In this photo from Duracell, actress Jada Pinkett Smith holds a new child safety book, co-developed by Duracell and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, at the Preschool of America, New York, Wednesday, May, 2, 2007.[AP]

Jada Pinkett Smith says good friend Katie Holmes is an equal partner in her marriage with Tom Cruise.

"People think Tom and the Church of Scientology got something on Kate? They don't," the 35-year-old actress and wife of Will Smith tells People.com in a story posted Thursday. "Kate is running her own show. And she's a great mother. Her kids — Connor, Bella, Suri — are dynamic children and are extremely happy. And her husband is very, very happy."

Pinkett Smith denies reports that Holmes, 28, is a prisoner in her marriage to the 44-year-old actor, who's been depicted by the tabloids as a controlling husband.

"It burns my soul — I see her in the house with Tom; he doesn't have that on her! ... Let me tell you: Kate ain't no little wimpy kitty cat," says Pinkett Smith, who also calls Holmes a "tigress."

The Smiths — close friends of the Cruise-Holmes clan — attended the couple's lavish wedding in Italy last year. Pinkett Smith says Holmes "did not break a sweat" amid the media frenzy.

Dark-haired, blue-eyed Suri was born last year — again, media frenzy. Cruise has two children, Isabella and Connor, from his previous marriage to Nicole Kidman.

"She's young, she popped into motherhood very fast," Pinkett Smith says of Holmes. "If you think about the transition she's done, with as much grace she's had, and on top of it with the attacks — I don't know how she does it."

Pinkett Smith says she's amazed "how people want to focus on `She's tied up in the basement and he throws steaks to her at night and she gets to see Suri only on Sundays.' It's ridiculous."