Cruise 'stalker' hit with restraining order

Rex Features

An Iraq war veteran who tried to hand-deliver a letter to Tom Cruise was handed a restraining order yesterday, Reuters reports.

Edward Van Tassal turned up at the actor's Beverly Hills mansion on December 3 and December 7 in an effort to enlist Cruise in a campaign to help other veterans, his lawyer Robert Landheer claimed.

"He's coming home like hundreds of other veterans, wounded and suffering from whatever kind of scarring that is," Landheer said.

Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge George Eskin issued a restraining order against Van Tassel, 29, who was last month arrested for brandishing a gun on a freeway overpass.

Cruise's attorney Bert Fields said: "Tom didn't even know about it, and the judge did the right thing - you've got to respect the judge for it. But it was not something Tom applied for."

Fields added that his client "feels very strongly about veterans of not only the Iraq war, but any veterans of war, and that they should be taken care of".