TV psychiatrist Dr. Drew Pinsky had the Scientologists calling him a Nazi after he said in a recent interview that Cruise’s involvement in the cult looks like “a function of a very deep emptiness and suggests serious neglect in childhood - maybe some abuse, but mostly neglect.” Pinsky half-heartedly apologized in a bland statement afterward, with his rep saying “Dr. Drew meant no harm to Mr. Cruise and apologizes if his comments were hurtful.” You can’t blame the guy for not being more contrite after Cruise’s lawyer compared him to infamous Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

Cruise wasn’t the only celebrity Dr. Drew dissed in that interview in Playboy. He made a really sweeping statement about Angelina Jolie’s admission of past drug use, saying no one ever gets past using heroin and that he questions whether she’s still sober. He also called her charity work “self-serving.”

“I’m concerned with what’s really going on with Angelina Jolie,” he said in July’s issue of Playboy. “I’ve never seen someone remit heroin completely. You’re either still on heroin, Oxycontin or something else. Unless you’re dead. Is she still using something? Is she in recovery. If she’s in recovery, I don’t see any evidence of it, because people in recovery invest themselves in simple, selfless acts of service, not global self-serving acts.”

[From In Touch, print edition, June 30, 2008]

So, according to Dr. Drew there are no former heroin users who lead normal lives without attending meetings. Maybe he only sees the hard cases, but that seems like a pretty broad generalization.

Today is World Refugee Day and Angelina recorded a video to bring attention to the plight of displaced people throughout the world. Except somehow it’s all about her, since she admits to doing heroin in her past and no one who’s ever done heroin at any point can go on to lead a normal life without staying in recovery for the rest of their life, right Dr. Drew?

I don’t know how old these photos of Angelina are since they were undated, but she looks like she’s on something here. Thanks to PRPhotos.

Tom Cruise can launch a fancy website touting his 25 years of success in film, go on Oprah with tons of celebrity supporters, and tote around his adorable toddler and beaming wide-eyed wife all he wants. All he has to do is get defensive and the public is reminded that he’s the pint-sized spokesperson for one of the worlds most dangerous and prolific cults.

Today Tom Cruise’s lawyer compared popular television psychiatrist Dr. Drew Pinksy to notorious Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels after Pinksy dared criticize Cruise for his involvement in the cult. Tom Cruise himself has been compared to Goebbels by a prominent German WWII historian, and calling anyone that practices psychiatry a Nazi is typical Scientolo-speak.

In next month’s Playboy, Dr. Drew Pinsky, host of VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew,” says: “A lot of people in the public eye who behave strangely have mental illness we can learn from, and much of it is based on childhood trauma, without a doubt. Take a guy like Tom Cruise. Why would somebody be drawn into a cultish kind of environment like Scientology? To me, that’s a function of a very deep emptiness and suggests serious neglect in childhood - maybe some abuse, but mostly neglect.” Cruise’s lawyer, Bert Fields, told us: “This unqualified television performer who is obviously just looking for notoriety is so grotesquely unprofessional as to pretend to diagnose Tom and others without ever meeting them. He seems to be spewing the absurdity that all Scientologists are mentally ill. The last time we heard garbage like this was from Joseph Goebbels.”

[From The NY Post]

Cruise called psychiatry a “Nazi science” in a 2005 interview with Entertainment Weekly, and cited a bunch of supposed connections between psychiatry and the Nazis that could be considered tenuous at best, and weren’t even true.

Scientology creator L. Ron Hubbard blamed psychiatry for all crime, said it was founded by the Nazis, called psychiatrists murderers and said they “destroyed every great civilization to date.” One of the main goals of Scientology is to eradicate psychiatry and outlaw all psychiatric drugs.

Cruise’s lawyer should have used their tired old defense that any criticism of Scientology is somehow religious intolerance, but instead he resorted to that ridiculous Nazi comparison and reminded us why Cruise fell out of the public’s good graces in the first place.

I wonder when that shitty Valkyrie film will finally come out. All it will take is one former Scientologist sitting in the audience to point out how much of L. Ron’s doctrine is secretly hidden in that film. Once that movie tanks and it’s pointed out that it’s a vehicle to disseminate Scientology Cruise will have to do a lot more than smile and show off his family to save his image.

