When Tom Cruise fired his long-time PR woman and hired his sister, the industry was shocked. Some even thought he was crazy. After a disastrous year with sis in charge of his image, Tom’s got a new PR machine and it’s in overdrive.

I am astonished at the new and improved TomKat PR machine!

Recent Tom events have been varied but the fact that he was fired from Paramount (in a move that made him look bad to Hollywood but sympathetic to the general public) and rumors have graduated from a hiss to a loud buzzing that sounds something like “zzzcareer_deadzzz” Tom has jumped into action—just like his old image would suggest—and put some new peeps in charge. The results are just now trickling in.

First of all, Tom privately apologized to Brooke Shields about the infamous comments regarding her post-partum depression. Somehow the people behind the scenes talk Brooke into going on the Tonight Show to discuss how great and sincere he was and how she has accepted his apology (clearly with the idea being that mothers everywhere can do the same).

Then, the Suri conspiracy bubble is popped by a lush spread in a classy lifestyle mag. TomKat’s life is on stage in a just-released 22-page spread. Completely blowing little Shiloh’s debut out of the water by the TomKitten’s comparative cuteness, the quality of the magazine/photography, and the sheer size of the spread.

And the content? The couple discusses how hurt they are that people think their gorgeous baby is suspect. And look how normal she looks, except for being abnormally cute and vaguely “Asian”!

“She looks like Tom,” Katie coos, and thus it is printed in a caption next to the baby photos! Seriously, this should win a PR award. This is no Namibian princess! This is seriously glossy old-Hollywood shit.

Even more telling, the PR folks behind TomKat even learned from the Shiloh spread. There will be no cries of, “Where’s the Maddox now that you have the fruit of your loins!?” oh no! The adopted kids are featured in the spread, both as infants and as they look today.

And this is just the tip of the rehab iceberg.

Nicely played, PR machine, nicely played indeed!