Tom Cruise sued In Touch and Life & Style magazines in Los Angeles today, alleging he was defamed by false reports that he had abandoned his 6-year-old daughter.
(Flickr/Surrealistic Scenes)
The suit, filed in Los Angeles federal court against the Hamburg, Germany-based Bauer Publishing Co., demands $50 million in damages for cover stories in the company’s two celebrity lifestyle magazines stating he had ”abandoned” daughter Suri.
A publicist for Bauer said the company had no immediate comment.
No facts supported the story in the July 30 issue of Life & Style, which depicted Suri with the words “Suri in Tears, Abandoned by Her Dad,” or the story in the Oct. 1 issue of In Touch, which used a photo of Suri, with the caption “Abandoned by Daddy,” according to Cruise’s court papers.
The child’s mother, actress Katie Holmes, filed for divorce from Cruise in June.
“To falsely accuse him of abandoning his child crosses the line,” the complaint filed by longtime Cruise lawyer Bert Fields says. “Enough is enough.”
Fields said in a statement that Cruise “is a caring father who dearly loves Suri. She’s a vital part of his life and always will be. To say he has ’abandoned’ her is a vicious lie. To say it in lurid headlines with a tearful picture of Suri is reprehensible.”
Cruise normally ‘doesn’t go around suing people. He’s not a litigious guy,” Fields said. “But when these sleaze peddlers try to make money with disgusting lies about his relationship with his child, you bet he’s going to sue.”
Fields called the magazines “serial defamers” that “take money from unsuspecting Americans by selling their malicious garbage. Having to pay a
libel judgment may slow them down.”
He said that any money Cruise might win would go to charity.
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