Dr. Drew Pinsky Apologizes About Tom Cruise Comment
June 13, 2008 by Julie Bonner
(Side note: This is a touchy story. Please make sure your comments abide by the comment policy or they will be deleted.)
Things over at the Tom Cruise camp have been getting heated ever since Dr. Drew Pinsky made a comment about Tom Cruise’s mental health. As FOX News calls it, it’s a “War of the Words“.
Here is Pinsky’s comment which is in next month’s Playboy:
“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 — maybe some abuse, but mostly neglect.”
Continue reading below.
Because of Pinsky’s comment, Cruise’s camp has fired back and is comparing the TV therapist to a Nazi.
Cruise’s attorney Bert Fields response, which was given to the New York Post’s Page Six gossip column, said “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.
“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.”
Pinsky has apologized for the comment he made about Tom Cruise. A representative for Pinsky said, “Dr. Drew meant no harm to Mr. Cruise and apologizes if his comments were hurtful”.
They also say that Dr. Drew is by no means making a blanket statement diagnosis about Scientology or Mr. Cruise, who he doesn’t even know.
WOW! I think both sides took this way too far. Pinsky’s statement did sound like it was making a blanket diagnosis to me, but then Cruise’s camp didn’t have to go and compare him to Goebbels, who was one of Hitler’s closest associates and a devout follower.
Read the FOX News story here and the Page Six report here.
Image used with permission by Newscom
Julie, You made my day. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!
HAVE A GREAT DAY TOM!
Hope you are able to enjoy Conner and Bella better then Nicole was able to enjoy them on Mother’s Day!
puckhappy…….let me ask you aquestion, and please, please answer it honestly ,ok. if you were asked …….who are your best friends? on a tv show, keeping in mind , that you have quite a few friends, and remember that everyone is watching. be honest,now!
I for one don’t think that Dr. Drew did anything he needs to apologize for. If people are going to be that sensitive about things then maybe they should just stay in their home and never come out. I am sure that there is a psychology to belonging to a cult-like religion and people in it usually fit a certain profile. And whether you like TC or not there can be no doubts that Scientology is cult-like.
Lauren, you make good points sometimes but you should be aware that you turn people off with the immature name calling that you participate in…calling the Dr. Pinsky pansky and pinsky pants….it is ridiculous and makes me actually skip over your posts because I don’t want to read that nonsense. Why can’t you make your points without resorting to childish behavior? It would make you seem more credible and besides..it would be more kind. You are always talking about being nice to others and not judging them…maybe you only mean that regarding TC and KH and everyone else is fair game?
Lilianne thanks for the advice. It would have been more credible if you came out and strongly said the same to those posters who call Tom tiny Tom or Suri a bastard.
Pinksy Pants should stay in the house if he is going to be that sensitive about someone trying to rhyme his name and be poetic.
Sarcasm aside seriously Lilliane, do you see how one sided your view is? The above reaction is childish and the only reason I did it was to show you that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Why the selective application of the rule? This so called Professional called Tom and other memebers of his church mentally ill, that is ok, I call him Pinksy Pants, and that is so bad, come on…..Tom’s beliefs are cult like and he has a bad childhood, so he has metal illness? Why did he use more recent less controversial examples of celebs who has visited psychiatric wards recently? Britney any one?
Sorry but if this site allowed, I would even have called him worse. He deserves it.
Regarding the doctor’s comment, I agree with many people it was so unprofessional of him! Qualified or not qualified, cult or not…you can’t just diagnose a group of people based on one person’s (TC’s childhood) from what he has said in public and interviews, so publicly like this Dr.Drew person did. Since when do real doctors make public diagnosis about a person they’ve never met and make that a public knowldge?
But I also agree TC’s lawyer could have responded to this with out the comparison to Nazi (but I do agree with everything his lawyer said except that).
It looks like the majority of the media on the net and TV are behind Tom on this one so I’m glad about that.
Lilianne, I do agree with you about all the immature name calling that people do on this blog and that includes the ones that are used with Tom and Katie as well as others.
“I am sure that there is a psychology to belonging to a cult-like religion and people in it usually fit a certain profile.”
But diagnosing them with metal illness??
Sorry, I clicked the send to soon…
“I am sure that there is a psychology to belonging to a cult-like religion and people in it usually fit a certain profile.”
But diagnosing them with mental illness, without ever having had a session with them and making that a public knowledge?? Do you still think he had nothing to apologize?
Lauren,
Firstly, you should know that I call things like I see them. Secondly, I do not come to this site daily and sit and read every last comment on EVERY thread because frankly a lot of it is boring and repetitive. My point is that I don’t see every comment made and so cannot say that I notice every time someone is called a name. I comment on what I notice. I have taken people to task in the past for calling Suri a bastard(which by the way you keep perpetuating that by reminding us all that it happened) and you can find proof of that by going back in the archives. I have also defended Tom when he was called names and you can also find proof of that by going back in the archives. But let me repeat that since I don’t see EVERY insult it is therefore impossible for me to comment on every one made.
But thanks for showing that “what is good for the goose is good for the gander” because you have surely taught me a lesson. Whew…and I won’t soon forget it.
