After weeks of rehearsals, it’s becoming clear: Katie Holmes has to know she can dance. “She’s really blossoming into a gorgeous triple-threat star,” says choreographer Mia Michaels of the actress’s moves for the 100th episode of So You Think You Can Dance. “So, I’m excited. I saw clips of it and it’s brilliant!”
When Holmes, 30, channels Judy Garland on July 23, it’ll be for a good cause. The actress’s song-and-dance number on Fox’s hit show will aid a nonprofit she helped found, , which provides scholarships and other assistance to young dancers.
As fans of the show, Holmes and her daughter Suri often attended dress rehearsals, so she seemed like the perfect choice to help start the organization, says Nigel Lythgoe, another co-founder and executive producer of So You Think You Can Dance, who was hooked up with Holmes through the show’s other choreographer, Tyce Diorio.
“I called Tyce up and I said, ‘How would Katie feel about doing something on the show that would bring notoriety to a foundation?’” Lythgoe tells PEOPLE. “And he spoke to her, we then got together and Tyce, I and Katie met and discussed the whole thing, and I realized that she was so passionate about the project and I invited her to be a founding member of the whole foundation!”
As well as Holmes, director Adam Shankman and Dancing with the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba are founding members. The celebrity steering committee includes Paula Abdul, Jennifer Lopez and Miley Cyrus, who will give out 10 scholarships around the country. Says Lythgoe: “We’ve got lots of very high ambitions.” – Jed Dreben
Source: People
After Katie Holmes was at the CBS studios where FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance is taped, rumors began to swirl that the actress would be making an appearance on the show. Show reps have not commented and executive producer Nygel Lythgoe’s rep only confirmed he met with Holmes, but said, “he meets with people all the time.”
At , producers continued to play it coy on whether Holmes, 30, would perform a Broadway number on the show — and Lythgoe, who’s rumored to be directing the piece, further fueled the gossip fire skipping press interviews after Thursday’s show, leaving judge Mary Murphy to do any potential bean spilling — or not.
“If it is true, I’m going to be one of the happiest campers around, let me tell ya!” Murphy teased backstage. “I just wish I knew!”
While rumors of Holmes paying homage to Judy Garland by singing “Get Happy” from Summer Stock circulate on the Web, Murphy, who said she sometimes doesn’t know what guest musical act is going to appear, wasn’t giving anything away when asked if the buzz was true. “Well, that’s exactly what it is right now,” she said. “It’s just rumor and it is just buzz.”
Meanwhile, publicists for the show were visibly policing talent, making sure that no one slipped, and in one case, ending a TV interview with notoriously outspoken choreographer Mia Michaels. – Jed Dreben
After rehearsing for her dance number on the show So You Think You Can Dance, Katie Holmes flashes a big smile as she leaves CBS Studios in Los Angeles on Wednesday (June 17) with her choreographer Tyce Diorio and daughter Suri.
It was announced yesterday that Katiewill be doing her own rendition of Judy Garland’s “Get Happy,” from her 1950 musical, Summer Stock.
A source has said, “She has talked about doing musical theater for some time now. And even though it feels strange that she’d do So You Think You Can Dance, it could be good for the next phase of her career.”
