Watch "Kate" split. Watch "Kate" win the media game.

I'm calling this "Katie/Before"

But I'll get to that in a minute. Late-breaking news from the Pinterest Realm (which I only begrudgingly even bother with, because I'm tired of the universe posting "3 ingredient desserts that are the best thing you'll ever put in your mouth." Frankly. Anyway). Under the heading of "best sorta famous people who Pin" -- Rose McGowan and Ann Romney. Rose McGowan has a major shoe hangup and posts some EXCELLENT heels. Ann Romney finds the best recipes for healthy stuff. Good salads, good shoes: pretty good afternoon of work-dodging, right there.

So about that Watch Kate Split, bit:

Seriously: all of a sudden I have a crazy-unexpected brand of respect for that Katie Holmes. Enough respect that I definitely just fired up the entire first season of Dawson's Creek on Netflix because I never watched it, originally, but wanted to be reminded of the Young, Fresh Katie that I remember existed before the dead-eyed, mom-jeans-wearing version took over. Bring back Young, Fresh Katie! That girl's still in there! Smiles -- WITH TEETH -- are still in your future, darlin! "Grab that net and catch that beautiful butterfly!"

Anyway -- obviously we know she filed to escape Xenu last week. BUT, that was just the start of a media blitzkrieg that's debuted a happier-looking version of what has turned out to be an exceptionally PR-savvy starlet. Want to get public goodwill on your side? Ice cream dates with Suri, complete with big, toothy (Tom Cruise-esque, ironically) grins. Plenty of "regular gal" runs to Whole Foods. Normal-person-clothes.

And this is "Katie/After"

Seriously, the girl has looked 10 years younger in the last 8 days -- it's a wonder what ditching the cult will do for a girl's glow. That's not the only thing she has working in her favor.....

APPARENTLY, her decision to file for divorce in New York was strategic -- first off, she's snagged herself a new apartment, is setting up a good case for permanent residency there (which will likely come into play with custody hearings, as I understand it?), and, even if Tom tried, he's unable to counter-file in California, because it's "Not possible to file in separate states at the same time." That means more legal jumping-jacks for Tommy if he's particularly set on hashing this out in a California court, for what it's worth. Rumor has it that he'd have a better chance of snagging joint custody of Suri if the entire divorce mess went down in California.

Radar has good details here, the gist is that he's planning to "file a response in New York, asking that....proceedings be halted in the Big Apple because California is the proper venue for the matter to proceed. Team Cruise is going to assert that Katie doesn't meet the residency requirements to file in New York, and that both live full time in California, specifically Los Angeles." That's according to a source for Radar.

Then there's a second "vein" of gossip that deals with Katie's intimate knowledge of the inner workings of Scientology (auditing, etc), and that she's carrying on very visibly, and being photographed repeatedly in a bid for protection against the Scientology goons she's rumoured to believe are following her. The more flashbulb hounds she's being followed by, the more remote her chance of some sort of....."altercation" with the Xenu clan.

The Hollywood Reporter has an entire feature about The Katie Situation becoming Scientology's biggest nightmare.

Because she escaped.

After watching the light dribble out of her eyes over the years, this Katie Rebirth is engendering a huge sense of empathy toward her from most of us gossip-mongers. Seeing her look happy again is the best PR move she could have made -- but being legally savvy and covering her bases: that accomplishes something that wasn't even in the periphery for most of us before -- she comes off as smart, sharp, and alert -- and as the presumed underdog in the battle to come, America can't help but love her -- we love an underdog.

Also: not to jump on this before the ink on the paperwork is even dry, but how much fun is it going to be to play my "Who Should Katie Date Next?" game? It'll be fun.