Did Tom Cruise try to convert Larry King?

MSNBC/March 20, 2007
By Jeanette Walls

Did Tom Cruise try to convert Larry King to Scientology?

The "Mission: Impossible" star tried to convince the CNN interviewer of the virtues of the sometimes controversial religion and took King on a personal tour of a Scientology exhibit that attacks psychiatry.

King, who has been candid about his bout with depression, also has been open about his treatment with antidepressants, but Cruise and his religion are outspoken critics of both psychiatry and prescription drugs.

After a highly publicized incident in which Cruise criticized Brooke Shields' use of drugs to treat her postpartum depression a few years back, Cruise took King on a private tour of the Scientology's Hollywood museum, "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death."

"I like Tom a lot," King told the Palm Beach Post in discussing the tour, but adds he disagrees with the actor's and Scientology's position on anti-depressants and psychiatry. The church blames the latter on everything from patients' suicides to the Holocaust.

"Their attack on psychiatry is incredible," King said. "They hate psychiatry."