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Cruise Is 'Mentally Ill,' Pinsky's a 'Nazi'

June 12, 2008 12:46 PM

Nm_pinksky_cruise_080612_mn You mess with Top Gun, you get called a Nazi. Then, apparently, you apologize.

Late Thursday, Dr. Drew Pinsky apologized to Tom Cruise for insinuating he's mentally ill, but refused to let the star's lawyer, who compared him to the Nazis, have the last word.

"Dr. Drew meant no harm to Mr. Cruise and apologizes if his comments were hurtful," Pinsky's representative said in a statement. "Although Mr. Fields' intent is clearly to slander and discredit Dr. Drew, under no circumstances is Dr. Drew making a blanket diagnosis about Scientology nor Mr. Cruise whom he does not know. Dr. Drew was simply using Mr. Cruise as an example of someone who is recognizable to help the public understand. Again, Dr. Drew meant him no harm."

Pinsky, the fatherly MD who tries to save stars from substance abuse on VH1's "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew," waxed poetic about psychiatry to the July issue of Playboy, saying, "A lot of people in the public eye who behave strangely have mental illness we can learn from, and much of it is based on childhood trauma, without a doubt. Take a guy like Tom Cruise. Why would somebody be drawn into a cultish kind of environment like Scientology?"

"To me, that's a function of a very deep emptiness and suggests serious neglect in childhood," he added, "maybe some abuse, but mostly neglect."

Pinsky's unsolicited analysis didn't sit well with Cruise's camp, despite the fact that in 2006, the "Mission Impossible" star told Parade magazine that his father was a "bully and a coward -- the person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you." Cruise's lawyer, Bert Fields, eviscerated the doc in Thursday's New York Post.

"This unqualified television performer who is obviously just looking for notoriety is so grotesquely unprofessional as to pretend to diagnose Tom and others without ever meeting them," Fields said. "He seems to be spewing the absurdity that all Scientologists are mentally ill. The last time we heard garbage like this was from Joseph Goebbels."

Joseph Goebbels: the Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in Nazi Germany and one of Adolf Hitler's closest compadres. Pinsky: a board-certified internist/addiction medicine specialist and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. Peas in a pod? Not exactly.

But Cruise loves lashing out at proponents of psychology. In 2005, he famously bashed Brooke Shields for treating her post partum depression with Paxil, saying there's no such thing as a chemical imbalance and calling psychiatry is a form of pseudoscience. That led to a heated argument with Matt Lauer on the "Today" show, which peaked when Cruise uttered what's arguably the most famous line of his almost 30-year-long career:

“You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do.”

Since Cruise can't slam an MD and psychiatry prof with those choice words, apparently, the Nazi comparison will have to do.

Sheila Marikar

Click here to see photos of Hollywood's fiercest feuds. 

June 12, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (179)

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Wouldn't a psychiatrist know the history of psychiatry Mr. Cruise?

Posted by: Kay | Jun 12, 2008 1:05:33 PM

Despite having no professional training in psychiatry, it is my humble opinion that Tom Cruise is indeed skirting on mentally ill. His rantings over Brooke Shields and his fascination with a cult - otherwise named Scientology - does not afford Mr.Cruise a lot of credibility in most people's eyes. Sad too, as he is an accomplished actor and has so much to offer the world and its people!

Posted by: Mrs. Tiggywinkle | Jun 12, 2008 1:07:21 PM

Anybody with any sanity stopped paying attention to anything Tom Cruise said years ago. And before that they stopped watching his films. He is just another washed up, self important, worthless celebrity. He only "knows" what his enablers "tell" him. "I don't pity idols, I pity a person who needs them."

Posted by: patriot | Jun 12, 2008 1:08:05 PM

tom's still so grose and now oprah's starting to grose me out too!

Posted by: val | Jun 12, 2008 1:10:45 PM

The world will agree, Tom is a mental case! After the Opra and Today show, there is no question.

Posted by: Virginia | Jun 12, 2008 1:14:14 PM

If I do recall the Nazis killed millions and millions of people...Dr. Pinsky helps people....hmmm, I don't see the comparison. Perhaps if Mr. Cruise is going to let Mr. Fields be his mouthpiece, he should warn him of the dangers of throwing the word label, Nazi, around...Seems like a poor choice of words and a good way to discredit yourself. So, uh, how did your last couple of movies do Tom? Katies? I see.

Posted by: mcddarby | Jun 12, 2008 1:15:35 PM

You've gotta give the guy credit for his great dance in Risky Business, and his great role in Top Gun!! However, over the past couple years, he seems to be losing it.

Posted by: zonay52 | Jun 12, 2008 1:22:09 PM

Everyone that has an i.q. over 60 points knows Tom is a domineering controlling nutcase. The fact that he can call a QUALIFIED and (going on already stated evidence by Tom himself) non blind doc a nazi says a lot further about the mental state of Tom Cruise, the heads of scientology and they way they think.

Its ironic that the CULT calls others Nazi's when in fact they want to be the elitist gang and int their own words of their teachings "want to quietly put away" the rest of us!
Now who is the evil ones?
Public, please decide and then join the Anonymous organisation is trying to expose this money grabbing, brainwashing , tax avoiding CULT.

