The actress hits back at the War of the Worlds star, who criticized using antidepressants

Brooke Shields is lashing out at Tom Cruise, who recently criticized the actress for using antidepressants and called her actions “irresponsible.”

Shields, whose recent book Down Came the Rain chronicles her battle with postpartum depression following the birth of her daughter Rowan in 2003, says Cruise should mind his own business.

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“Tom should stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them,” says the former Suddenly Susan star.

Last week Cruise told Access Hollywood that is was “irresponsible” for Shields to assert that antidepressants helped cure her. “When someone says (medication) has helped them, it is to cope, it didn’t cure anything. There is no science. There is nothing that can cure them whatsoever,” he said.

Cruise, 41, who is an ardent advocate of Scientology, which condemns mind-altering prescriptions of any kind, instead suggests that women care for themselves with “vitamins and exercise.” He then added about Shields: “I care about Brooke Shields because I think she is an incredibly talented women, (but) look at where has her career gone.”

Meanwhile, amid industry speculation that Cruise’s agents are seeking to rein in their star’s very public advocacy of Scientology, Thursday’s New York Times reports that the planned press junket for Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, starring Cruise and opening June 29, has been scrapped in favor of “preselected interviews,” according to the director’s spokesman, Marvin Levy.

Regarding Cruise’s recent interview comments, especially to Oprah Winfrey (on whose show Cruise jumped around and flexed his muscles to show his love for Katie Holmes), Levy said: “You can have so much attention on a particular issue that maybe the movie doesn’t get as much attention as it might.”