Some actors that we all come to love and admire seem to hit a snag in their careers after a meteoric rise to stardom. Yet, the film industry churns on with such a ferocious energy and momentum that we sometimes forget that they have not produced a single decent film or TV show in a while. Then we realize, hey, did they take refuge in real estate or restaurant business?

We know Tom Cruise did not do that even after he was sacked unceremoniously by Viacom's Redstone. Now, with Redskin owner Schneider, he is busy reviving the United Artists empire.

But, despite the success of MI3, is this the same Tom Cruise that we liked in the past? I doubt it.

This is a more righteous Tom Cruise. A more ideologically beefed up Scientologist TomKat Cruise that will never miss an opportunity to shove a finger into our faces to make a righteous point about religion, drugs, truth, and God knows what else. John Travolta is a Scientologist too but he did not suffer from the same kind of PR erosion since he kept his faith and ideology to himself.

We like our actors as dream makers and for the tremendous talent that they are. We shower them with adulation and more money than they can spend in a lifetime. But we do not want them to be our priest, preacher, shrink, doctor, ethics teacher, and prophet rolled up in one.

I think that's why Tom Cruise's career is up against a steep PR hill even if UA starts making oodles of money for him and his investors. And it's a shame too because he was truly one of the most gifted actors of his generation (how can we forget the RAIN MAN? FOURTH OF JULY? THE LAST SAMURAI? VANILLA SKY? COLLATERAL? A FEW GOOD MEN? JERRY MAGUIRE? the list goes on and on...) Pitty, really.

Jim Carrey is another immensely gifted star whose career is suffering from a multi-genre whiplash. Is this guy a comedian, a dramatic actor, a romcom lead man, a new horror flick hero, or what? Of course, Robin Williams did the same transition thank you from sheer lunatic side-splitting no-holds-barred comedy to dramatic roles which included an aging gay radio show host tracking a mystery in the cold boondocks of Wisconsin.

So what's the difference?

I think the difference is the proselytizing Look-I-Found-God-and-I-Betchca-You-Haven't! tone, the way his own personal and spiritual adventure bleeds into his professional life that sets Jim Carrey apart from Robin Williams. In that, I think Carrey to a certain extent is suffering from the same “Tom Cruise syndrome” of making one's private belief and an intimate spiritual journey a public controversy, a public currency.

Others make a complete fool of themselves in public and they do it so brazenly and to such a degree that we start to think “WHO is this guy really?” Mel Gibson and Michael Richards are the names that immediately come to mind. They should first fire their PR person and then take the front page from Kevin Spacey's game book and keep their private lives private. Period.

(Written in March 2007.)
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