Hometown gives Cruise squeeze mixed marks

TOLEDO, Ohio – Poor Katie Holmes.

She may be the most photographed, most talked-about actress in the world right now, but in her hometown she’s still playing second fiddle to an actor best-known for donning a skirt on national television in the 1970s.

It’s not that Toledoans don’t like Holmes, 26, who is engaged to Tom Cruise.

But, as local radio talk show host Denny Schaffer puts it, “She’s no Jamie Farr.”

Holmes’ losing battle with Farr, 71 – who plugged his native Toledo relentlessly as Cpl. Klinger on “M*A*S*H” and has worked tirelessly for local charities in the two decades since – reflects the complex relationship between this industrial city of 300,000 and its newest star.

On one hand, many Toledo-area residents feel a genuine tie with Holmes, who grew up here, the youngest of five children of a lawyer and a homemaker, and graduated from one of the region’s many Catholic schools.

“Not everyone is able to see their dreams come true from a small town like this,” says Diana Chatman, a human resources representative. “She went out and found the man of her dreams – and a career.”

On the other hand, Toledo, a tight-knit community where many families have lived for generations despite the wrenching economic cycles of the auto industry, is not a city that’s easily impressed by the trappings of Hollywood.

Toledoans read the same magazines as everyone else; they know Katie’s exact age, Tom’s age and the size of the engagement ring.

But, ultimately, their expectations of local kids who make good go beyond designer dresses and candlelight dinners with Tom Cruise. In two dozen interviews for this story, Toledoans repeatedly indicated that they want their celebrities to be humble, respectful of their roots and, most of all, loyal to their city.

In short, they want Farr, who lends his name to the region’s premier sports event, The Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic – this past weekend’s LPGA golf tournament that has raised more than $4 million for local children’s charities.

“I think he’s bigger than Katie (in Toledo.) He’s so humble, and he’s so proud of his home town – he name-drops it all the time,” says Andrea Columber, 22, who works in a downtown coffee shop.

“If it wasn’t for Jamie, I don’t think people would really know about Toledo.”

Farr hasn’t lived in Toledo since 1952, when he moved to Los Angeles. Yet a local park and a public pool are named for him; he’s the larger-than-life face that wishes you a pre-recorded happy birthday on the scoreboard screen if you spend your special day at the Mud Hens’ baseball stadium.

At least Holmes has some of the fundamentals that made Farr and actor Danny Thomas before him Toledo’s signature celebrities – among them strong Toledo roots in a city where roots really mean something.

“I think everyone sort of knows her in some way; it’s not that big of a town,” says Molly Farner, 21, whose sister bumped into Holmes – literally – at the local mall.

Holmes’ father, Marty, is a partner at a local law firm. Her brother, Marty Jr., a former high school football player who went to Harvard, came home for law school and now works at the same firm as his father.

The Holmeses are “successful but not name-droppers,” says Jackie Fought, 60, a family friend. “They were very successful before Katie.”

In Toledo, Katie followed her three older sisters to a Catholic girls’ school, Notre Dame Academy, where she was an A-student and was admitted to Columbia University (she deferred).

“She’s the typical good girl: very nice, very smart,” says Meredith Thiede, 25, a high school acquaintance of Holmes’ who dismisses speculation that the actress’ engagement is a publicity stunt: “It’s hard to believe because it just doesn’t seem like it’s part of her personality.”

According to The Blade newspaper, Holmes refused to leave Toledo for a meeting in Los Angeles when she was up for a starring role in the TV show “Dawson’s Creek” because she was appearing in a high school play. She ended up getting the career-making role of Joey Potter anyway.

“She (comes) from a very traditional family with very good morals and ethics, so I think that growing up with that, in the Midwest, it really makes her different from people who grew up in a faster area and got into show business at an earlier age,” Thiede says.

Holmes also gets points for getting back to Toledo regularly during her “Dawson’s Creek” years: attending a local church with her family, jogging with her former fiance Chris Klein (they broke up last year) and shopping at the mall.

Where she loses points is for her sudden interest in Cruise’s religion, Scientology.

“I think it might show some weakness,” says Barb Mack, 50, a nurse. “Women need to stand up for their beliefs, and she was raised a pretty strict Catholic.

“I know a lot of Catholic women, and they feel pretty much the same way.”

Adds Denny Schaffer, a radio show talk host: “When you’re involved in a cult and you’re isolated from your family and your friends and you fire your manager and now you’re surrounded by Scientologists (that’s not a good sign).

“Hello, Katie? Don’t drink any Kool-Aid they offer you.”