• Tom Cruise files $50 million lawsuit over claims he abandoned Suri

    By Jill Serjeant, Reuters

    Tom Cruise filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit on Wednesday against magazines that claimed he had abandoned his daughter, Suri, following his divorce from actress Katie Holmes.

    The "Mission: Impossible" star filed the lawsuit in U.S. court in Los Angeles against the publishers of celebrity magazines In Touch and Life & Style, Cruise's attorney Bert Fields said in a statement.

    "Tom 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," Fields said in a statement.

    The lawsuit refers to two cover stories published by the magazines in July and September with the headlines "Abandoned by Daddy" and "Abandoned by her dad." The September story from In Touch claimed that 6-year-old Suri, the only child of Cruise and Holmes, had gone more 44 days without seeing him.

    The magazines, owned by privately held German publishing group Bauer Media, did not immediately return calls for comment.


    Holmes filed for divorce in June after six years of marriage, seeking sole custody of Suri, in a move that took Cruise by surprise when he was filming in Iceland. They swiftly agreed to a custody arrangement and settled other matters but details have been kept private.

    Fields said that despite repeated stories in celebrity media about Cruise and his personal life during his 30-year Hollywood career, the actor rarely resorted to litigation.

    "He's not a litigious guy. But when these sleazy peddlers try to make money with disgusting lies about his relationship with his child, you bet he's going to sue," he added.

    Fields said Cruise was seeking damages of $50 million and would "undoubtedly give the money to charity" if he wins the case.

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  • 'Happy Days' cast settles merchandise lawsuit against CBS

    Fred Prouser / Reuters

    "Happy Days" actress Marion Ross settled a lawsuit with CBS, along with Don Most, Anson Williams, Erin Moran and the estate of Tom Bosley.

    By Tim Kenneally, TheWrap.com

    Surely the Fonz is giving the thumbs-up and a hearty "Ayyyy" right now. Cast members of "Happy Days" have settled a lawsuit against CBS over merchandise inspired by the sitcom, which ran from 1974 to 1984.

    "Happy Days" actors Marion Ross, Don Most, Anson Williams and Erin Moran, along with the estate of Tom Bosley -- who played patriarch Howard Cunningham, and died in Oct. 2010 -- filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court in April 2011.

    The actors claimed that they had been stiffed on compensation for merchandise including comic books, T-shirts, scrapbooks, trading cards, games, lunch boxes, dolls, toy cars, magnets, greeting cards and DVD covers. They said they began wondering why they weren't being paid more when their faces appeared on slot machines.

    "The case has been settled," CBS told TheWrap in a statement. "All contractual obligations will be honored, as we had promised from the beginning. We appreciate the Court's earlier dismissal of the far-reaching claims, which paved the way for an ordinary settlement based on contractual issues."

    The cast members initially sought $10 million. However, in October, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Allen White handed the actors a setback when she struck down the fraud portion of the suit, disallowing the punitive damages that they had sought. A source familiar with the settlement told TheWrap that the cast members will receive $60,000 to $65,000 each in the settlement.


    Jon Pfeiffer, the attorney for the "Happy Days" cast members, told TheWrap, "we are satisfied with the outcome. We will continue to receive all of the merchandising royalties promised to us in our contracts." 

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