Tom Cruise Actor Versus Tom Cruise Private Citizen

Tom Cruise is getting a deal from the media. Raw? I think not. Ask Jane Fonda who has long since repented her Hanoi Jane days. She'll explain that he's going about things all wrong. Martin Sheen can speak to it also, as a guy who has gotten arrested for his choices. One involved protesting at a little camp set up by the United States to train South American fighters.

Yes, Cruise should be honored for his masterful performances, even if he wasn't the brains behind Mission Impossible, as he has claimed recently. Tom, there was a whole lot of TV shows before you took over the idea as your own. And no, don't go around saying you created the Internet. Someone else other than the real creators has already laid claim to that fake coup.

Here's the problem: Tom started getting mouthy. Yeah, yeah, as a citizen he has every right to give his opinions, and he can write a check to any cause or campaign he wants. What he can't do, without taking the same lumps as other public figures outside of Hollyweird, is interject himself into political and religious fights expecting to shrink back behind his coat of many colors. It don't work that way.

Way back in the '70s, The Moody Blues came out with a song called "Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band" which speaks to this subject directly. It came out around the time a lot of rock stars were being asked to back up political ideologies. The Moody Blues asked the question-What makes you think we know anything about this stuff or that we want to. The idea is that you are either a master of your craft, as Tom has been saying since his first appearance on Oprah, and rightly so...or, you're a Jack of All Trades. This is where Tom started taking hits.