Tom Cruise hasn't had the best year. The now-thrice divorced actor ended his 5-year marriage to Katie Holmes, was branded a "monster" by the tabloids, and appeared in the abysmal "Rock of Ages." Now he's embroiled in a scandal resembling the plot of a John le Carré novel.
Earlier this month, Cruise was questioned for several hours regarding a 2009 lawsuit filed by Los Angeles based magazine editor Michael Davis Sapir. Now RadarOnline is reporting that the actor is taking great pains to assure that footage of his testimony never leaks to the public. According to the site, which obtained court documents from the testimony, Cruise is demanding that "Only one original videotape of the deposition shall be made.”
Cruise has also stipulated that the footage not be duplicated and that "No copies of the videotape, or any video or audio portions thereof, may be made and no one other than the counsel for the Parties and the Custodian, as defined below, may have access to the videotape.”
The document also outlines that the custodian “shall safeguard and permit no one to view, audit or copy the videotape."
Cruise's battle with Sapir began over a decade ago. In 2001, the star slapped Sapir with a $100 million lawsuit after he reportedly obtained video footage of the "Jack Reacher" star allgedly engaged in a tryst with another man. Sapir obtained the video after publicly declaring that he would provide a $500,000 reward for video proof of the actor's homosexuality.
According to People magazine, the suit was dropped after Sapir recanted his claim, stating that the actor "is not, and never has been, homosexual and has never had a homosexual affair."
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But the drama didn't end there, in 2009 TMZ reported that Sapir filed a $5 lawsuit claiming that Cruise's lawyer Bart Fields hired private investigator Anthony Pellicano to tap his phone while the 2001 lawsuit was taking place.
As RadarOnline reported, Sapir claimed that his legal defense was weakened because Cruise and his lawyer were able to obtain conversations in which he admitted to his own lawyer that the actor finances to squash the suit.
"The allegations are absolute garbage. We did not even hire Pellicano to work on the Sapir case," Fields said in a statement to TMZ.
According to the New York Post, Cruise has outlined how footage of his testimony should be handled should the case go to trial.
The court documents state that “Counsel for Plaintiff, Johnson & Johnson, shall take custody of the videotape and shall maintain and make use of same (including adaptations) through the conclusion of trial; provided, however, that Plaintiff Sapir shall not be permitted to view, use or access the videotape (or any adaptation made there from) at any time prior to trial and, during trial, Sapir’s access to the videotape will be limited to viewing the videotape during open court proceedings.”
Though it remains unclear how the legal battle will play out, it seems to assume that Cruise's recent testimony regarding the case will never see the light of day.
