Katie Holmes appeared on the Today Show yesterday to discuss her role as Carla, a poet with bi-polar disorder in the independent film Touched With Fire. In the film, a love story, Carla explores treatment of her disorder through medication. Why is that significant? Because in 2005, Katie’s then fiancé, Tom Cruise, made some critical remarks about Brooke Shield’s treatment of postpartum depression with anti-depressants. Due to Scientology’s staunch stance on medication and Cruise’s self-professed knowledge of the entire history of psychiatry, this led to a terribly awkward interview with Lauer whom Cruise wrote off as “glib.” Katie was present on the Today Show set in 2005 during the infamous interview. Although Lauer and Cruise have since kissed and made up, Lauer couldn’t help but refer to the discussion when interviewing Katie on this topic:
A decade later, Matt Lauer is still ruminating on his infamous interview with Tom Cruise.
It was 2005, and the two were debating the merits of anti-depressants and other pharmaceutical drugs. As a Scientologist, Cruise is staunchly opposed to that type of medication and, at one point, challenged Lauer, saying, “You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do.”
Now, the actor’s ex-wife, Katie Holmes, is playing a bipolar poet in a new movie, Touched With Fire, and the Today show host couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask her about that impassioned debate.
“[The movie] asks the question, is it beneficial to treat these people with drugs?” Lauer set up.”You and I both remember a heated discussion I got into on that subject here in this studio. How do you think the movie comes down on that?”
Holmes managed to sidestep the potentially uncomfortable moment — and the question.
“What I think our director [Paul Dalio] did a wonderful job with is this movie just kind of shows, this is it,” she said. “These are these two characters in a love story, which he’s saying is kind of its own kind of mania, to fall in love. But he puts the question out there for the audience to make their own decision.”
[From ET]
This video is posted below. Address, acknowledge, deflect back to movie; if I had a scorecard, I would give Katie high marks here. I really think Katie handled this with grace. I suspect she knew it was coming ahead of time with Lauer’s careful wording and her letter-perfect response but good for them. This is a highly unpopular statement but I still harbor residual affection for Cruise from a previous job where I had the pleasure of interacting with him. However, I have never forgiven him for his judgmental remarks on disorders and medication so I am glad this hasn’t gone away. Until he publicly rescinds and apologizes for his comments (and quits Scientology – why not wish big?) I won’t absolve him.
As for the movie, it’s a small indie but it has some of my favorite actors in it – Christine Lahti and Griffin Dunne! I will have to carve out the time to track this one down.
The long haired gentleman is the director Paul Dalio
Photo credit: Wenn Photos and Getty Images,/small>
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