While Tom Cruise spent his 50th birthday without Katie and Suri, we're learning more about the role Scientology played in the end of their marriage. INSIDE EDITION has the latest.
Tom Cruise celebrated a heartbreaking 50th birthday without the woman he loves and their daughter, Suri.
He left Iceland, where he has been shooting a movie, at midnight Tuesday and flew back home to Los Angeles.
With him were 17-year-old Isabella and 19-year-old Connor Cruise, who he adopted when he was married to Nicole Kidman.
Dina from US Weekly magazine told INSIDE EDITION, "Things change, like everything else in his life this week. He flew very early in the morning and came back to California. He's expected to spend the holiday with his friends and family. But it's not going to be the excited celebration that he anticipated."
Connor tweeted his support for his dad:
"La famiglia always. Friends come and go but family is forever."
And fellow Scientologist Kirstie Alley tweeted birthday greetings:
"Tom, Boatloads, Buckets full, heaps and double scoops of happy birthday. Love to you."
Meanwhile, Katie Holmes is celebrating Independence Day on her own, free of "Cruise control" for the first time in six years, and rebuilding the life she had before she became Mrs. Tom Cruise.
Moments before the first live broadcast of America's Got Talent, judge Howard Stern told INSIDE EDITION Katie had fallen too much under Tom's spell.
Stern said, "Who saw that coming? I mean what a shock! She was walking around like this [zombie] for the whole marriage."
Sharon Osbourne said Holmes is right to seek sole custody of Suri.
"She's the mama, she's the mama bear. She wants her baby and I don't blame her," said Osbourne.
And it turns out the embattled Church of Scientology was telling the truth when they said they didn't send a posse of goons to stake out Holmes and Suri's Manhattan apartment.
News organziations around the world picked up the claim, first reported by tmz.com, that the mystery team of armed security personnel was working for Scientology.
But we've learned that the men are actually working for Katie Holmes.
Parking permits behind the windshield of a Cadillac Escalade they've been using show they are retired NYPD officers
We took a close look at the guy in the yellow shirt who has been camped out in front of Holmes' apartment, and found him handling security in the parking lot of her Manhattan apartment building.
Holmes has also re-hired a tough no-nonsense publicist, Lesley Sloan, who had worked for her before she married Cruise.
"She's going through what she's going through. You are making it hard for her," said Sloan.
Dina said, "Katie's new life includes building a network of people that she's hand picking. She got rid of all of the team that was chosen by Tom, and she really wants to rebuild her life with people that she trusts. People around her that she feels are going to part of her next chapter."
Holmes was spotted wearing high heels yesterday. They may be the symbol of her new independence. When she was with Cruise, who is only 5' 7", she routinely wore flats.
Tom's wife #2, Nicole Kidman, famously quipped, "I can wear high heels now" after divorcing the diminutive super star.
Paramount Studios is speaking out in suport of its biggest star, saying in a statement:
"Tom is a huge movie star for the right reason, he's a very talented actor whose movies have entertained millions of fans. His ability to make a great movie is the thing that moviegoers remember above all else."
