Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Tom Cruise, meanwhile, is getting odder by the day
As "everybody" knows by now, Cruise is out to prove two points. First, that he is an ardent heterosexual; hence his publicly passionate romance with actress Katie Holmes. And second, that Scientology, the religion started by sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard, is beneficial to all. And for Cruise, making that case requires him to criticize rival approaches to mental therapy, including psychiatry and psychotropic medicines.
The peak — or, if one prefers, the nadir — of Cruise's campaign came last Friday, when the star appeared on "Today." Instead of focusing on the movie, which opens Wednesday, Cruise blurted out to Matt Lauer, "You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do." Turning to the subject of pills, he told his host, "You don't even know what Ritalin is." To put it mildly, such off-message outbursts are an unproven technique for getting people to buy movie tickets.
The peak — or, if one prefers, the nadir — of Cruise's campaign came last Friday, when the star appeared on "Today." Instead of focusing on the movie, which opens Wednesday, Cruise blurted out to Matt Lauer, "You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do." Turning to the subject of pills, he told his host, "You don't even know what Ritalin is." To put it mildly, such off-message outbursts are an unproven technique for getting people to buy movie tickets.
