A Couch Tom Cruise Won't Jump On

The interview (which Lauer told viewers would continue on Monday -- oh, goody) is pegged to Cruise's role in the film "War of the Worlds," which opens Wednesday. But every interview with Cruise lately has seemed to revolve around the twin suns of Scientology and Katie Holmes, his new fiancee and a recent initiate to the church. His now-legendary professions of love on "Oprah" started what has become a series of manic moments in public, in which the screen idol appears to be losing his chiseled, steely reserve.

While Cruise Chernobyled on "Today," Holmes gazed at him adoringly from the wings of the set, where the interview was taped on Thursday.

Will any of this hurt Cruise's career?

"Don't immediately assume that he is ruining himself," said Allan Mayer, managing director of Los Angeles-based Sitrick and Co., which regularly handles celebrities' PR crises. "He himself has said he doesn't care, and who are we to say he's made a mistake? . . . What's the point of being a hugely successful and powerful movie star if you can't talk about the things that matter to you? We may think it's silly and bizarre, but it's obviously important to him."

As a top-level celebrity believer in Scientology, Cruise has been steeped in the lingo and policies of the late church founder, L. Ron Hubbard. (Hearing Cruise use a term like "ideal scene" during his exchange with Lauer would perk up the ears of anyone who's been in Scientology's orbit before.)

Hubbard launched his self-help movement in the 1950s with a book called "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health," and from early on, he battled with psychologists and psychiatrists. Indeed, Hubbard once wrote in an internal policy statement: "Our war has been forced to become to take over absolutely the field of mental healing on this planet in all forms."

Peg Nichols, a spokeswoman for the Landover-based Children and Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, said her office was flooded with calls yesterday about Cruise's statements. The group avoids comment on Scientology, but she advised people to be "smart consumers of medicine." And she asked: "Since when would a celebrity have expertise in medicine? Would you go to your doctor and ask him about movie roles?"

Special correspondent Korin Miller contributed to this report.