<p>roshke:
The family’s attorney released this statement:
Not sure how long he was off his anticonvulsant or if they were titrating it down and/or doing a washout before trying another (there are lots of anticonvulsants available for grand mal seizures). I doubt we’ll ever know how they balanced the mediction/religion issue, but it really isn’t our business. Unless Tom Cruise comes out and says Scientology can cure seizures…</p>
<p>Does anybody remember that magazine called “Spy”? They wrote an article about Scientology and the writer was harassed for years afterwards. Yes, you can make the case that lots of mainstream religions are illogical or weird, but that odd, secretive thing just makes Scientology very creepy. I mean, I used to like Tom Cruise. He seems like a very likable guy, and I think he’s made some good films, but man, if anybody ever seemed like a cult member–he’s it!</p>
<p>" And direct public curiosity into a more positive channel "</p>
<p>I like to do just that…Sometimes the news just brings me down so much I have to find something , no matter how small to help someone else.</p>
<p>Just yesterday, there was a homeless man in our store. I didn’t know he was homeless because he happened to be with a family that we know and I assumed he was the father/grandfather. They were there to help get him set up with something he needed.
He took it upon himself to lead our woodstove.
He didn’t say a word.
I am going to try to track him down to give him some other things, perhaps some clothing and blankets.
We seldom see anyone homeless in our own community, and he did seem nomadic</p>
<p>I never really liked Tom Cruise- but I have seen some films that I thought he was very good in.
But he just isn’t my type- too smiley.
I’m more the Toby Ziegler type- </p>
<p>I also really disliked him after he attacked Brooke Shields. How the heck would he know from Post Partum depression? To go after someone who is sharing something very difficult in order to help people- is nasty and petty.</p>
<p>I think extreme " religions" are nuts- especially when they are recently founded by someone who sold snake oil in a past life.
However- the Travoltas kept their religion out of the press pretty much & I don’t think there should be any doubt that they tried their best to take care of their family including their son.
It might not be the way I would have done it- and I am not a diagnostician, but when kids have health issues, it is pretty hard for anyone to say there is only one way to treat.</p>
<p>I won’t see TC movies anymore because I can’t see anything but the kook (guess I don’t consider him a good enough actor to overcome it).</p>
<p>I do feel bad for the Travoltas. I am sure they were handling their son’s challenges the best way they knew how … when a situation has no black & white solution, it’s extra hard on the parents. Losing a beloved son is not easy for anyone, but it must be even more difficult when reporters are intruding into your life when it happens.</p>
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<p>I loved Spy! I subscribed to it on the basis of their mailed prospectus, which was hilarious. I loved the way they used Homeric epithets for NY celebs. “Queens-born casino operator” for Donald Trump. “Short-fingered vulgarian” for one of the other moguls (which one I cannot recall).</p>
<p>Short-fingered vulgarian" for one of the other moguls (which one I cannot recall).</p>
<p>that was Trump also ( I googled)</p>
<p>What, they didn’t have anything to say about his * hair* ? :D</p>
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<p>I’m with you there. Kind of also feel the same way about Mel Gibson, but not quite as deeply.</p>
<p>Wow, teriwtt, Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson. I hadn’t thought of this before, but you bring up a good point. There seems to be an inverse relationship between their good looks and what ugly nonsense comes out of their mouths…</p>
<p>My problem with TC movies is I just feel like I am watching - Tom Cruise. Most (good) actors I am watching the character rather than the actor. With TC it is always just TC up there. I tend to avoid movies he is in.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom, I have the same problem with TC’s movies!</p>
<p>there seems to be a lot of hate for Tom Cruise in this thread. i’ll probably be the only one, but I like him as an actor and find most films he’s done to be pretty entertaining. And Valkyrie was a pretty good film. It showed the other side that’s often ignored (the German soldier’s side) in WW2. Usually all you ever get is a bunch of anti-Nazi material in the media. I like that this film chose to take a look at the other side of things to show 1) that not all Germans were Nazis (most people think Germans = Nazis in WW2) and 2) that not all Nazis did what they did because they wanted to (i.e. pleasure).</p>
<p>as for the original article just 3 things I found interesting. 1. Where are the quotes from Cruise? The article says he said this and he said that, but not a single quote. I don’t doubt he said something regarding the matter, but newspapers can easily take things out of context. 2. If they ‘cured’ his dyslexia, how is it that no other doctor has ever ever been able to solve this? Certainly, if there was a ‘cure’ this wouldn’t be a common problem. Reminds me of an article of a man who had AIDS but was then tested and found to be clean. Yet he would not share his blood for further testing. Either he never had it, or he had to be the most selfish man on this planet. One would hope that whatever Cruise did could be shared with the rest of the community so that others who have dyslexia can improve their condition. 3. When he was ‘cured’? If it was only recently, it must have been tough to read through scripts (not impossible, but just tough).</p>
