From a video celebrity photo agency X17 took of the family's trip to a Paris restaurant in November, it looks like Jeff's wife Ana Kathrein, his partner in a wedding-photography business, is the other nanny, since the help is said to travel constantly with the family and no other adults are visible with the Travoltas.

According to a record of Scientology courses taken, Ana Kathrein is a Grade III Scientologist, which puts her three grades away from being "clear," a vaunted status Travolta has apparently attained.

So why did Travolta and Preston pick these two — aside from their common religion, which teaches wacky beliefs about mental illness — to care for their children? Jett Travolta reportedly suffered from a host of medical problems, which his parents claim stem from exposure to carpet-cleaning chemicals, a claim medical experts find unlikely. Some speculate he had autism, a condition for which parents often hire expert caregivers. Instead, Jett got two Scientologist wedding photographers.

A TMZ.com story on the death of John Travolta's 16-year-old son, Jett, mentioned that he was found by family nanny Jeff Kathrein — but it didn't run a famous picture of Travolta kissing Kathrein.

In 2006, Kathrein and Travolta were caught by paparazzi locking lips. The Travolta camp's official explanation: Why, John kisses everyone like that! But in the wake of a teenager's death, no one stopped to ask who the man who found him dead is, and what his relationship was to the kid's father.

Kathrein is one of the Travolta family's two nannies. On his website, he describes himself as a photographer; he mostly lenses weddings. His qualifications for childcare are unclear, other than being a Scientologist like Jett's parents, John Travolta and Kelly Preston. Kathrein's wife, Ana, is also a Scientologist. (Some Scientology critics believe the church forces gays and lesbians to stay in the closet and pursue heterosexual relationships, frequently citing Travolta and Preston's marriage.)

Why the deference from TMZ, which is usually the standards-bearer of standards-lowering? Much remains mysterious about Jett Travolta's tragic death — and impolite questions ought to be asked. Isn't that what celebrity tabloids are good for?

Take the family's unchallenged assertion that he suffered from Kawasaki disease, an immunological syndrome which causes painful inflammation, after exposure to carpet-cleaning chemicals, and that he died after hitting his head after suffering a related seizure. At least one doctor disputes the notion, saying that there's no link between chemical exposure and Kawasaki disease and that it does not cause seizures.

Jett may have suffered instead from autism which went untreated, because of Travolta's adherence to the cultlike religion of Scientology and the bizarre beliefs about mental illness that go with it. And if Travolta hired Kathrein for reasons other than the best interests of his child? That only makes it worse.

The TMZ story, with a grainy photo of Travolta and Kathrein buried in the lower right-hand corner:

And the 2006 National Enquirer story which ran both an innocent-seeming photo of Travolta and Kathrein talking, and the two locking lips:

According to the Mayo Clinic's website, it's an uncommon disorder that affects children, "that causes inflammation in the walls of small- and medium-sized arteries throughout the body, including the coronary arteries." It comes with a variety of unpleasant symptoms, including diarrhea and lots of skin peeling. But in most cases children suffering from Kawasaki Syndrome make complete recoveries after receiving proper treatment. However, Jett Travolta—whose parents described him as a Kawasaki sufferer amid reports that the boy was actually autistic—has had medical problems for years.

While promoting Ladder 49 in 2005, Travolta described what he said was the first time Jett suffered from Kawasaki Syndrome when he was 15 months old:

"He was hospitalised for five days. His whole body swelled up, it was chemical poisoning, from picking up toys or food particles from the carpet."

The supposed culprit was a carpet cleaner, so the family decided to go natural. Travolta's wife Kelly Preston told the Mirror in 2004:

Jett's whole immune system shut down and he got really sick with high fevers - 104and 105. He developed a rash on his body and swollen lymph glands - it was horrible. ... We're 90 per cent organic, though there's some canned foods - a little bit of junk food here and there.

But lots of folks just didn't believe this story, claiming that the boy's parents' rigid devotion to the Church of Scientology—a cult that doesn't eagerly recognize mental illness as anything that vitamins and exercise can't fix—was causing them to willfully deny what some saw as painfully obvious: that Jett was suffering from autism. Folks picketed the Travolta/Preston family, saying that their refusal to seek treatment for the boy bordered on—or, you know, flat out was—child abuse. Travolta's brother Joey even produced a movie about the condition, but the family continued to shut down any reports that autism was involved. They hewed to the Kawasaki Syndrome story while a glib world believed there to be some bigger secret truth.