filed under: Suri Cruise

According to our sources, Katie, who was offered a role on Broadway, is trying to break away from her controlled life under the watchful eyes of her husband and move to Manhattan in what will be a sort of trial separation.

"She desperately needs to be on her own for a while, but there's no way Tom Cruise is going to let her take Suri away," an insider tells Star. "There's no way he'll allow it. He just doesn't want Katie — or Suri — out of his sight for long. He told her that if she goes to New York, fine, but he goes with her."

Everyone knows that Suri Cruise, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ adorable little daughter, leads a charmed existence but her upbringing as a Scientologist remains largely a mystery. How does the religion started by L. Ron Hubbard influence Suri’s life on a daily basis?

Us Weekly has learned that while Suri -- who as a baby was breastfed and nursed on a mixture of barley water, milk and corn syrup which Hubbard advocated as being healthier than formula and breast milk -- is too young to take classes at the Scientology Centre, the 18-month-old is constantly surrounded by believers, including her two nannies.

“Tom doesn’t like associating with people who aren’t Scientologists,” says an insider.

Additionally, Holmes, 29, and Cruise, 45, have a hard time saying no to Suri. But it’s not simply because they’re pushovers.

“It’s all about being positive and supportive,” says the couple’s friend (Hubbard advised parents to “try to be the child’s friend.”) As for discipline, one former church member tells Us that Scientologists do not scold their children, but instead explain that bad behavior (like throwing a toy) is the “wrong action.” (A Scientology rep tells Us, “How a parent disciplines their child is left up to the parent.”)

Cruise and Holmes, says their pal, are very lenient and do not like to give Suri too many rules: “Suri pretty much does whatever she wants, whenever she wants. If she fusses before bed, they let her stay up later. If they want her to go swimming and she cries, they’ll take her out. If she whines about food, they’ll ask her what else she wants to eat. They always want to please her.”

Is Katie Holmes breaking free of her hubby’s Cruise control?

The wife of the “Top Gun” star is shooting a film, “Mad Money,” in Louisiana, and while she’s away from her reportedly controlling spouse she’s “quietly reclaiming parts of her past,” according to Life & Style.

The mag reports that Holmes is reconnecting with family and friends and even secretly talking to Catholic priests. Holmes was raised a Catholic, but since her marriage, has embraced Scientology, her husband’s religion.

The “Batman Returns” star recently called a childhood pal named Meghann Birie, whom she hadn’t seen since meeting Cruise two years ago, reports L&S.

“She wanted to talk to someone not in Camp Cruise,” a friend told the mag. “Katie told Meghann she can’t believe she abandoned her old life.”

The actress hasn’t been to church lately, but is “secretly talking to pastors” for advice, and wants to enroll Suri in “kiddie Catholicism” classes, according to L&S.

What’s more, Holmes also plans to visit her hometown of Toledo, Ohio, this summer and has invited her parents to the “Mad Money” set.

“She’s trying to make amends with her family,” according to a Holmes family friend.

"I think I feel so much more for Mad and Z because they're survivors, they came through so much. Shiloh seemed so privileged from the moment she was born. I have less inclination to feel for her... I met my other kids when they were six months old, they came with personality. A newborn really is this... yes, a blob! But now she's starting to have a personality... I'm conscious that I have to make sure I don't ignore her needs just because I think the others are more vulnerable."