NEWS: Tom Cruise Apologizes to Brooke Shields

dholokov said:
and going by my girlfriend's experience, the best way to combat depression is neither pillls nor exercise but chocolate fudge sundays and long distance phone calls to mother.

jake_lex said:
The problem with Cruise's anti-psychiatry comments is his motives. If he were saying it to get people to seriously question the use of so many psychiatric drugs, that's fine, and fair. But he's doing it with the intent of replacing that with going to some storefront "center" in a strip mall to let members of his wackjob UFO cult have you hold on to two tin cans to tell you that alien ghosts are causing all your problems.

He's being glib.

BurningKrome said:

The problem with Cruise's anti-psychiatry statements, is that they are an integral part of the cult programming. I.E. the very typical and well documented brainwashing techniques used by organizations such as Scientology generally MUST include some mechanism to separate the cultists from the influences of outside corrective measures.

Some use isolationism, some use "overseer" techniques, some...as in the case of Scientology...use the technique of discrediting the primary influence that might break the brainwashing so as to prevent cultists contact with it.

It's pretty brilliant, actually, and is one of the reasons the cult has been able to grow so large. Isolative techniques give you a maximum group size, whereas if you can get your cultists to actively avoid psychiatry of their own volition, you don't have to isolate them and they can be left free to roam society...allowing for unlimited growth.

Walnut said:
Fav Scientologist? Gotta be Beck

Postmaster said:

seconded.

CaptainHook said:
Personally, I think the real Tom Cruise is chained to a wall in the basement of the Scientology Celebrity Center like the Man in the Iron Mask. The Tom Cruise that's been making an ass out of himself the past few years is a robot whose program has gone bad, kinda like Yul Brynner in Westworld.

On Thursday, Cruise "came over to my house and he gave me a heartfelt apology," Shields, 41, told Leno. "And he apologized for bringing me into the whole thing and for everything that happened.

"And through it all, I was so impressed with how heartfelt it was. And I didn't feel at any time that I had to defend myself, nor did I feel that he was trying to convince me of anything other than the fact that he was deeply sorry. And I accepted it."

Willowmoon said:

This actually sound believable to me.

PaulNikon said:

O.K. We need to put together a rescue team.

Ving Rhames should be on that team.

jake_lex said:
I wonder if, in the end, Cruise's public espousal of his Scientologist beliefs will start to be the undoing of this group. I mean, a lot more people have heard the name Xenu than did before, right?

if said:

Seriously. He doesn't seem like a very effective representitive considering how many jokes he's become the punch-line to and how many people have been appalled by his behavior. "Any press is good press" certainly doesn't apply to a group that wants you to think they'll save your life/soul.

Dove said:

it was all....ACTING!



thank you!