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A lawyer for Tom Cruise attacked an unauthorised biography of the star, calling it "outrageous, sick stuff", even as US publisher St Martin's Press defended the book.
Tom Cruise, An Unauthorised Biography, by British author Andrew Morton, best known for his top-selling 1992 book on Princess Diana, is due on US bookshelves this month.
"His book is a rehash of tired old lies about Tom and his religion, some new grotesque lies, like the sick comparison of his child to Rosemary's Baby and the nutty assertion that he's the No 2 head of the Church of Scientology," Cruise's longtime lawyer, Bert Fields, said. "He (Morton) has made a number of claims that are false and demonstrably so."
He added that he had read Morton's book. "Clearly the book is actionable, but I'm not commenting on anything to do with legal issues."
The Church of Scientology did not reply to an email asking for comment on the allegations. In a brief statement, St Martin's Press spokesman Steve Troha said: "We stand by our book and our author."
Fields said Cruise has no plans to read the book, and the lawyer also slammed Morton's claims that Cruise's former wife, Australian actress Nicole Kidman, was worried she would be blackmailed or not be able to see the couple's two adopted children if she spoke out against the Church of Scientology after their divorce.
Kidman's spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment, but Fields said Morton's claims were "absolute hogwash ... What they say about her is absolutely false ... The man should be ashamed of himself and so should his publisher," said Fields. "He pretends to be writing a biography without ever talking to anybody who has really known Tom for the past 30 years."
