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Back in the prelapsarian world in which an on-the-wagon Mel Gibson was merely a suspected anti-Semite, Hollywood had a different favorite whipping boy, one whose strenuous disdain for the practice of psychiatry, mysterious concealing of his newborn baby from the public, and suspicious, indefinite engagement to an actress of much lesser fame made him a daily fixture in the tabloids. Page Six reminds us of those more innocent days with this item in today's column:

TOM Cruise played dirty when he wrestled for Glen Ridge HS in New Jersey. "Even then everybody knew who he was, but it wasn't because anyone thought he'd be a movie star," says a former grappler at rival Seton Hall Prep. Cruise was particularly adept at a hold called the "High Crotch," which involves an arm between the legs. "The pain it caused was excruciating to say the least," the wrestler told Steppin' Out magazine's Chaunce Hayden. A rep for Cruise declined comment.

It's been so long since we've thought about Cruise that we can't even remember why we're laughing at his mastery of the deadly "High Crotch" maneuver, but we're sure it will all come rushing back to us soon enough.