06/27/2005
One a Day
In case you missed Tom Cruise's sparring with Matt Lauer over the efficacy of psychiatry and vitamins on Friday's Today show, Crooks and Liars has the video clip...
Posted 2:36 PM EST by Andy Towle in Film & TV | Permalink
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I've seen the interview and boy has Tom gone around the bend...I'm sure he was always this crazy, it was just that his ex-publicist was smart enough to keep him out of the press...his new publicist, his sister, doesn't seem to have the same ability.
Posted by: Wayne | Jun 27, 2005 3:29:58 PM
Maybe reaching a certain level of fame raises the odds of turning into a nutty freak. He's done......
Posted by: kelly | Jun 27, 2005 3:40:45 PM
What a pompus ass.
Posted by: kimmer | Jun 27, 2005 3:51:55 PM
Most of the reason the interview was uncomfortable for me to watch, anyway, was that Matt lauer is obviously trained to be a coherent spontaneous speaker, whereas Cruise, alas, is really inarticulate.
What Cruise should have said was, "I think using anti-depressants to treat depression is like using nasal spray to treat allergies. Both only treat a symptom without helping the underlying condition."
Posted by: alan | Jun 27, 2005 3:54:04 PM
Matt should have questioned Tom's authority on Psychiatry...Tom isn't an expert, he an SAE, Self Appointed Expert. Matt should have called him on all of it, but instead he was star struck and let him get away with far too much.
Posted by: Wayne | Jun 27, 2005 3:57:10 PM
The sight of Tom Cruise's face nauseates me anymore. Ever since his weird divorce accusations against Nicole (still unclarified) he's looked unhinged to me. As Brooke Shields said in response to the Today show interview, Tom should stick to doing what he knows how to do - fighting aliens.
Posted by: Bill | Jun 27, 2005 4:14:23 PM
This is your brain. This is your brain in a cult...
Posted by: liberal server | Jun 27, 2005 5:16:33 PM
I guess it was the way he kept saying “Matt, Matt, Matt” that mesmerized me and glued my eyes and mind to the television screen. I know he was speaking to me, somehow, and this time I listened. Finally, after all the years of wasted time in doctors office’s pursuing the truth about what ails me I have come to see the light, thanks to my favorite movie star hunk. I have often idolized these celebrities, wished that I had their perfect lives and perfect teeth, the fame and fortune and freedom that comes with it, ( so it seems). Mr. Cruise, or Tom as I now call him, has enlightened me to the dangers of a medical profession that I always had my doubts about. So after years of psychologists and psychiatrists and counselors, and tens of thousands of dollars spent on medications, ( that obviously just kept me in a mind controlled drugged state ) I have decided to follow the “light” that comes from Mr. Cruises smile and join Scientology. Without his unmedicated diatribe on the Today Show about the evils of psychiatry and the psudo-science as he called it I would never have been able to break free from the doctors and medications that I thought had been helping me all these years. Yes I have more insight to my own behavior, but I guess I was wrong to explore these dangerous areas for all these years. Hell, i probably would never have had to give up alcohol, had the joy of blaming my parents and their parents for everything in my life and I could have kept living as a straight man, caught in a gay body. Scientology where have you been. That being said, I am now going to pursue Scientology full time, and this will take a lot of money. Those e-meters and auditing sessions don’t come cheap. So please, instead of spending your money on War of the Worlds, please send me the money instead so I can start to rectify the errors of my ways. I am hoping that with enough counseling I can attain the same status as Mr. Cruise. I hope to live a full life, like him, act in movies, marry women, and have a boyfriend on the side! I am hoping that Mr. Cruise will give me some personal counseling, I am writing a letter to him asking for his help, who knows, maybe he will personally save me. Send those donations as soon as you can, and remember when I am a full fledged scientologist I will come back to you and help you as well. I am looking for someone with no experience to be my publicist, my “wife”, and a bodyguard, (preferably a big strong man.)
Posted by: matt-chicago | Jun 27, 2005 6:02:34 PM
Obviously vitamins and excercise have done wonders for Mr. Cruise's sanity...
Posted by: David | Jun 27, 2005 6:49:27 PM
BRAVO, Matt !!! Very funny.
Posted by: kimmer | Jun 27, 2005 7:58:43 PM
well, his crazy condescention and apparant lack of socialization aside (maybe he's not used to speaking words not written by other people?), cruise was actually pretty spot on about psychoactive drugs... there isn't any science behind them, and it's kind of an amazing (and scary) phenomenon that millions of people take them without scientific research to prove how and what they do. Like 21st century snakeoil for suckers... sure, this'll make you feel better(!)
Posted by: liberal server | Jun 27, 2005 9:30:24 PM
Matt: ...what you're saying, Tom, is that you want people to do well, but you want them to well by taking the road that you approve of, as opposed to a road that may work for them.
Tom: No, no I'm not.
Matt: Well if anti-depressants work for Brook Sheilds, then why isn't that okay?
Tom: I... I disagree with it.
He is so good contradicting himself, it makes me laugh at him in such a way that I'm not depressed anymore. Good job, Tom.
Posted by: anon | Jun 27, 2005 9:31:48 PM
We are the Borg,
You will be assimilated,
Resistance is futile......
