War of the Stars: Top Gun Tom Cruise strikes Pretty Baby Brooke Shields!

Endless love? Enquiring minds want to know: Is it Katie Holmes or Scientology (or too much of both) that has Tom Cruise jumping around and preaching like a pussy-whipped Mullah?

Speculation is rife in Hollywood that Tom Cruise has lost his mind. But where most people cite his giddy protestations of love for barely-legal Katie as evidence of his dementia, it’s really his fanatical preaching on the virtues of Scientology that makes him seem mentally unhinged.

In fact, Cruise’s antic disposition was very much on display in a recent interview during which he invoked cult words like "narconon" as he fulminated against the use of prescription drugs - even as he himself appeared to be in a drug-induced, altered state of consciousness. But Cruise has become such a zealous proselytizer of Scientology that he would probably be proud to testify that the only drug affecting his mood is, in fact, the most powerful and controlling intoxicant known to man: religion!

In a moment of sobriety, however, Cruise might well blame his religion for making him strike out against Brooke Shields in a fire and brimstone rant that would humble even a holy roller Baptist preacher. Because Cruise not only accused her of selling her soul for (prescription) drugs to treat postpartum depression but also ridiculed her as a movie star has-been, ostensibly, for failing to follow his path to success (and self-righteousness) through devotion to Scientology.

Brooke Shields appearing in the most important and socially relevant role of her life as Tom (cradle robbing) Cruise continues his mission impossible to find meaning in his...

Of course, many critics suggest that the path Cruise followed to movie stardom was the hypocritical one taken by (the late matinee-idol) Rock Hudson who seduced and used beautiful starlets to deflect attention from his homosexuality. Nevertheless, how Cruise manipulates his private life for public consumption should not matter to anyone except those personally involved (like the ambitious Miss Holmes). But when he uses his celebrity to insult and mock women who are being treated for postpartum depression or any medical condition, then that becomes a very serious matter indeed!

After all, it is one thing for movie stars to traipse around the world offering theatrical prescriptions to end poverty and bring lasting peace. But Cruise goes too far when he starts dispensing medical advice with Talibanic certainty and issuing a fatwa against anyone who does not take heed. And, even though Shields seems eminently capable of defending the integrity of her medical and professional decisions, it behooves all of us to expose fanatics like Cruise for the charlatans they are before too many people mistake their charisma for religious or, God forbid, medical authority.

Note to Tom: You are, admittedly, a very successful actor. But a respected preacher or medical doctor you are not! And, if you don’t want to give critics just cause to ridicule your career the way you have Brooke’s, then spare us the religious and medical claptrap and focus your passion on the make-believe worlds of movies and your personal life.

And one more thing – if you and Katie are using each other as reciprocal promotion for your War of the Worlds and her Batman releases this summer, then both of you will become movie star has-beens much sooner than you think....

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