As her latest movie bombs at the box office and she loses
a succession of roles to rival starlets, Katie Holmes' plans of becoming a big star lie in tatters.

When Katie met Tom Cruise, she was one of Hollywood's most promising, rising stars. After a breakthrough role in the acclaimed TV teen drama Dawson's Creek, she had graduated to supporting roles in the Oscar-winning film Wonderboys and blockbuster Batman Begins.

Now, three years down the track, she's made less than a handful of films, including the flop Mad Money. But that bombed at the box office, taking in a measly $10.5 million!

Katie expected the title Mrs Tom Cruise would make her a superstar, but instead it has proved a weight dragging her down towards the depressing prospect of being little more than a trophy wife.

Where once she was described as 'the next Julia Roberts', one leading producer, who asked to remain nameless, now says he considers her 'completely unemployable'.

'The problem is not with Katie herself,' he explains. 'It's all the baggage that comes with her. When she was filming Mad Money, there were horror stories that Tom was on set all the time and constantly interfering.

'There's no doubting Tom is a hugely successful star, but his influence and involvement is not always helpful.

'It was the same story at the premiere.

He turns up and completely overshadows the real stars of the film - Queen Latifah, Diane Keaton and Katie herself.

'Queen Latifah and Diane Keaton have both been in Oscar-winning films and are proven to be viable at the box office - so why does he feel the need to turn the whole thing into the "Tom and Katie show"?

'He doesn't seem to realise his standing with the public is at an all time low - they don't want to see him sticking his tongue down Katie's throat at every opportunity,' the producer explains.

'I hope she married him for love because, frankly, he's been nothing but bad news for her career!

'I know she's been passed over for a few roles. The tragedy is she doesn't seem to realise how fast her stock is falling.'

These words from a Tinseltown insider will be a startling wake-up call for Katie who's been hearing nothing but good things about Tom from her advisers - because he chose them for her!

Shortly after she began going out with Tom, she fired her agent, publicist and manager, all of whom were big Hollywood powerbrokers who had guided Katie's career since she was a teenager. When Tom replaced them with hand-picked
staff, he put Katie under what's become infamously known as 'Cruise control'.

With her career nosediving, those who have known Katie since before she met Tom are wondering how long she'll continue to allow him to damage her prospects.

One former adviser, who's handled some of the biggest names in Hollywood and known Katie for almost 10 years, tells
New Idea: 'Katie has always been the most ambitious and fiercely driven person I know.

'She's very similar to Reese Witherspoon in that way - very intensely focused. She knows what she wants, and she'll do whatever it takes to go and get it.

'A lot of actors and artists are very easily distracted, and they're only interested in their craft, but with Katie it was always obvious she was the daughter of a lawyer.

'She approached her acting like it was a business, or a university degree - something she could work her way through - with the ultimate goal being a place in the showbiz stratosphere, complete with $20 million paycheques and a mantelpiece full of Oscars.

'Nobody was less surprised than me when she began seeing Tom Cruise. It seemed like a very natural move for her,' the insider adds.

'But, I wonder how much longer she'll let Tom drag her career off the rails - it seems like every week he does something to alienate the movie-going public.'

The past few weeks are no exception as a leaked video revealed an intense, rambling Tom telling fellow Scientologists to 'crush psychiatry', before saluting a portrait of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Largely unconcerned, Tom was seen out celebrating his son Conor's 13th birthday. Meanwhile Katie's good name was tarnished as biographer Andrew Morton released his new book on Tom - with unsubstantiated details suggesting Suri was conceived using L. Ron Hubbard's frozen sperm taken before his death!

A pal from Katie's home town of Toledo, Ohio, says: 'I really hope these disastrous box-office figures snap Katie out of the trance she's been in since she met Tom.

'She's surrounded by Scientologists who tell her Tom walks on water and she's married to a living God. But the figures don't lie - he's a curse not a blessing!'