June 19th, 2005
THE THINGS TOM CRUISE
IS RIGHT ABOUT
Trust me, loyal reader, this column is not as superficial as the title suggests. As always, it will be worth your time.
I have had an on-again, off-again "relationship" with Tom Cruise over the years. I never got the hype surrounding the movie "Risky Business," but loved "Top Gun," for reasons having nothing to do with Tom Cruise. I thought he was great in "A Few Good Men," and that he sucked in "Born on the Fourth July." He's made movies that any big star would have been great in, thanks to a terrific script ("Minority Report"), and he's starred in movies that had such horrible stories even Jesus would have flopped in them ("Collateral").
Off-screen, I never cared if he was gay (which has long been the rumor), other than the fact that I have little respect for people who hide what and who they truly are. Short of that annoyance, I never gave his sexuality much thought. He seems natural as a heterosexual, but also shows possible stereotypical characteristics of a gay man. Whatever.
I find him to be likeable and intelligent, yet at the same time, plastic and fake, relying on that $1 billion smile of his too often.
Lately, though, I find myself actually caring about what Tom Cruise says and does… and more surprisingly, I find myself rooting for him.
He's suddenly saying and doing so many things that I respect. He's getting the reaction from people that I love to see because it shows the shortcomings of society and how they handle things they can't or won't understand. Two recent issues have really grabbed me, and Tom (that's what I'm calling him now) has addressed them both in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly Magazine.
Let's start with the obvious one, his relationship with Katie Holmes, forming the now renowned team known as "TomKat." It happened suddenly and overwhelmingly, culminating with Tom's appearance on "Oprah," during which he jumped on the sofa, pumped his fist and proclaimed his giddy-ness on levels rarely seen. Skeptics called it "over the top, forced and staged." Tom claims it was just his real emotions coming to the fore. And what's wrong with that, by the way? Are we so jaded that we can't believe that two famous people can fall head over heals in love like some of us do in the "real world?" I'm in no way saying that I am 100% sure that "TomKat" are in fact, in love and a real couple. What I am saying is that it's just sad to see 63% of America (according to a recent People Magazine poll) immediately be sure that it has to be fake.
I don't need to defend Tom, though, because his answer in Entertainment Weekly is so perfect it says it all. "There are people who just don't like to see other people happy…If they don't like it, F*** them." How can I not respect a guy who says something so true? I've seen it and lived it too many times to not acknowledge that at least his premise is spot-on. People hate to see others happy and successful and people will do everything they can to stop or at least demean it. As for the more innocent, yet still unacceptable, reason for not believing in "TomKat," that comes from the age old practice of making fun of what we don't understand. Just because you don't like, respect or want a man who jumps on a sofa to proclaim his love, doesn't make it any less real. Grow up.
More impressive is Tom's recent attacks on the psychiatric profession and our society's general obsession with drugs to fix problems. While Tom's basis for this is his belief in Scientology (which I don't adhere to because I believe all forms of religion are for lemmings), it doesn't diminish the legitimacy of what he's saying. Read some of what he says and try to argue with the logic in it:
"People go for help but their lives don't get better because of these drugs. They get worse. They feel numb and they're told that's a good thing…I'm (called radical for this opinion but) in the 1980's you were supposed to say no to drugs. But when I say no to drugs, I'm a radical?...People are being electric-shocked. Kids are being drugged. People are dying."
I have campaigned against drugs for 10 years and believe that we have created a culture of people who rely of chemicals to "fix" their problems, when in truth all the drugs do is mask the true cause of people's problem and give them an excuse to not find or work on their troubles.
Whether Tom is simply acting out his latest script, regurgitating lines written for him by his publicist, or actually finally speaking his mind on the issues of love and drugs, I say "GO TOM!" I look at the substance of his comments rather than question the validity of his intentions. What he's saying is right (people hate to see others happy and people do mask their real problems with drugs. Why he's saying it is irrelevant to me.
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