Brit Chain: We Like Cruise Vs. Brooke Shields

By: E&P Staff A new group of London newspapers dedicated to "positive, helpful news" is weighing in on behalf of actor Tom Cruise in the Scientology follower's recent jeremiad against psychiatry and psychiatric drugs.

"Tom Cruise Is 100% Right," read the front-page headline of recent editions of the New London Independent newspapers. A subhead read: "Extremely Positive News."

John Mappin, chairman of the papers' parent, United Newspapers, followed up the newspaper reporting with a July 5 press release touting his group's support of Cruise's position.

"Tom Cruise has been doing a fantastic job of exposing the total fraud that psychiatry is and the very real dangers of the drugs and treatments that psychiatry is addicting our society to," Mappin said in the statement. "The plan of modern psychiatry could be summed up as simply 'A World on Drugs.'"

Cruise kicked off the unusual public discussion of psychiatric drugs when he criticized actress Brooke Shields for following a doctor's advice to take prescription antidepressant drugs to treat her post-partum depression following the birth of her child. The actress could have cured her problem with exercise and vitamins, Cruise asserted in several statements, including a contentious interview with "Today" show host Matt Lauer.

Shields wrote about her depression in a recent book, and shot back at Cruise in interviews and in an Op-Ed piece published in The New York Times.

Mappin said he not only approved of Cruise's position in the debate -- but also welcomed the idea that actors should sound off about psychiatric pharmaceuticals.

"The celebrities of today have become the political leaders of our time and are creating tomorrow's political and social landscape," he said. "What Tom Cruise is doing to make people aware of the dangers of drugging children with Ritalin and with other destructive drugs is to be highly commended."

Mappin is a member of the family that founded the upscale U.K. retailer Mappin and Webb more than 230 years ago. When he launched the United paper, which circulates in six English cities, he said in an announcement it would be "a completely new type of National Newspaper dedicated to forwarding news that is helpful to Mankind."