{"id":280,"date":"2006-04-27T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-04-27T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/roar-tomkat-roar.html"},"modified":"2006-04-27T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-04-27T12:00:00","slug":"roar-tomkat-roar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/roar-tomkat-roar.html","title":{"rendered":"Roar, TomKat, Roar!"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Tom Cruise fans\u2014those who read the gossip mags these days with paper bags over their heads\u2014must wonder, Why does Tom do it? Why pounce on Oprah\u2019s sofa? Why pooh-pooh post-partum depression? Why placenta? Why does he insist on announcing that the birth of his child was \u201cvery spiritual\u201d?<\/p>\n

Okay, the last of these is the least of his recent embarassments, but it\u2019s one that rallied me to Cruise\u2019s defense. I had a twinge when the prankster squirted Tom in the face with a water gun shaped like a microphone, but I tilted when Tom\u2019s claim about “spiritual” childbirth popped up in nearly every headline<\/a> about his post-partum chat with ABC\u2019s \u201c20\/20\u201d; the media is either proud of Tom\u2019s perceptive description of watching childbirth or wants his comment entered as another data point that he\u2019s gone off his nut. I suspect the latter.<\/p>\n

Since his cringe-inducing performance on “Oprah,” we\u2019re all to understand that Tom has taken permanent leave of his senses or is intolerably self-obsessed. \u201cIs there any experience that isn\u2019t totally intense and utterly incredible with this man?\u201d wrote one columnist<\/a>. Isn\u2019t that, though, just about the best definition available of \u201cspiritual\u201d? The same question, asked about the Dalai Lama, would come off as praise.<\/p>\n

Similarly, instead of using Oprah\u2019s sofa as a trampoline, should Tom have mewled that Kat is his best friend? Okay, Tom could tone down the kooky pseudo-psychiatry and lay off the placenta. Or better yet, take some acting roles that measure up to his \u201cprivate\u201d weirdness. Artists are supposed to revolt us, challenge us, be rash and generally be in the vanguard. So I say, Take pride, Tom fans. You have nothing to lose but your bags.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Cruise fans\u2014those who read the gossip mags these days with paper bags over their heads\u2014must wonder, Why does Tom do it? Why pounce on Oprah\u2019s sofa? Why pooh-pooh post-partum depression? Why placenta? Why does he insist on announcing that the birth of his child was \u201cvery spiritual\u201d? Okay, the last of these is the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":275,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nRoar, TomKat, Roar!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/roar-tomkat-roar.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Roar, TomKat, Roar!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tom Cruise fans\u2014those who read the gossip mags these days with paper bags over their heads\u2014must wonder, Why does Tom do it? Why pounce on Oprah\u2019s sofa? Why pooh-pooh post-partum depression? Why placenta? Why does he insist on announcing that the birth of his child was \u201cvery spiritual\u201d? Okay, the last of these is the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/roar-tomkat-roar.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-04-27T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/CruiseOprah.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"burb\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Roar, TomKat, Roar!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/roar-tomkat-roar.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Roar, TomKat, Roar!","og_description":"Tom Cruise fans\u2014those who read the gossip mags these days with paper bags over their heads\u2014must wonder, Why does Tom do it? Why pounce on Oprah\u2019s sofa? Why pooh-pooh post-partum depression? Why placenta? Why does he insist on announcing that the birth of his child was \u201cvery spiritual\u201d? Okay, the last of these is the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/roar-tomkat-roar.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2006-04-27T12:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/CruiseOprah.jpg"}],"author":"burb","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/roar-tomkat-roar.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/roar-tomkat-roar.html","name":"Roar, TomKat, Roar!","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/roar-tomkat-roar.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/roar-tomkat-roar.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/CruiseOprah.jpg","datePublished":"2006-04-27T12:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2006-04-27T12:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/712e98c75f8fee807fba226a8bfa2bd8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/roar-tomkat-roar.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/roar-tomkat-roar.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/roar-tomkat-roar.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/CruiseOprah.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/CruiseOprah.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/roar-tomkat-roar.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Roar, TomKat, Roar!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/712e98c75f8fee807fba226a8bfa2bd8","name":"burb","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"burb"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/burb"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}