Posted by: Biggins | Jun 12, 2008 1:23:26 PM

Val: Gross is spelled g-r-o-s-s not grose.

Posted by: Paula | Jun 12, 2008 1:24:31 PM

Tom Cruise is a joke and I look forward to the days when he and his brainwashed wife are not seen or heard. I used to think that Katie had the sense to finally fight off her kidnapping and brainwashing. Now she just looks like a Stepford Wife. Maybe he gave her some Paxil!!!

Posted by: krde459 | Jun 12, 2008 1:25:32 PM

I disagree with his analysis. I am no fan of Scientology, or any religion for that matter. I feel like religion is appealing to certain kinds of people, but none of the reasons necessarily have anything to do with abuse or neglect. I think that religious people are more likely to be superstitous, to be intolerant of ambiguity, to be searching for answers. Maybe Dr. Drew is correct, who knows, I certainly have a deep respect for the man. But in this case, I think it is a matter of seeing the problem through psychiatrist-colored glasses.

Posted by: Ann McMillan | Jun 12, 2008 1:30:48 PM

More garbage from the likes of Tom Cruise! No wonder his stardom is not falling but completely crashed. Sadly now it seems he and Will Smith (and wife) are so badly mixed up in this banned (in many countries) cult that they now can't see the wood from the trees!

They must be seriously lacking something in the brain department to be thinking of calling a qualified well trained doctor, a nazi. The doctor has more brains and skills that the Scientology nut cases that are spouting this sadly usual garbage.

THIS CULT SHOULD HAVE NO TAX FREE STATUS.

Posted by: PURE NUTS! | Jun 12, 2008 1:33:01 PM

To quote Bert Fields.....
"This unqualified television performer who is obviously just looking for notoriety is so grotesquely unprofessional as to pretend to diagnose Tom and others without ever meeting them," Fields said.

Excuse me , Dr. Pinsky is not only a licensed M.D., he is also an expert on addictions and substance abuse...exactly what are Mr. Cruise's qualifications for discussing mental health?????

Posted by: Terri | Jun 12, 2008 1:35:54 PM

It has been clear since the couch jumping incident that TC isn't all there. The way he rants about pyschiatry so much clearly shows he's either been in sessions or seriously needs them. The psych patients I know are the only ones who deny they need help and call psychiatry hogwash. TC acts like them.

Posted by: Kim | Jun 12, 2008 1:38:53 PM

Yeah, Dr. Drew is a Nazi, right, and there are little green men on Mars that Tom and the other wackos in his "church" listen to.

What has Cruise done to entitle him to an opinion on psychiatry? Nothing ever, other than listen to and drink the Kool-aid of the crazies he's so enamored of.

Cruise hasn't made a decent movie in 20 years. I used to like him, but that changed when I realized he couldn't play any other character but someone who gets mad, runs around, gets mad some more. If you've seen the "Family Guy" take on his acting, you'll know exactly what I mean.

Tom, go back to the hole you climbed out of, take your stepford wife and child with you (I'll never buy that they had that kid naturally - if so what was with the first two who have had kids with others since?? hmmmm?) and leave the rest of the world to carry on without your ideas and your awful acting. Please for all of our sakes, quit wasting the time and money of those that for God knows what reason still think you might draw in a few willing goofs to throw good money after bad to see you on-screen. The actors stuck on screen with you may need the money, but they could find better actors to work with.

Posted by: Sherilynn | Jun 12, 2008 1:39:40 PM

BTW...I don't think Katie was "kidnapped". I think she willingly traded in her "up and coming starlet" title for the title of "Mrs. Tom Cruise". Bad choice if you asked me.

Posted by: Terri | Jun 12, 2008 1:41:35 PM

SPELLING CORRECTION:

More garbage from the likes of Tom Cruise! No wonder his stardom is not falling but completely crashed. Sadly now it seems he and Will Smith (and wife) are so badly mixed up in this banned (in many countries) cult that they now can't see the wood from the trees!

They must be seriously lacking something in the brain department to be thinking of calling a qualified well trained doctor, a nazi. The doctor has more brains and skills than the Scientology nut cases that are spouting this sadly usual garbage.

THIS CULT SHOULD HAVE NO TAX FREE STATUS.

Posted by: Biggins | Jun 12, 2008 1:42:10 PM

Oh that Tom, he's such a nut.

Posted by: JR | Jun 12, 2008 1:44:29 PM

To use Nazi allusions in any context other than a discussion of the second world war is disgusting and should be abhorant in any culture. Mr. Cruise is ignorant of the facts and so is his lawyer. Mr. Cruise is a talented actor and a good spokesperson for his church. He is not a doctor, he holds no history degree and his knowledge of history is suspect in my opinion. To invoke Naziism in this instance is to desecrate the graves of the true martyrs who died at the hands of the Nazis. Mr. Cruise needs to ask his lawyer to shut up and then he needs to apologize.

Posted by: Larry in Houston | Jun 12, 2008 1:48:42 PM

It's a shame Mr. Cruise has been brainwashed into thinking he's the "second coming" of L. Ron Hubbard, which really means nothing, since he was just a looney science fiction writer. Scientology is a joke, and a cult. Pinsky is 110% correct.

Posted by: GHM73 | Jun 12, 2008 1:49:03 PM

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