Thank goodness Scientology is around to cure all of society’s ills. Who needs a professional psychologist or addiction medicine expert to help you battle your increasingly debilitating drug addictions when Xenu can jiggle your brain juices around and spruce you right up? Jeff Conaway, star of such hits as “Grease,” “Taxi,” and more recently “Celebrity Rehab” has had quite the challenge sobering up on the reality show. In fact it’s been downright painful to watch him, and has served as a pretty brutal reminder why it’s a good idea to avoid drugs all together. Jeff was wheelchair-bound for much of the show, and suffered horrible convulsions. Most of his speech had to be subtitled for viewers, and it was nearly incomprehensible. He had to be admitted to the hospital for detox almost immediately. Unfortunately Jeff didn’t complete the program, and left after the seventh episode. Over the years he’s been a frequent patient of Dr. Drew Pinsky’s, the host of “Celebrity Rehab.” But apparently all Jeff really needed was a little help from Xenu’s brain-reading machines, because he claims Scientology has finally cured him.

Inside Edition sat down for an exclusive interview with former Taxi star Jeff Conaway, who says he has finally kicked his drug habit by practicing Scientology. According to Conaway, “I’ve been doing Scientology…my doctor was like, Holy cow, he says whatever you’ve been doing keep doing it because it’s really working.”

Conaway says his former Grease co-star John Travolta introduced him to the controversial religion. “John and I stayed friends but he couldn’t watch me going down the tubes…he gave me a whole library of Scientology books and he’s given me an auditor who comes almost every day.”

Conaway, who lost over 40 pounds while participating in VH1’s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, tells Inside Edition he can’t wait to get back in front of the camera. “I’m going to be strong and healthy and totally together. I’ve got to get ready for my Academy Award.”

[From Inside Edition]

Something tells me the doctor Conaway is referencing is not the good Dr. Drew – who I will admit I have a daddy-issue-based crush on, but I’m sure would spit in the face of Scientology regardless. It’s great that Conaway’s talking positively and expecting big things of himself, a la Academy Awards. But I seriously doubt something as illegitimate as Narconon (Scientology’s anti-drug program, which is named to make it sound legitimate – note that it’s “onon” not “anon” as in all the Alcoholics Anonymous-based programs) magically cured all of Conaway’s many complex addictions. The man was like a walking anti drug ad. Mostly because he literally couldn’t even walk. They should show clips of him to kids in the DARE program. As much as I’d champion anything that helps someone battle such life-destroying demons, let’s not be fooled into thinking drinking some barely water and popping some vitamins has cured the poor guy. Clearly he’s desperate for some kind of change, and that’s great. But it means it’s time to call up a good rehab facility, not John Travolta and Kirstie Alley.

Here is Jeff Conaway and his girlfriend Vikki Lizzi at the 18th Annual Night of 100 Stars Gala Viewing Party at the Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24th. Images thanks to PR Photos.

The investigation into the shocking and untimely death of 25-year-old actor Brad Renfro continues, as the coroner’s office completed his autopsy yesterday. Brad wasn’t super famous, and not a lot is known about his personality in the last few years. But it appears something was going on with him lately. TMZ reports that two days before the actor died, he got a tattoo across his back that read “Fuck Y’all.” That leads one to wonder if his (presumed) overdose was accidental or intentional. The coroner’s office is conducting interviews with Renfro’s friends, though not much has been said about his family.

An autopsy on the former child star was performed Thursday, the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner confirmed. The official cause of death will not be released until toxicology tests come back in about six weeks. Renfro’s body was found by his girlfriend in his Los Angeles home Tuesday morning. Paramedics pronounced him dead upon their arrival.

In addition to performing the autopsy, coroner’s officials have been conducting interviews with people who knew Renfro. Friends of the 25-year-old actor, whose struggles with drug addiction were well publicized, said he was drinking the night before his body was discovered, but it is not yet known whether that contributed to his death.

[From E! News]

Several of Renfro’s former co-stars have made statements regarding his death, and everyone says he was an incredibly nice guy who had a hard battle with addiction. Susan Sarandon, who worked with Renfro on the movie that was his big break – The Client – expressed her condolences.

“It was obvious to everyone that he was the sweetest, most incredibly gifted young actor to come along for some time,” Sarandon said Wednesday in remembrance of her onetime costar. “My heart goes out to the family for their tragic loss.”

[From E! News]

Johnny Knoxville, who costarred with Renfro in 2002 in the movie “Deuces Wild” also talked about what a nice guy Brad was.

“I really liked Brad,” Knoxville said. “[He was] extremely charming and [had] a good heart. Yeah, he got into a little trouble, but he was a sweet, sweet kid. I don’t like to be talking about him in the past tense,” he added. “He was a hometown boy who did real good, and it breaks my heart he is gone. He was so young and so sweet. It makes me very sad.”

