Katie Holmes went underground before Tom Cruise split

New York: Katie Holmes reportedly cut off communications from almost all of her friends - switching cell phones and e-mail addresses, before pulling off a daring escape from Tom Cruise.

The ‘Dawson’s Creek’ star played all of her cards close to the vest, treating many of her closest pals on a need-to-know basis, leading up to her bombshell divorce filing in New York seven days ago. “She was talking to Tom on the phone up until last week saying, ‘I love you’,” the New York Post quoted a source close to the actress as telling People magazine. Even when Holmes, 33, was away in China last month, her dad and closest pals were secretly pulling strings for her big flee for freedom. “Her inner circle has been planning this and switching out cell phones since she was in China [in mid-June]. “When new cell phones arrived, then nobody could reach her. Her old best friends from last week don’t have her new number, no e-mail. She’s unreachable,” the source said. Cruise knew his wife had rented a new Chelsea apartment in early June but the ‘Top Gun’ astar didn’t know it was a piece of Holmes’ grand escape plan. “[Tom] knew that she moved there, but [he thought it was] for different reasons. “She said she moved there to drive into the underground garage. There are fewer paparazzi and it’s less intrusive for her. “It was the first phase of getting everything out of the house, and that’s why she was able to say she’s moving without giving an indication that she was going to divorce him,” the source added. The shocking divorce court development stunned Cruise and brought a dark cloud over the actor’s 50th birthday. He flew back to California from Iceland, where he was filming ‘Oblivion,’ and had a “somber” birthday bash with his kids Bella, 19, Connor, 17, a source close to the actor said. Even with divorce proceedings looming over Cruise and Holmes, he’s still keeping in phone contact with Suri. “Say what you will about Tom, but there is no doubt he loves his daughter,” a second Cruise source told the mag. “Not seeing her would be very hard on him.” Her dad Martin Holmes reportedly helped out too, firing some of Katie’s assistants and hiring new team members to assist in the elaborate scheme. Holmes and Suri have been holed up, under tight security, at their luxurious Chelsea pad. Holmes, raised Catholic in Ohio, pulled the trigger on divorcing Cruise because she didn’t want their daughter Suri, 6, undergoing creepy Scientology brainwashing. The actress has told a neighbour she still fears that Cruise or his Scientology henchman might try to kidnap Suri, law enforcement sources have said. According to TMZ.com, Holmes has witnessed Cruise’s other children undergo a weird “sec checking” interrogation, with the kids hooked up to a make-shift lie detector. She reportedly found the goofy ritual -- aimed at finding “areas of spiritual distress” -- troubling and didn’t want Suri subjected to it. ANI