As for what Dr. Drew said….I didn’t feel at all that he was calling Tom “mentally ill” and I think that reading it that way is all up to how you interpret his words and their meaning. What he did say for sure was that maybe Tom sought out Scientology because of his childhood and issues he had surrounding his past. He is speculating ,which is what doctors do and perhaps his mistake was in even mentioning Tom’s name in that article. I don’t think he expected the backlash (perhaps he learned a lesson…don’t mention Tom) and I certainly doubt he expected to be called a “posturing flake” or compared to a Nazi…both of which are ridiculous and actually makes Tom no better than the Dr. because HIS lawyer said that stuff which means he sanctioned it.
I will state once again and for the record that I feel it is grossly inappropriate to call any child a bastard and anyone doing so should feel very ashamed of themselves. It is also ridiculous to call someone “tiny” in an obviously derogatory way in reference to their size or stature. Why pick on someone regarding things they have no control over? A person cannot help their physical appearance.
Lilliane, my heartfelt apology for any offence. It is just that when someone is rude and unfair, I feel that they deserve that too, not you (you are usually rational and polite) but Dr Pinksy. Tom shared with the public his difficult childhood, with the hope it will help someone out there, this qualified Doctor who is supposed to be professional then turns around and uses it against him, to cultivate an image that he is mentally ill.
If he was a random person, I could give him the benefit of doubt, but he is a TV personality (ratings) whose patient recently admitted that scientology helped him where Dr Pinksy failed. Do you still think this is random and innocent?
You also have to understand that such comments perpetuate bigotry, there people who are scientologist without a choice, like Suri, they were born in it. Do they deserve the discrimination and stigmatisation that comes as a result of such irresponsible comments? Dr Pinksy had so many examples he could have chosen from. It is not about not saying anything about TC, that is why he has not sued or these trashy tabloids when he has all reason to. It is about someone maliciously making a comment with intent to hurt someone even if he denies it. His intention was to paint Tom as mentally ill, that was what those internet videos for too, so that no one listens to what he says about over medication.
I read about another scientologist, Houston Rhines, supposedly Suri’s bio. Dad, dated KH briefly before TC, who was previously in the play
All My Sons. What a strange coincidence.
Tom is not the only one in this world who had difficult childhood. Frankly his was not difficult by my standard. A short child will always be made fun of for his shortness by taller kids, and vice versa. Kids make fun of anything. I am so tired of this modern mandate for kids to stop being kids. TC should look at his childhood as a blessing. Without it he would not have been driven to success and got where he is today. Instead he might have turned out to be a 42 year-old worker lurking on the internet spewing angers about almost every thing and every one. Then again the elder in my country always say ‘a cut on the rich’s finger is like the spill of a pauper’s gut’ so it is no wonder that people in this country think Tom had a difficult childhood.
As for Brooke Shield, she did not take the high road. She took the economical road. Tom is head of a studio and there may be jobs down the line for her as an actress and her small time producer husband.
And Tom is not mentally ill for he couldn’t have made so much money if he were. But he was certainly arrogant when he decided to criticize psychiatry, Brooke Shields and to shove Scientology in our face. He overestimated his popularity and underestimated people’s intelligence.
I’ve deleted some comments that have nothing to do with this post, but are obviously out to bash Tom Cruise and his family. Please follow the comment policy. One of the rules for posting is to discuss the post itself.
I just got to say that Mr Pinsky’s comment highlight what is wrong with the mental health community. Why can’t people just live their lives without being considered “disordered” in our society. I’m sure under analysis, that Mr. Pinsky would fit into some guideline in the DSM for Mental Disorders. Most of us do. We all, for the most part, have ego patterns that do not allow us to be free. In spiritual circles, its called karma. No self realized person would ever criticize someone for their faults if they were really knowing. Tom Cruise is a mirror for Mr. Pinksy in his own learning about his own childhood. None of us had great childhoods.
What you cant stand or hate in another, is something you cant stand or hate in yourself. The probable reason why Mr. Cruise came to “mind” for Mr Pinsky in the Playboy interview. The bottom line seems to be this: The ego and its patterns are mentally ill. We are all mentally ill to one degree or another. If you think you not, ask yourself, am I free? Do I have things in my life that keep me from being free? Most people, if honest, could find something. We all are expressing ourselves in our own way.
One other thing. Tom Cruise isn’t the only actor here. Mr Pinsky is also the actor. He is playing the role of doctor in his life to learn. I find it ironic that he is criticizing Mr. Cruise when the are both part of Hollywood. My Pinksy’s clients are from Hollywood. I don’t consider Scientology a cult. If you consider it a cult that christians and other religions may fall under that category. Just love people for who they are and their self-expression.
A realized person isn’t someone with a MD next to his name. If Mr. Pinksy was in that state, he wouldn’t see himself in Mr. Cruise. Our culture has made the professionals or MD’s our gods. They are acting out what we want us to see God as. For some. Mr Pinksy still has a fragmented mind, because a person who is unity consciousness or realized, there would be no criticism.
The truth is none of us know TC or Dr. P, etc.
For those of us who believe COS is a cult, the best thing we can do is pray for him and his family. That’s what I’m doing and even if they really believe in aliens…God
created them, too.