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Confirmed: Katie Holmes Had A Secret Entrance to Her Local Whole Foods

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For a rather long time—since 2012, at least—the more conspiracy theory-prone corners of the blogosphere were absolutely convinced that when Katie Holmes was living in the Chelsea Mercantile building post-split from Tom Cruise, she was using a secret entrance to get inside the Whole Foods on the ground floor. Why? Because while paparazzi were constantly able to snap photos of Holmes and daughter Suri Cruise leaving the store, no one ever seemed to catch them entering.

Until yesterday, it had all been a wildly entertaining guessing game, perhaps made even more titillating with the release of HBO's Scientology documentary Going Clear—a large chunk of it focused on Cruise, whose reported attempts to indoctrinate Suri with the religion possibly contributed to their divorce. But thanks to a Gawker tipster, we now know that the rumor was entirely, 100% true.

Last Friday, a resident who has lived in the building wrote (emphasis theirs):

I've lived in the Mercantile since [redacted] and have it on excellent authority that there is indeed a way to enter Whole Foods from the basement of the building. Now, I haven't entered that way myself, but a very good source with the building tells me that it is possible. The source ... claims it's only possible with permission from Whole Foods, and that it only happened once. Source confirms that person was Ms. Holmes.

And yesterday, a municipal engineer told the publication confirmed (emphasis theirs):

Based on my review of the plans, there is a door between the cellar level employee area and the cellar level corridor of the Mercantile building. Ms. Holmes probably went through this door and never had to step outside.... If [the door is] alarmed, someone has keys to it. Ms. Holmes just had to make nice with the building superintendent or a maintenance worker at Whole Foods.

Though Holmes has since moved out of the building, we recommend you don't attempt to sneak in yourself—you'll more than likely set the alarm off.

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The Chelsea Mercantile

252 7th Ave, New York, NY 10001