[From US Weekly]

Dr. Drew Pinsky, who is a medical doctor and a board-licensed addiction medicine specialist and the host of “Celebrity Rehab,” thinks that the fact that Brad was known to have been drinking the night before he died means he likely was using drugs as well.

The fact that he was drinking could an indication that Renfro, who has battled heroin addiction for several years, took illicit drugs before his death, addiction expert and Celebrity Rehab host Dr. Drew Pinsky tells PEOPLE.

“Just the fact that he was a known addict who was drinking, that’s all you need to know,” Pinsky says. “Renfro was taught in rehab to stay away from booze, and if he was drinking the night before, odds are the coroner will find other substances in his body.”

[From US Weekly]

It seems pretty likely that Brad Renfro died from either drugs or the combination of drugs and alcohol, especially given his history. I think the greater mystery will be whether it was intentional or accidental, and that will obviously take some time for an investigation to figure out. It’s a sad lesson that some other celebrities with addiction issues should pay attention to – just because you’re young and famous doesn’t mean you’re invincible.

Picture note by Jaybird: Brad Renfro and his date at “The Jacket” Los Angeles Premiere in February 2005. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Dr. Drew Pinsky, my favorite of all television/radio doctors, is going on the attack, and his target is Dr. Phil McGraw. Dr. Phil famously tried to use Britney Spears’ emotional breakdown last week as a vehicle to boost his own show’s ratings. The Spears family requested that he meet privately with Britney. And while Dr. Phil did technically do that, he then issued multiple press releases about it, blabbed to Entertainment Tonight about Brit’s condition, and then said he was going to have the Spears parents on his show. He eventually had to retract that, and the Spears had to issue a statement explaining that they wanted Dr. Phil’s private – not public – help. By most accounts, Dr. Phil just yammered at Britney for fifteen minutes (not the hour long conversation he originally reported) while she packed her belongs to leave the hospital.

Dr. Drew (who is a board-certified MD, an addiction-medicine specialist in full time practice, teaches at the Keck School of Medicine at USC, has been the host of radio’s Loveline since he was a med student in 1983, and is currently the host of VH1’s Celebrity Rehab) has called Dr. Phil out for his unprofessional behavior.

Celebrity doctors Drew Pinsky and Phil McGraw are sparring over the treatment of troubled superstar Britney Spears. Pinsky, who recently treated American Idol singer Jessica Sierra, has attacked the advice McGraw gave Spears when he visited her in hospital following her recent stand-off with police - and challenged the TV talk show host’s right to call himself a doctor.

The addiction specialist claims by getting involved, McGraw has made the situation worse. He says, “It’s never good for an addict when there are multiple sources getting involved. You have to have a unified front. Addicts love a split. It helps them maintain the chaos.

“He’s not a physician. I’m an MD. I went to medical school. He’s a psychologist and I don’t think he has a license in California.”

[From PR-Insider]

Britney clearly needs a specialist, not a general TV-grade psychologist who’s out for their own benefit. And it seems pretty likely that she needs someone with a medical degree, as it seems possible that she has some sort of physical problem going on, whether it’s chemical or biological. Hopefully the biggest disservice Dr. Phil did was to his own career and not to Britney or her family. There’s been a lot of speculation that his actions may have caused an irreparable rift between the Spears.

Dr. Drew made some additional points about Dr. Phil’s lack of professional responsibility.

“My concern was, I don’t know that Dr. Phil has a license in California,” Drew told Access Hollywood. “He’s not on staff at Cedars. Is he interfering with the care of another doctor’s patient? I don’t know.”

As for rumors that Britney’s family plans on having her involuntarily committed, Dr. Drew said that is unlikely to happen. “When a patient doesn’t want help, there’s sort of a fallacy that we can somehow intervene and make them get better,” he said. “It doesn’t work like that, it has to come from within them.”

Dr. Drew said in order to help a person out, sometimes a family has to cut the person off. “So what we try to do is get the family actually to actively disengage with the patient. It is their dance with the patient that allows their disease to go on,” he explained.

[From Access Hollywood]

I really feel like Dr. Phil needs some sort of professional sanctioning. Apparently it is a rule amongst those in the mental health field that one professional doesn’t treat another’s patient without consulting with them first. Otherwise the patient could get a lot of conflicting information, advice, and treatment. I used to find Dr. Phil’s show somewhat entertaining, but frankly his brand of superficial advice just isn’t appropriate in anything other than an hour-long TV format.