Tom Cruise was accused by Australian mental health experts yesterday of being reckless and irresponsible for
attacking the benefits of psychiatry and mood-altering drugs.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and a national charity, SANE Australia, advised Australians using psychiatric drugs who are concerned by the screen idol's remarks not to change their treatment.
PHOTO: AP
"It is reckless and potentially dangerous of Mr Cruise to make uninformed comments about the treatment of mental illness; many people are well because medication plays an important role in managing their health," said SANE's director Barbara Hocking.
"The stigma and misunderstanding of mental illnesses, such as postnatal depression, prevents help-seeking behavior for people who are unwell."
The joint statement, titled "Tom Cruise's Mission Irresponsible," said his comments should be seen in the context of his religious beliefs as a scientologist.
Cruise created controversy recently when he criticized actress Brooke Shields for revealing that she went into therapy and took anti-depressants to deal with postnatal depression.
Defending his remarks later on NBC television's Today show hosted by Matt Lauer, Cruise launched into an attack on the whole field of psychiatric medicine, which scientologists spurn.
"Psychiatry is a pseudo science," Cruise said. "She [Shields] doesn't understand the history of psychiatry. She doesn't understand in the same way that you don't understand it, Matt. You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do."
Canadian country star Shania Twain's modified plans for a luxury home on high-country farmland in the south of New Zealand were approved yesterday after earlier getting the thumbs down in the face of local protests.
A local authority had earlier rejected the plans for the buildings on the Canadian singer's 25,000-hectare property near picturesque Lake Wanaka on the South Island of New Zealand. The authority said the buildings were not in harmony with the landscape.
But an independent commissioner allowed the plans after modifications that made the house less visible from a nearby road. Twain and her husband, Robert "Mutt" Lange, had applied to build a diamond shaped complex including a house with attached garage and two guest cottages.
The Live 8 rock concerts highlighting Africa's woes should have been staged in the world's poorest continent with global stars performing alongside local acts, organizers of the Johannesburg gig said Tuesday. Nine Live 8 gigs featuring top acts like U2, Elton John and Madonna will be held on July 2, but critics have lambasted Irish rocker Bob Geldof, mastermind of Live 8, for shunning African stars in an event meant to underline the continent's problems.
The prospect of a television channel entirely devoted to gay programs for gay people may strike some as unnecessary and others as a sign of immoral times. Media giant Viacom thinks there's money in it. Logo, launching today under the MTV Networks umbrella, is not the first channel to target gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, but it is the most widely available, on cable boxes in 10 million US homes.
Singer Bobby Brown spent his best years selling millions of records and making tabloid headlines as pop music royalty -- but it took prison to make him a reality TV star. Now, 13 years since his last hit record, Brown's program Being Bobby Brown debuts June 30 on cable TV channel Bravo.
Punk rocker Avril Lavigne is engaged to marry fellow Canadian Deryck Whibley, lead singer and guitarist of the band Sum 41, Lavigne's spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Whibley, 25, asked Lavigne, 20, to marry him over the weekend, according to published reports. Spokeswoman Pamela Murphy did not disclose any details beyond the couple's plan to wed.
Counterculture's legend Bob Dylan became the latest musician to sign up with Starbucks Corp. in an exclusive CD deal that follows the runaway success of a Ray Charles album sold by the coffee maker. Dylan: Live at the Gaslight 1962, co-released with Sony BMG Custom Marketing Group, will hit Starbucks coffee shops Aug. 30.
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