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EXCLUSIVE: What Mags Will Pay For Suri Pics

Posted Jul 13th 2006 1:59PM by TMZ Staff

TMZ has contacted the big players in the bidding wars over celebrity baby photos, and you may be surprised at what a picture of Suri Cruise can fetch.

Editorial staffers from People, Us Weekly, In Touch, Life and Style and OK! spoke candidly with TMZ, on condition that no names be used.

A source at OK! magazine tells TMZ that a set of exclusive, posed photos of the nearly three-month-old Suri would go for anywhere between 4 and $5 million -- People reportedly paid $4.1 million for pictures of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt. The OK! source believes the high price tag is justified, partly because there would be a huge spike in circulation but also because of "the cred" that a glossy would get by having the photos plastered all over the world.

But sources at In Touch and Life & Style magazines beg to differ. The feeling there -- that Suri's first pics would garner a relatively paltry $2 million - $3 million. One source said the concealment of Suri "stinks" of Tom trying to manipulate the situation by creating mystery and thereby driving the price up.

Over at People, a source tells TMZ that the photos would fetch less than Shiloh's. The source says the main draw is not the baby or Tom but Suri's mom -- "People are fascinated by Katie Holmes, who's leading such a weird life now," transforming from an apple-cheeked All-American girl into the Bride of Scientology.

An Us Weekly source also believes that Suri photos would be a less valuable commodity than Shiloh pics. The thinking -- Brad and Angelina were "beautiful and romantic" after their baby was born. The source says the value in Suri pics have more to do with the "freak factor" of her parents.

And there's this -- One editor told TMZ that the price of the photographs would depend in no small part on where the proceeds from the sale end up, implying that it would be a very different matter if the millions went to African orphans than straight into the coffers of the Church of Scientology.

But what if the first Suri pics were not posed but captured by a paparazzo? A source at Splash News, a photo agency, thinks the shot would be "the biggest picture by a long mile in the world, and that as time goes on, it will only get more valuable. " The source says one good shot could fetch up to $2 million.

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1. Meanwhile -- we can't even get Congress to raise the minimum wage for the poor working stiff after 10 years stuck at $5.25 an hour! That's pathetic! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPxln9ceOPo

Posted at 2:02PM on Jul 13th 2006 by J-Z

2. Im sorry, but this is just captivating. Wholesome meets freak fest and together they have the world in wonderment. No one can blame us after EVERYTHING they did to get our attention for this moment after all the crazy publicity he has done up until the birth...Well, heres to Tom. He certainly knows how to make people loathe him!

Posted at 2:17PM on Jul 13th 2006 by Stephanie

3. Hey I'll pay the big bucks for a pic of Suri.. I think I can scrounge up $1.37 from the bottom of my pocketbook. Yeah that's how much it's worth.

Posted at 2:25PM on Jul 13th 2006 by EasyMac

4. Will Smit doesn't think that Suri exsist :-(
When he last visited the couple to see Suri, they where not amused and he didn't got in ;-) Hehe...
Till next time...
Your friend from The Netherlands!
WESTLEY
http://www.westley.nl

Posted at 2:31PM on Jul 13th 2006 by WESTLEY

5. Slap 'em in the face.

All the papers should start lowering their prices...just so they know...they dont really care about your child...

Everyone send in offers of 500k

Screw A million - to me...that would be entertainment...

Suri pictures top bidder to pay 675,000

LOL

Posted at 2:41PM on Jul 13th 2006 by mellowpuppy

6. So it turns out the story about Suri having a photoshoot and no one willing to pay enough money was just another TOMKAT RUMOR... no surprise there considering it started with Roger Friedman and his "sources."

Posted at 2:56PM on Jul 13th 2006 by rex

7. I think Suri doesn't exist or she is and ugly child and that is why Tom and Katie are hiding her, they are to embaressed with her looks! Or maybe Tom, who it sounds like has complete and total control of Katie, just won't share his prize possessions with the world!

Posted at 2:56PM on Jul 13th 2006 by KP

8. Tom Cruise is such a public a**....he just wants everyone to focus their attention on him and he's probably disgusted that he wasnt offered more $$ that the branjolina baby.....he totally disgusts me and so does katie now, sh'e just sooooo phony

Posted at 2:59PM on Jul 13th 2006 by RACHEL

9. I'm surprised no one has gotten Suri's diapers yet to DNA test them against Katie's old boyfriend. Looks like she had the baby early and used padding until it was time for "Tom's" baby to be born.

Come on slackers! Get with the scrounging! lol

Posted at 3:00PM on Jul 13th 2006 by xan

10. That's not Tom's baby - it's her old boyfriend's. Tom can't have kids. She had the baby early and padded her tummy until "Tom's" baby was supposed to be born.

Posted at 3:02PM on Jul 13th 2006 by xan

11. J-Z: What the hell does this have to do with the minimum wage???? You're talking apples & oranges here. Perhaps an economics lesson about supply & demand would be useful for you.

The two issues are completely unrelated. The magazines pay so that they can draw in the advertising dollars and magazine sales, and that's how they set such a high price - it's what the market will bear in exchange for the income and "cred" they'll get as a result of running the photos.

If you want to compare the cost of living to minimum wage, that would make sense. Not to mention the fact that Congress doesn't set the price for these pictures so what the hell does it have to do with that at all???

Posted at 3:08PM on Jul 13th 2006 by SER

12. Okay...time to get off the Suri and Tom Cruise bandwagon and on to some other newsworthy gossip. Suri this, Suri that.....ugh. You should name this blog "Suriobsessed.com" instead. So what about how much her photos will fetch. Enough already!!! What else is going on in Hollywood?

Posted at 3:11PM on Jul 13th 2006 by Vera

13. Is there any way to remove a post you made? I thought I retyped one above (to make it nicer) and it ended up posting both. Sorry. I hate duplicate posts.

Posted at 3:12PM on Jul 13th 2006 by xan

14. I agree with comment number one, this is all so pathetic. At this point who gives a fuck if we see the baby. People think that they adopted the baby or something, so even if we see the baby there’s going to be speculations’ that’s it’s not even theirs. This all is a plot, one story after another just to keep them in the headlines and if that’s the case their doing a good job.

Posted at 3:14PM on Jul 13th 2006 by melissa

15. It's weird that when TomKat are not making the publicity themselves, the media are actually crying for them to make one. Makes one wonder if they had been crucified for something they didn't intentionally do.

From what I heard, Chinese people believe to be outside the house in the first 40 or 100 days (not exactly sure) is not good for baby's health. So this could be another hardcore Scientology thing that the media need to confirm with (why didn't anyone think of this before?).

However, I lean more towards the opinion that even though he had jumped the Oprah's couch, it doesn't mean he's dragging the whole entire family into the commotion. Afterall, we know how protective Tom has been about his kids. In fact, before all this overblown craziness, that's one of the few things we noticed of him.

So give the poor baby a break! It might be the only time she has before someone eventually steals a super-sekrit-photo of Suri and sells it to the tabloid.

Posted at 3:14PM on Jul 13th 2006 by Jolie

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