Cruise crusade

May 27, 2005 by Ian Evans

After seeing Tom Cruise’s giddy, over the top appearance on Oprah — where the War of the World star professed his love for Katie Holmes — some people might prescribe some medication to calm him down. Don’t bother, Cruise wouldn’t take it.

In a sometimes aggressive, brutally honest, interview with Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush, Cruise pushed the Scientology view that psychiatrists and their medications are evil.

Apparently, in between shooting movies, Tom is taking calls from distressed parents and helping them wean their children off drugs. Like the church he belongs to, Cruise says he’s “…going right after psychiatry and these false labels and this pseudo-science.”

He also took aim at former co-star Brooke Shields, who went public with her use of Paxil to treat post-partum depression. Said Cruise, “Here is a woman, and I care about Brooke Shields because I think she is an incredibly talented woman. You look at, where has her career gone?”

Bush, who called the interview “a conscience-balancing task”, challenged Cruise a few times during the interview and discusses his feelings about the interview on his Access Hollywood blog. As Bush says, “It’s not the Tom we’re used to seeing. I declare he doesn’t care and feels this is all worth it. He has built up capital with movie fans and this is where he is spending it.”