Tom Cruise Questioned About Whether He Chose Rumored Love Interest Cameron Diaz Over Spending Time With Suri
Nov. 10 2013, Published 5:43 p.m. ET
A lawyer for two magazines being sued by Tom Cruise pressed the Hollywood megastar in a contentious deposition about time he'd spent with rumored rebound girlfriend Cameron Diaz, in the wake of his split from ex-wife Katie Holmes.
In a transcript of the interrogation held on Sept. 9 in Los Angeles, obtained by RadarOnline.com, attorney Elizabeth McNamara, who is representing defendants Life & Style and In Touch in a $50 million libel lawsuit, probed Cruise about whether he'd attended a private birthday bash for Diaz, 41, whilst in London in 2012.
McNamara was attempting to support the publications claim that the 51-year-old Oscar-nominee "abandoned" his daughter Suri after his June 2012 divorce from Holmes by choosing to do things - such as shoot films and take 24-hour trips for Scientology on his private jet - instead of spending time with Suri.
"You went to birthday parties," McNamara probed Cruise during the often heated videotaped deposition.
He responded, "I don't recall going to..."
"Or a birthday party," McNamara added.
"I don't recall going to a birthday party," the actor replied.
McNamara quizzed: "Cameron Diaz's birthday party?"
"I didn't go to Cameron Diaz's birthday party," insisted Cruise, who starred in the 2010 action comedy "Knight and Day" alongside Diaz.
"You've been reading the press," he added. "You can't believe everything you read."
Undeterred, McNamara pressed on, indicating the pair had been photographed on the night in question at the Coworth Park hotel outside London on August 30 - Diaz's 40th birthday.
"You can't believe everything you read though," Cruise said. "Photographs do not tell a story."
McNamara concluded: "Well, actually I think on that particular thing then your lawyers, who were acting as your PR agent at that time, confirmed it, or your PR agent did, that you were with Cameron Diaz for her birthday."
But Cruise, yet again, charged: "I did not go to Cameron Diaz's birthday party."
The megastar, it seems, was splitting hairs.
As Diaz herself admitted in a November interview with U.K. talk show host Graham Norton, "I happened to bump into Penelope Cruz, Javier, Tom and his son in a hotel and joined them for dinner," on the night at center of the attorney's line of questioning.
"At midnight I said, 'I'm 40' so we took pictures and then said 'Goodnight, see you later, blah, blah, blah' and I haven't seen him since. But the next thing I know, apparently I am dating him and it's full on and he is coming after me."
Ironically, it was Life & Style which reported at the time that Cruise and Diaz had a "sexy date" - a claim a rep for the Top Gun star later denied, insisting "he and Cameron are friends only."