Posted by: Ted B. | Jun 27, 2005 9:48:24 PM
I haven't followed Tom Cruise's recent press interviews much--I have been only vaguely aware of why some people are saying he's gone crazy. This clip was my first exposure to the controversy. Cruise strikes me as a deeply disturbed egomaniac.
The irony: *he* is the celebrity most obviously in desperate need of good psychiatric care.
Posted by: plumbert | Jun 27, 2005 10:04:13 PM
Tom's "discussion" was very odd to say the least.
The scary thing is, can you imagine if someone took Tom's advice and actually believed in scientology's brain wash-- er, teachings.
Mr. Cruise's whole life story has been rather bizarre when you think about it.
He wanted to join the priesthood @ 14 (that in itself is grounds for psychological evalutation)wanted to abstain from sex while married to his first wife, and then mysteriously divorced from Nicole Kidman after 10 years.
Now this scientology bullshit comes into play. This cult (I certainly would never refer to it as a religion) has a well known history of extorting large sums of money from its members, as well as holding people against their will.
No wonder Scarlet Johansson ran like hell.
Ciao
Jason
Posted by: Jason | Jun 27, 2005 10:07:20 PM
It is being said Tom is a star exploding before our very eyes. It could be. But why, other than through Scientology's catechistic beef against psychotropic drugs, would he or anyone else dare claim such drugs are unverified by proven research? Physicians and researchers know exactly how these drugs interact upon levels of serotonin, norepinepherine, dopamine and other neurochemicals in the brain which virtually determine whether one is normal or ill. Modern psychiatry has freed thousands upon thousands of our generation who, in another time, would have been in sanitariums.
Alongside Brooke, I have fought through the imminently painful experience of clincal depression. And I'm happy to join her in suggesting Tom go play with the space patrol.
Posted by: Morris | Jun 28, 2005 4:52:43 AM
I just love how he called psychology a "pseudo science". LOL.... and Scientology isn't ????
Posted by: Patrick | Jun 28, 2005 11:48:17 AM
Poor Tom, so cute and so stupid. (and so rich that he can afford it)
Posted by: Nikos | Jun 28, 2005 1:36:36 PM
why, other than through Scientology's catechistic beef against psychotropic drugs, would he or anyone else dare claim such drugs are unverified by proven research?
I'm no f-ing scientologist, but I did claim seratonin reuptake inhibitors are unproven. The problem is that traditional scientific method is not used - the drugs are prescribed because anecdotally they have helped people in the past, not because there is a scientifically demonstrated "chemical imbalance" If anything, the psychoactives create an imbalance by elevating seratonin - and there have not been large-scale studies about the long term effects elevated seratonin have on the body.
It's great that you've found them useful, but anecdotal success does not equal science.
Posted by: liberal server | Jun 28, 2005 2:38:40 PM
I really think Tom Cruise should stick to acting. I am curious about his "having read the research papers on the history of psychiatry." Is he trained in anatomy and physiology/drug interactions like many of the doctors that do prescribe these drugs ? Last I checked was that he has no degree and just graduated highschool!! I think that someone of his stature should exercise more responsibility. He has no clue about what he is talking about.
Countless studies have been performed by much more qualified individuals than Cruise that show that these drugs DO have the ability to help people. Sorry Tom, psychiatry IS BASED ON SCIENCE- ask any proffessional who has studied medicine for years of their lives. Cruise is just a moron.
Posted by: Alvin | Jun 29, 2005 1:22:41 PM
If anyone arguing here should find himself suddenly afflicted with a case of clinical depression, he would beg for the immediate administration of the nearest substance deemed helpful to him. It is like death come upon you. It is like breathing poisonous fumes, it is wanting to die to be free of the indescribable pain.
Where do all you scientists out there get your information that psychiatriac drugs (including SSRIs and SNRIs) have no proven reason for working? And SSRIs do not increase serotonin levels in the brain, they merely slow down the firing of nerves in synaptic junctions so that they can "bathe" longer in the serotonin pooled in synapses (this is the "inhibition of reuptake" in their name, Serotonin Select Reuptake Inhibitors). This allows more serotonin to be passed along for effectiveness elsewhere in the brain. While not every drug works for every patient, psychotropics do not themselves create an imbalance.
But, again, these are merely the scientific efforts to treat a larger problem, the medical illness called depression. I repeat to all -- including Tom Cruise --that chances are if you found yourself in the throes of a suicidial depression, you would swallow a porcupine a day in the violent prayer for your release from inner hell.
Posted by: Morris | Jul 2, 2005 9:54:22 PM
If anyone arguing here should find himself suddenly afflicted with a case of clinical depression, he would beg for the immediate administration of the nearest substance deemed helpful to him. It is like death come upon you. It is like breathing poisonous fumes, it is like wanting to die.
Where do all you scientists out there get your information that psychiatriac drugs (including SSRIs and SNRIs) have no proven reason for working? And SSRIs do not increase serotonin levels in the brain, they merely slow down the firing of nerves in synaptic junctions so that they can "bathe" longer in the serotonin pooled in synapses. This allows more serotonin to be passed along for effectiveness elsewhere in the brain. Psychotropics do not themselves create an imbalance.
But, again, these are merely the scientific efforts to treat a larger problem, the medical illness called depression. I repeat to all that, chances are if you found yourself suicidially depressed, you would a porcupine a day in the prayer for your release from inner hell.
Posted by: Morris | Jul 2, 2005 9:54:23 PM