Cruise's lawyer calls biography "sick"

Tom Cruise's lawyer has called Andrew Morton's new biography about the actor "sick stuff".

Bert Fields has claimed that Tom Cruise: An Unauthorised Biography contains "tired old lies" and branded some of its allegations as "nutty".

Fields would not comment on whether Cruise was planning to take legal action against Morton.

Talking about the writer, Fields told the BBC: "The man should be ashamed of himself and so should his publisher.

"He pretends to be writing a biography without ever talking to anybody who has really known Tom for the past 30 years.

"Clearly the book is actionable, but I'm not commenting on anything to do with legal issues."

Morton's book suggests that Cruise is second-in-command at the Church of Scientology and that he threatened to stop Nicole Kidman seeing her children if she spoke out about his religion.

He has previously written books about Princess Diana, the Beckhams and Madonna.

The writer's publishers commented: "We stand by our book and our author."