Lauren Bacall weighs in with her own views on this "new rogue genre" in the current issue of Time:

Lauren Bacall criticizes 'vulgar' Tom Cruise
USA Today, August 1, 2005

In an interview in the Aug. 8 issue of Time magazine, now on newsstands, the 80-year-old actress says, "When you talk about a great actor, you're not talking about Tom Cruise."

"His whole behavior is so shocking," she says. "It's inappropriate and vulgar and absolutely unacceptable to use your private life to sell anything commercially, but I think it's kind of a sickness."

http://snipurl.com/gnfp

Is she old-fashioned? Or does she have a point?

Is this a new genre? Soap opera verite?

And who is to blame?

The stars who behave as Greek gods, or those who worship them as gods, having nothing else in their lives to worship?