Ellen Leventry: July 2008 Archives

Yes, I know that it looked like Katie Holmes' hands had been involved in some sort of horrible henna accident. And, yes, I know that rumors are swirling that the purple color was a result of Scientology's Purification Rundown, a controversial detox program that involves ingesting large amounts of Niacin, drinking cooking oil, running on a treadmill and sitting for extended periods of time in a sauna. And, yes, I will admit that my mind immediately turned to the "Purif" when PerezHilton.com posted pictures of the actress' extremities appearing to be the color and texture of, say, E.T.'s. Now I'm not a fan of the Purif as large doses of vitamins, especially fat-soluble ones can be toxic, and the body is designed to detox itself on a regular basis; yes, I'm talking about urination. So as much as I would like to join in the conspiratorial chattering, it seems to me that it's much more likely that Katie is suffering from a symptom such as Raynaud's Phenomenon--a disorder that effects blood vessels in the extremities, rather than Niacin poisoning.

From the Old Testament (Yahweh) to Grimm's Fairytales (Rumpelstiltskin), names have always carried power. And now some in the media are suggesting that the name of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's newborn daughter's name is imbued with a similar, power--an anti-Scientology power to be precise.

Naming their daughter Sunday Rose is an intentional slap in the face of Scientology, and would "nark off Tom Cruise," theorizes Heckler Spray. Citing a source who told MSNBC that "Nicole is a Catholic, and Sunday was an important religious day for her until she was involved in Scientology," the webzine/blog's theory has been picked up by other news outlets, including the Huffington Post.

Recently the Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano officially quashed rumors that Pope Benedict XVI's red shoes are not Prada (an urban legend Idol Chatter's own Donna Freitas debunked back in April). "Such rumors are inconsistent with the simple and somber man who, on the day of his election to the papacy, showed to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square and to the whole world the sleeves of a modest black sweater," noted the paper.

But, that was election day and now Benedict has embraced all the sartorial splendor of the Catholic Church that his predecessor John Paul II chose to forgo in favor of a studied austerity. And even though I knew of the papal tradition of wearing of red shoes when the Prada rumors began to swirl back in 2005, I felt the move to be inappropriate in this post-Vatican II world in which pontiffs should be more concerned with social justice than sartorial choices.