It was June 2005. Tom Cruise was on top of the world, or at least he should have been. He was promoting War of the Worlds, a massive Spielberg blockbuster. He’d just proposed to Katie Holmes at the Eiffel Tower. Everything looked like a victory lap.
Then he sat down with Matt Lauer on the Today show.
What started as a standard press junket interview spiraled into one of the most awkward, aggressive, and meme-worthy moments in live television history. If you weren’t around then, it’s hard to describe how much this dominated the news cycle. It wasn't just celebrity gossip; it was a cultural collision between Hollywood stardom, the Church of Scientology, and the medical establishment.
The moment things went south
The vibe changed the second Lauer brought up Brooke Shields. Earlier that year, Cruise had publicly criticized Shields for using antidepressants to treat her postpartum depression. Cruise, a devout Scientologist, holds the belief—central to the church—that psychiatry is a "pseudoscience."
Lauer pushed back. He mentioned he knew people who had been helped by Ritalin and other medications.
Cruise didn't just disagree. He leaned in. He got intense.
"Matt, Matt, you don't even—you're glib," Cruise said, his voice dropping into a stern, lecture-like tone. "You don't even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, okay? That’s what I’ve done."
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It was a total "Chernobyl" moment for his public image.
"You don't know the history of psychiatry, I do"
The interview wasn't just a disagreement; it was an interrogation. Cruise repeatedly told Lauer he was being "irresponsible" for advocating for drugs. He claimed that vitamins and exercise could solve problems like postpartum depression.
Honestly, it was uncomfortable to watch. Lauer tried to maintain his "morning show host" composure, but you could see the frustration. He pointed out that Cruise’s experience with his friends—which was zero—shouldn't outweigh Lauer's own experiences with people who actually got better on medication.
Cruise’s response? "You're glib."
That word became the headline. It defined the "new" Tom Cruise that the public was suddenly seeing—a man who seemed less like a movie star and more like a high-ranking enforcer for his faith.
The fallout and the apology
The backlash was swift. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) issued a statement calling Cruise's comments "irresponsible" and "unfortunate." They pointed out that his remarks could actually deter people with real mental illnesses from seeking the help they desperately needed.
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Brooke Shields didn't stay quiet either. She wrote an op-ed in The New York Times titled "War of the Words," where she basically told Cruise to stick to saving the world from aliens and leave the medical advice to doctors. She noted that Cruise had likely never suffered from postpartum depression himself, so his "expert" opinion was pretty much worthless.
Crucially, the damage to Cruise's "bankability" was real. For years, he was the guy everyone loved. Suddenly, he was the guy jumping on Oprah's couch and yelling at Matt Lauer.
Did they ever make up?
Fast forward to December 2008. Cruise returned to the Today show to promote Valkyrie. This time, the energy was completely different. He looked back at the 2005 interview and admitted he messed up.
"It’s not what I had intended," Cruise told Lauer during the rematch. "In looking at myself, I thought, 'Man, that came across as arrogant.' That’s one of those things you go, 'OK, I could have absolutely handled that better.'"
They shook hands. They laughed. Lauer even joked about how people still came up to him on the street asking if they hated each other. According to Lauer, they had actually made peace long before that televised reunion, even sharing a moment at a Friars Club roast.
Why it still matters in 2026
You might wonder why we're still talking about an interview from twenty years ago. Basically, it was the first time the curtain was pulled back on how Scientology influences the private and public lives of its biggest stars. It changed the way celebrities interact with the media.
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Today, you’ll notice Cruise almost never does live, unscripted interviews where he can be "cornered" on personal or religious topics. His PR is iron-clad.
But for those few minutes in 2005, the mask slipped. It reminded everyone that even the most controlled superstars are human—and sometimes, they're just as susceptible to being "glib" as the rest of us.
What you should take away
The saga of Tom Cruise and Matt Lauer is a case study in PR disasters and the dangers of giving medical advice without a license. Here is what we can learn from the whole mess:
- Check your expertise: Even if you feel passionate about a topic, acknowledging the limits of your own knowledge prevents you from looking "glib" or arrogant.
- Mental health is personal: The backlash showed that the public has very little patience for people shaming others for their medical choices, especially regarding mental health.
- Recovery is possible: Cruise’s 2008 apology didn't erase the memory of the first interview, but it did show that a humble "I could have handled that better" goes a long way in repairing a reputation.
If you ever find yourself in a heated debate, remember the "glib" incident. Sometimes, the best way to "know the history" of a subject is to listen to the people who have actually lived through it.
Next Steps for You
If you're researching celebrity PR crises, look into the "Oprah couch jump" which happened just weeks before the Lauer interview; it provides essential context for Cruise's headspace at the time. You should also read Brooke Shields' 2005 op-ed in The New York Times to see the specific medical rebuttals used against Cruise's claims.