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<p>Doesn’t it require that members give money, often to the point that they are forced to work full time for the “church”? If that’s true, it is much worse.</p>
<p>JT and KP have testified against the use of labeling, calling the DSM-4 (or 3?) a devil’s book. They don’t seem to understand that some labels (LD, autistic spectrum) can bring special services to children in schools. I’m glad they were willing to use some medication to control the seizures. It seems terribly unfortunate that their private decisions will be made public. I may not agree with JT’s public views of mental health, but he certainly was a family man and a charitable person.</p>
<p>“Only in its reluctance to embrace modern medicine and its benefits. Which could prove deadly. Otherwise; No.”</p>
<p>No dog in the Scientology fight, but they released a statement saying that they do not prohibit medication among adherents, they use the resources of modern medications just like anyone else, and they consult with doctors.</p>
<p>If the child was indeed on Depakote but had intractable seizures – Depakote can indeed affect the liver, and as someone said upthread, you can be between a rock and a hard place, and d/cing the Depakote is not evidence of “maltreatment” or “neglect.”</p>
<p>I wish we could all just wish the Travoltas the best and I hate how the media has made it such that we all need to second guess their medical decisions and pretend like we know better than they what was going on.</p>
<p>“and Travolta also said something about Scientology having some thing about super cleanliness, which led to Travolta’s compulsive disinfecting of Jett’s carpet, etc when he was young, possibly contributing to Jett’s Kawasaki syndrome or some other health biohazard reaction).”</p>
<p>My understanding was that Travolta felt guilty because he had been a clean-freak (and hence the son’s carpets got cleaned repeatedly) and Preston in particular felt that the carpet cleaning was related to Kawasaki’s. She was always a real crunchy-natural type of advocate. The link between carpet cleaning and Kawasaki’s is tenuous at best, and Kawasaki’s pales next to seizures, esp intractable ones. It almost doesn’t matter if the kid was autistic or not – I bet he had a nicer life than most kids, anyway, with loving parents, getting to fly, getting to vacation in nice places, having a high level of personal care – it seems like the seizures did him in.</p>
<p>It’s interesting how people feel differently about Cruise and Travolta–Cruise takes all the lumps, even though Travolta has been in much worse movies, including one, Battlefield Earth, that was essentially propaganda for the religion. I guess the difference must be the public statements, and the public persona.</p>
<p>I find the Tom Cruise situation interesting, because it illustrates the current, cultural tendency to elevate entertainers (actors/sports figures/etc.) into positions of moral leadership/responsibility. They are certainly public figures, but it is we who look to them to act as moral role models and we who are irritated/frustrated when they fall short. </p>
<p>My dad used to say (re: the cult of actors/celebrities): “Aren’t these the people who used to travel around in wagons and people would throw nickles at them after a good show?”</p>
<p>Obviously, a very, very un-PC statement and it does not account for the great joy that many people gain from watching the fine (and difficult) art of acting. No offense intended! But, maybe a certain little grain of truth re: the elevation of entertainers as moral leaders?</p>
<p>Yesterday morning on, I believe, Good Morning America, Diane Sawyer (I think) did a vignette of video clips of John Travolta talking about Jett. In one of them he said something about Scientology believing in a pure environment, or something like that, and related it to his obsessive cleaning of the carpets and area around Jett. I can’t seem to find it right now, but no matter. It is unlikely that caused the intractible seizure disorder that sadly caused Jett’s untimely passing. There are several different debilitating forms of epilepsy, some that worsen over time, some that ultimately require radical surgeries such as a temporal lobectomy or even a hemispherectomy (depending on the location and type of seizure disorder) when the seizures are unable to be adequately managed by any of the many available anticonvulsants. Constant intractible seizures or being in status epilepticus (not saying that Jett was dealing with either of these specifically-- just giving an example) can cause something called “kindling”, further brain irritation and deteriorative brain damage. It is possible that Jett could have struggled with something like this, and that his level of functioning was related to his seizure disorder. Of course it is also possible that he was autistic. It is unlikely that we will ever know. I wholly agree that it is awful that the Travoltas have to live their grief through the media, as do most celebreties. The overshadowing of the religious beliefs and its influence on medical care is what further piques some curiosity.</p>
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Huge fame is almost like a superpower, that can be used for good or evil. I like the way Bono has used his, for example.</p>