Cruise gets support from Scientology

A group billing itself as a “psychiatric watchdog” is backing up Tom Cruise’s controversial comments to Matt Lauer about psychiatry and psychiatric drugs. Oh, and by the way, the “watchdog” group was formed by the Church of Scientology.

On a recent “Today Show” appearance, the “War of the Worlds” star angrily blasted the use of drugs such as Ritalin, and told Lauer that there’s no such thing as a chemical imbalance that leads to maladies such as depression.

On Monday, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights issued a statement saying that the high-profile Scientologist was right on with his diagnosis.

“Tom Cruise’s remarks on NBC’s Today Show represent a growing public awareness about the national crisis of children and adults being prescribed mind-altering drugs,” it said, going on to back up specific points made by Cruise: “There’s no biological imbalance,” it quotes a medical expert as saying. “When people come to me and they say, ‘I have a biochemical imbalance,’ I say, ‘Show me your lab tests.’ There are no lab tests. So what’s the biochemical imbalance?”

“This looks like a very carefully orchestrated PR campaign,” says a source — and he wasn’t referring to the push for the film. “Tom Cruise seems to be proselytizing his church’s positions.”

Does revelation solve a mystery?

Mark Lennihan / AP

The revelation that Princess Diana may have had a fling with John F. Kennedy Jr. adds another piece of a puzzle for fans of the late political scion.

In a new book, clairvoyant Simone Simmons alleges that Diana, a client, confided that she had a tryst with JFK Jr. in 1995. That same year, JFK Jr. made headlines when he snubbed the royal not once, but possibly twice at public events.

Early in that year, the usually-polite Kennedy made headlines when he failed to show at a lunch in Manhattan where he was to have been seated next to Diana. A royal aide said at the time that the princess had been “excited” about meeting Kennedy, and designer Ralph Lauren said, “he wasn’t there and no one knows why.” Later that year, he also failed to show at an event that Diana attended, leading some to speculate that he was avoiding the princess.

At the time, Kennedy was involved with Carolyn Bessette, whom he later married. Diana was killed in 1997 in a car accident in Paris. Kennedy, his wife, and her sister Lauren Bessette were all killed when the plane he was piloting crashed near Martha’s Vineyard in July 1999.

Notes from all over

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Looks like failed "American Idol" contestant turned kiss-and-tell-all-er Corey Clark has some stiff competition. Ryan Seacrest claims he was also hot for Paula Abdul. “I have always been a massive pop fan,” the reality show host tells the July issue of Blender. “That’s not always the coolest thing for a guy to admit, and I definitely got teased for it. But I remember thinking Paula was hot. That’s when I realized I liked girls.”  . . . Pamela Anderson will be the target of one of those Friars-type roasts, says a source. ..  . Nicole Kidman calls her 90-year-old grandmother once a week to defend herself against tabloid rumors. And for fashion advice. “[She’ll say], ‘Listen, I don’t think you look as good with blonde hair... I don’t like that dress you were wearing.’” Kidman told FirstFemale.com. “I ask her advice on stuff. She’s still very lucid, she doesn’t wear glasses, has all her own teeth. She says this proudly. It’s kind of amazing.”

Jeannette Walls Delivers the Scoop Mondays through Thursdays on MSNBC.com

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