshots of Sean Preston, Moses and Violet, but one name seems to be missing among the famous infants: Suri.

Hundreds of tabloid articles alleging strange Scientology parenting practices by Tom Cruise and constant tension between him and Suri’s mother, Katie Holmes, surfaced since before Suri’s birth. But three months after the baby was born, no pictures of the youngest Cruise have been leaked to the media.

You may think that it’s because Tom is doing such an amazing job keeping his family out of the public eye and ensuring the privacy of his close ones.

It turns out that a photo agency did want to auction off pictures of the newborn to US Weekly, People and Star magazines, but the bid topped out at $3 million.

Suri’s parents thought that the offer was too low and decided to skip the photo shoot.

Given Tom’s propensity to outrage the public, it is hard to tell what amount of money for an exclusive shot of the TomKitten would have been enough.

Every parent finds his child priceless, but millions of dollars for a picture is not something even the wealthiest should scoff at.

Like Tom and Katie, Brad and Angelina were offered millions for a picture of their child. The sum was higher, but considering the size of the bank accounts we’re taking into consideration, not by much.

They took the money and designated it to help less fortunate children in Africa.

It is saddening to think that if pride had not gotten in the way, a similar contribution could have been made by Tom and Katie on the behalf of Suri.

If they would have turned down the photographers for privacy reasons, more sympathy would be due. But by refusing the sum the Cruise camp thought it was making a statement that things are their way or the highway, money being no object.

It is likely that they will pay a high price for this kind of behavior in the future.

Instead of one day telling their daughter that she helped to save lives from her earliest days, they can proudly tell her that she was too ‘worthy’ to take part in such an initiative.

The biggest burden that new parents bear is that of raising their children with the right values.  Not only speaking of kindness, humility and generosity, but showing it as well. 

Judging by the recent actions of her parents, Suri will not grow to prioritize these values.

Bet you five bucks on it.