“Ordinary parents protect their children; that’s an impulse the public can identify with in the celebrity game. Suri Cruise‘s parents might have gotten more mileage out of releasing a modest family snapshot and leaving it at that, shutting down the media frenzy without inventing a bigger show of their own. A show is clearly what they were looking for, but the entire over-the-top operation” behind the Tom Cruise–Katie Holmes-and-Suri Vanity Fair photo spread “involving the famous photographer and a photo so hyped it was revealed on Katie Couric‘s first newscast as CBS anchor Tuesday — carries a whiff of desperation. It reveals a media circus masquerading as ordinary life, and speaks to the devil’s bargain some celebrities make with the public.” — Caryn James writing in Thursday’s New York Times.