Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise

London, July 10: Katie Holmes, whose whirlwind engagement to Tom Cruise has produced one of Hollywood’s more improbable unions, has taken on a new role ? that of a lovestruck automation.

In her first big interview since her betrothal to Cruise, who turned 43 last week, the actor, 26, responded to every question with gushing platitudes as her Scientologist “minder” looked on approvingly.

“I’ve found the man of my dreams,” Holmes told a bemused interviewer from W magazine in America.

“From the moment I met him it just felt like I’d known him forever. I was blown away. He’s the most incredible man.”

Holmes was chaperoned throughout, as she has been almost constantly since she met Cruise six weeks before he proposed to her at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Jessica Rodriguez, 29, a senior member of L. Ron Hubbard’s Church of Scientology, denied that she was “working” with Holmes. “Oh no, we’re just best friends... Well, Katie has a lot of friends.” And how long have you been friends? “Oh, a while,” Rodriguez said.

Cruise has been a vocal supporter of the Church of Scientology since his conversion to the religion after his 1987 marriage to Mimi Rogers. During the interview, Rodriguez helpfully supplemented Holmes’s declarations of love for the diminutive actor (“You adore him”, she prompted on one occasion).

Rodriguez also intervened when the interviewer asked whether, as has been speculated, the “TomKat” relationship had been dreamed up by publicity agents. “The truth is, we don’t read that stuff because it’s just rude,” she said.

Holmes’s blanket adoration never wavered. Is there anything you guys don’t have in common? “You know, we appreciate each other.” Do you ever wonder whether this is just a honeymoon phase? “Tom and I will always be in our honeymoon phase.”

The interview ended when a giant silver box arrived with a present from Cruise ? a Chanel diamond necklace. Holmes screamed in delight. “He’s my man! He’s my man!”