Celebrity Rehab

Recently, iconic actor Tom Cruise was thrown into a verbal war with Celebrity Rehab star, Dr. Drew Pinsky, who questioned the latter's belief in Scientology.  Cruise, who is openly a Scientologist since 1990, claims that the study helped him overcome dyslexia.  He is a very outspoken advocate of the study, which he has promoted to be fully recognized as a religion in Europe.  Dr. Drew, on the other hand, has a very different point of view when it comes to Cruise's passion for Scientology, saying that it is pointless.

"Why would somebody be drawn into a cultish kind of environment like Scientology?" Dr. Drew said in an interview with Playboy.  "To me, that's a function of a very deep emptiness and suggests serious neglect in childhood – maybe some abuse, but mostly neglect."

In fact, the doctor adds that Cruise is just one of the many celebrities who have exuded odd behavior on screen, such as his "jumping the couch" stint in an episode of Oprah.

"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," Dr. Drew explained.

After these statements circulated through the magazine, Cruise's lawyer, Bert Fields retorted, telling People magazine, "I don't know what kind of a doctor this guy is, but this posturing flake pretends to diagnose people he's never met and suggests all Scientologists are mentally ill."

In fact, Fields also has an opinion on Dr. Drew's mindset.  Fields says that Pinsky's opinions are simply "ridiculous."

More recently, though, Dr. Drew's representative came out with an official statement saying, "Dr. Drew meant no harm to Mr. Cruise and apologizes if his comments were hurtful."

So far, Cruise's camp has not released any statement recognizing the apology, but hopefully this will end the verbal war.


-Valerie Anne del Castillo, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: People
(Photo courtesy of VH1)