Tom Cruise Carries Suri - H 2012
Getty ImagesTom Cruise is suing the publisher of Life & Style magazine over a story that suggested Cruise had abandoned daughter Suri, the actor’s lawyer announced Wednesday.
Bert Fields revealed the lawsuit in a press release sent to media that claimed the celebrity weekly magazine was being sued for $50 million for “claiming falsely that he has ‘abandoned’ Suri, his 6-year-old daughter.”
“Tom is a caring father who dearly loves Suri,” Fields says in the statement. “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 has been battling various media outlets since word of his divorce from Katie Holmes broke in late June. Fields, Cruise’s longtime legal protector, has sent threatening letters to the National Enquirer and Vanity Fair over their coverage of the actor’s personal life and connections to Scientology.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
PHOTOS: Showbiz Kids: 17 of Hollywood’s Most Famous Offspring
“Tom doesn’t go around suing people,” Fields says in the statement. “He’s not a litigious guy. 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 also takes a shot at Life & Style’s owner Bauer Media Group.
“These serial defamers are foreign-owned companies with their global headquarters in Hamburg,” he says of the publisher. “They take money from unsuspecting Americans by selling their malicious garbage. Having to pay a libel judgment may slow them down. Tom will undoubtedly give the money to charity. He always has.”
Email: Matthew.Belloni@thr.com
Twitter: @THRMattBelloni
