Tuesday, June 28, 2005
  Tom Cruise, Medical Expert

From yesterday's IMDB daily briefing:

TV host Matt Lauer tested Tom Cruise's ire on Friday on the Today show when he quizzed the famous Scientologist about comments he made recently about antidepressant drugs. The movie star, who is fervently opposed to all kinds of Mind-altering drugs, lashed out at actress Brooke Shields in an interview earlier this month for condoning the use of drugs she used to help overcome post-partum depression. And during an interview to promote his new film War Of The Worlds, Cruise fired off at Lauer when the TV host urged him to expand on his comments about drugs and then argued about the benefits of anti-depressants. Cruise snarled, "You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do." The interview became more heated when Lauer, who said he knew people who had been helped by the attention-deficit disorder drug Ritalin, disagreed with Cruise about the effects of the drug. He said, "You're glib. You don't even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories... That's what I've done." And Cruise became super-serious when Lauer suggested he knew people who swore by drugs like Ritalin. The movie star growled, "This is very important issue and you know what, you're here on the Today show to talk about it in a way of saying, 'Well, isn't it OK?' and being reasonable about it when you don't know and I do. I think that you should be a little more responsible in knowing what it (Ritalin) is."


Am I the only person who thinks Cruise came off as kind of a ... well, kind of a pr*ck, here?
 
Comments:
Of Matt Lauer and Tom Cruise, I think neither is a trained psychiatrist, or a scientist---that makes their comments somewhat specious. On the other hand, it makes for entertaining viewing---snippy works for me.
 
A friend was trying to explain Scientology to me today. I of course remember the ads for dianetics when I was a kid, that cool volcano exploding that I thought was a trailer for some cool new show and then the disapointment of "oh wait...now thats a book...what the heck is dianetics and HEY new He-man toys!" and there went my attention span.

So a Sci Fi author writes about aliens who live inside a volcano, and today people live their lives according to that? I'm just raising a question, not casting judgment.

I actually agree with Cruise to a certain point. Mood altering drugs have been abused and prescribed in cases where they're not needed, CAUSING problems and dependencies, and also alone they're useless without therapy. But there are cases where its a medical need and it's messed up that he attacked Brooke Shields for her postpartum depression. Pretty sure Cruise isn't an expert on the "history of psychiatry".

Of course the kicker is, despite the fact that his discussion did nothing to promote his movie, I'm STILL going to see it. =)
 
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