Cruise files $50M suit against magazine publisher

In this Nov. 4, 2007 file photo, actor Tom Cruise holds his daughter Suri as they wait for Katie Holmes to finish the New York City Marathon in New York. An attorney for Tom Cruise said he filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, against the publishers of Life & Style magazine for articles that said the actor has abandoned his 6-year-old daughter Suri. AP

LOS ANGELES—An attorney for Tom Cruise says he has filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against the publishers of Life & Style magazine for articles that said the actor has abandoned his 6-year-old daughter Suri.

Bert Fields says the lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court. Fields says Cruise doesn’t like to file lawsuits but that the assertion that the actor has abandoned his daughter is a “vicious lie.” If Cruise prevails, Fields says his client would give the money to charity.

An email message left for a spokeswoman for Bauer Publishing, which produces Life & Style, was not immediately returned.

Cruise and Siri’s mother, Katie Holmes, were divorced earlier this year. They had been married for six years.