Katie Holmes knows a thing or two about juggling a movie career, motherhood, and marriage to a superstar. So who does she consider a role model?

“Jada is so strong,” Holmes tells PEOPLE of her friend Jada Pinkett Smith, 37. “She is a rare woman - a phenomenal friend, mother, wife. She inspires me.”

Adds her husband, Tom Cruise: “Jada tells it like it is. She creates art in her life … She’s effortless. She just has such class.”

Cruise, 46, also admires the way Pinkett Smith attends to her busy career (she’s currently the voice of Gloria the hippo in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, in which her daughter Willow, 8, plays the junior version of the sassy pachyderm) and still makes her husband of nearly 11 years, Will Smith, 40, and their children her No. 1 priority.

“She is an extraordinary woman and an amazing mother,” he says. “She’s constantly wanting to improve herself and her family.” Agrees Holmes: “She’s just a powerhouse.”

Who’s your Favorite Star Under 35? PEOPLE.com and the People’s Choice Awards are counting your votes! Click here to vote now!

Source:www.People.com

Katie Holmes made her much-anticipated Broadway debut Thursday night, sharing the stage with respected Broadway veterans John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest and Patrick Wilson. As if that weren’t challenging enough, she also had to tackle the high-drama of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. So, was she nervous?

“I was very, very excited!” Mrs. Tom Cruise told PEOPLE after taking her bow. “We had my whole family. Tom’s whole family. Friends flew in. It’s exciting.”

Those friends included Jada Pinkett Smith and Patricia Clarkson, who costarred with Holmes in the movie Pieces of April. Barbara Walters, Blythe Danner and Isabella Rossellini also filled out the star-studded audience.

After her performance - which Cruise’s mother, Mary Lee Mapother, declared, “Fantastic!” - Holmes chatted with PEOPLE:

KH: There was definitely a lot more energy. The whole cast, we all got there about an hour and a half %26#91;early%26#93; and we had gifts for each other and we were running up and down the steps …. It felt like Christmas.

PEOPLE: Is Tom supportive?

KH: He comes %26#91;to the theater%26#93; a lot. He came to the dress rehearsal. I was so nervous, and I saw him out there, and he made me feel so much better. Every time he’s there, I just feel like it’s going to be okay.

PEOPLE: Is it difficult balancing your theater work with being a mom?

KH: It’s a great schedule, because %26#91;Suri and I%26#93; get to spend the whole day together and then I go and do the play. Then I come home and we play some more!

PEOPLE: And Suri had her own dressing room at the theater?

KH: Yeah, we have a dressing room that is transformed into a playroom. It has a little piano.

PEOPLE: First motherhood, then a marathon, and now your Broadway debut. What’s your next big challenge?

KH: Thanksgiving!

RELATED GALLERY:
• See ALL of Katie’s PEOPLE covers!
RELATED ARTICLE:
• 2006: Revisit Julia Roberts’s Broadway debut

Katie Holmes is already making her Broadway debut in All My Sons - but the actress will be singing and dancing her way through a guest appearance on ABC’s Eli Stone - and PEOPLE has a first look at her in character.

Holmes will play a non-profit attorney with a mysterious case - and some musical ability - during her Oct. 21 appearance.

“She’s singing and dancing,” Eli Stone producer Greg Berlanti told PEOPLE in July. But the producer wouldn’t reveal much more about the musical show, saying, “We want to keep an element of mystery for the audience.”

What’s not a mystery, though, is how Holmes fared on set.

“She was super gracious and lovely,” Natasha Henstridge, who plays the title character’s ex-fiancée, said in July. “And statuesque and gorgeous.”

- Brian Orloff

• Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, stepping out in sync - both dressed in gray blazers - for dinner at Italian restaurant Il Valentino in midtown Manhattan. Perhaps the outing was a celebration for Holmes’s success in the Broadway show All My Sons? The drama, which is running in previews, officially opens Oct. 16.

• Nicole Richie, having a late lunch with 8-month-old daughter Harlow at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s Polo Lounge. The new mom, who sported a red floral-printed shirt and jean shorts and wore her hair partially pulled back, dined with an unidentified older woman and nibbled on the McCarthy chopped salad between playing with her little girl. She and her companion smiled and cooed over Harlow throughout their meal.

• Owen Wilson, making a late-night pit stop at one of his favorite haunts, Venice, Calif., bar The Other Room. Dressed casually in jeans, a T-shirt and a dark flannel button-down, he made his way to the back of the very crowded venue and laughed with a male friend over a drink at the bar. Wilson welcomed several fans who stopped by to say hello before leaving inconspicuously after only 20 minutes. A couple of days later, the actor had dinner with two male friends at trendy Venice eatery Gjelina, where they talked quietly at one of the restaurant’s communal tables.

• Lauren Conrad, holding hands with boyfriend Kyle Howard at a 30th birthday bash for club promoter Jean Paul Rodriguez at Teddy’s at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The Hills star and her man stole kisses in the privacy of their booth and were inseparable during the party. Also making the scene: Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who danced to Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl”, Frankie Delgado, Jesse McCartney and Kevin Connolly.

• Colin Farrell, watching his novelist girlfriend Emma Forrest do a striptease burlesque number set to traditional Jewish music at Heeb magazine’s “Heeb Storytelling” night at M Bar in Hollywood. Farrell sported his ladylove’s Star of David necklace while partying with fellow event-goers Natalie Portman, Kate Beckinsale and Rose McGowan.

• Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder took over a dark corner of VIP-only Bar 1200 at the Sunset Marquis Hotel and Villas in West Hollywood. Reeves, dressed in jeans and a black blazer, and Ryder, wearing a black T-shirt and pants, sipped cocktails as they talked seriously. The actress, whose shoes were off, sat catty-corner from her former Dracula costar, who listened intently to her as he chain-smoked. As the night went on, the pair inched closer and closer to each other so that they ended up sitting side by side. They stayed until closing and then headed out together.

• By DAVID CAPLAN, JENNIFER GARCIA and KEN LEE

Celebrity Hot Spots.

Monday’s Couples Watch >

Katie Holmes made her Broadway debut in the revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons Thursday night - and her biggest fan was in the audience to cheer her on.

“I’m so proud of her,” Holmes’s husband, Tom Cruise, told PEOPLE before the curtain went up on the first preview at New York’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. (The show officially opens Oct. 16.) “This means so much to her.”

Looking radiant in a royal blue 1940s -style dress, Holmes took the stage with a cast that includes Broadway vets John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest and Patrick Wilson.

His crime, which he blamed his business partner, comes back to haunt him when his son (Wilson) plans to wed his partner’s daughter (Holmes).

At the end of the two-and-a-half-hour production, an enthusiastic Cruise joined the audience - which also included his Rain Man costar Dustin Hoffman - in a rousing standing ovation that lasted through three curtain calls.

Outside the theater, fans eager to get a glimpse of Holmes mobbed the stage door. The former Dawson’s Creek star walked out casually dressed in a black shirt and pants and happily posed for pictures.

“She should be very proud of her performance,” said Hoffman. “She did a fine job.”

RELATED GALLERIES:
• See Katie’s SEVEN PEOPLE covers!
• See Tom, Katie and Suri’s family album on Celebrity Baby Blog
RELATED ARTICLE:
• 2006: Revisit Julia Roberts’s Broadway debut

Katie Holmes’s long-awaited Broadway debut is finally here - and Tom Cruise is by the side of his leading lady.

Previews for the revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, in which Holmes stars with John Lithgow, Diane Wiest and Patrick Wilson, begin Thursday night at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in New York City.

After arriving in town with their daughter Suri via helicopter on Tuesday, Cruise joined Holmes at her final rehearsal Wednesday, and the pair smiled for photographers as they exited the theater arm-in-arm.

After a few weeks of preview performances, All My Sons makes its official premiere Oct. 16 - when the critics will weigh in.

RELATED GALLERY:
• See Katie’s SEVEN PEOPLE covers!
RELATED ARTICLE:
• Katie runs the New York City Marathon!

Get ready to see Katie Holmes kick up her heels - and carry a tune.

“She does a song-and-dance number that is the best one we’ve ever done,” costar Matt Letscher tells PEOPLE of Holmes’s upcoming guest stint this fall on ABC’s fanciful drama, Eli Stone.

“We’ve done tons of %26#91;musical numbers%26#93;, and she was just phenomenal,” Letscher said at the premiere of his new film Towelhead in L.A. on Tuesday.

Holmes, 30, who has been rehearsing in New York City for her upcoming Broadway debut in arthur Miller’s All My Sons, also made a good first impression on the set.

“She’s the sweetest person in the world, down to earth, simple,” says Letscher. “She’s just like anybody else. I met her daughter and her husband was on set. It was great.”

So, is there hope she’ll return for more episodes? “They’ve left it open,” says Letscher. “I think she a had a great time, which made it easier. Everyone was welcoming and it couldn’t have worked out better.”

Katie Holmes’s Broadway premiere is just around the corner, and her play bill image is ready to go.

The poster for the revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons simply highlights the actress, along with costars John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest and Patrick Wilson. The family drama premieres Oct. 16, with previews beginning Sept. 18.

Tom Cruise may only have a small part in Tropic Thunder, but he ruled the red carpet for the Los Angeles premiere.

Cruise, who donned a fat suit to play studio exec Les Grossman in the film, stayed close to wife Katie Holmes Monday night, greeting fans and only letting go of her hand to pose for a quick cast shot.

Other than the fans, fellow star were happy to see the couple - PEOPLE caught Matthew McConaughey, Ben Stiller and Jack Black all giving big hugs to Cruise. And costar Jay Baruchel told PEOPLE that Cruise is “the funniest guy in the world.”

Stiller, who wrote, produced and acted in the movie, arrived with his wife Christine Taylor, who also had a cameo (She previously appeared in Stiller’s Zoolander and Dodgeball.) .

“It was so much fun for us,” Taylor said, adding of the third time she costarred with her husband, “I’ve gotten used to %26#91;it%26#93; through the years.”

Later, Stiller told PEOPLE the secret to their eight-year marriage is “that it’s all about mutual respect, and really being there for that other person. You can’t take anything for granted.”

As for Tropic Thunder facing some controversy, with Downey playing an African American and Stiller playing Simple Jack, a mentally disabled character, Stiller said simply, “It’s a free country.”

RELATED ARTICLES
• See funnyman Ben Stiller as one of PEOPLE’s Sexiest Men in 2001.

She may hang out with celebrities Victoria Beckham and David Beckham - and hubby Tom Cruise, of course - but Wednesday Katie Holmes proved that real American heroes trump all.

Wearing sunglasses and a ruffled black dress over black tights and shiny grey flats, the 29-year-old mom and her bodyguard shared a Manhattan moment chatting and getting photographed with some of New York City’s Bravest downtown. The actress is in the Big Apple rehearsing her upcoming Broadway show, All My Sons.

The Arthur Miller family drama, which also stars John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest, premieres Oct. 16.
- Michael Y. Park