Source: The Hollywood Reporter
By: Peter Kiefer
(LOS ANGELES, CA) — Tom Cruise has filed a $100 million lawsuit against a man known as Michael Davis, accusing him of spreading a fictitious rumor to various media outlets claiming that he engaged in a homosexual affair with Cruise and that he had a videotape to prove it.
The suit, which was filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that Davis, on May 29, disseminated to at least a dozen media outlets in the United States "false and defamatory written statements about the plaintiff (Cruise), including the false assertion that Doe 1, an unnamed male, had engaged in an illicit homosexual relationship with the plaintiff during plaintiff’s marriage and that this was recorded on videotape."
The media outlets contacted by Davis include the Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Fox News, KNBC Channel 4, CNN, Howard Stern, Playboy, Hustler, E! Network, Initial Entertainment Group, Adult Industry News, and Rich and Lozzi, according to Bertram Fields of Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman Machtinger & Kinsella, who is representing Cruise in the case. Fields said that no such videotape existed and that none of the 12 outlets had gone public with the alleged rumor "because they all know it is false."
The suit also accuses Davis of spreading the statements "in order to hurt the plaintiff and to gain widespread publicity for himself." According to the suit, Cruise has suffered "and will suffer very substantial personal and professional damages" that will exceed $100 million.
All that is known of the defendant Davis is that he is a resident of Los Angeles County, but as the suit states Davis "is not his true name" and that his true name "is unknown to the plaintiff." Fields also said that Davis is the only known defendant at this time, but as is customary in these suits, numerous Does are also named as defendants in the event that there is more than just one person involved.
On May 2, Cruise filed a separate, and according to Fields, totally unrelated $100 million defamation suit against porn actor Chad Slater, aka Kyle Bradford. That lawsuit alleged that Bradford told the international magazine Acustar stories about an "alleged homosexual affair with Tom Cruise" that was discovered by Cruise’s wife Nicole Kidman, leading to their divorce. Fields, who is representing Cruise in both cases, speculated that Davis may have taken a cue from Bradford when he sent out the alleged letter.
