C[omp]ute

From: "andrew cooke" <andrew@...>

Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2006 07:50:09 -0300 (CLST)

http://metatalk.metafilter.com/mefi/13333
http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/45654#1066483

The following text was deleted:

The wonderful photo of the grinning Cruise illustrates beautifully the
reason why I think this report might not be true, or at the very least,
might be premature. Check out his teeth. That's right, Cruise has only
three incisors - he was born with a fused, midline incisor. He's had
dental work, including reshaping and adult braces, to minimize the
abnormal appearance of this tooth - in early photos you'll find he almost
never smiles, and when he does you can see that the middle incisor is
freakishly wide.

Midline incisor can be a forme fruste of holoprosencephaly, a syndrome
which in its more severe manifestions can lead to cyclopia, fusion of the
frontal lobes, a primitive proboscis instead of a nose (located above the
fusion eyeball), and other grisly abnormalities. [Caution: disturbing
medical photographs.]

The babies are usually aborted or stillborn, which if you recall was the
fate of Nicole's first couple of preganancies (after the first one, she
clammed up about it.)

Further evidence of this heritable trait comes from Cruise's history; his
biological father was mildly retarded and beat him severely as a child.
Mild retardation, with or without violent behaviors, can also be part of
an incomplete holoprosencephaly syndrome.

Amusingly, one of the genes found to be mutated in holoprosencephaly is
called sonic hedgehog. It is a human analog of a gene first described in
Drosophila fruit flies; embryos with the gene knocked out develop a spiky
appearance and are non-viable. More than one gene knockout produced this
'hedgehog' appearance; some wag dubbed this member of the hedgehog family
"sonic."

In any event, I suspect Cruise might carry one or even a pair of these
holoprosencephaly genes, and if so, this pregnancy might not make it. I
hope I'm wrong, though; no matter how you feel about Tom Cruise, genetic
diseases really suck.

Andrew