Tom Cruise's Lawyer Calls Vanity Fair Story "Sleazy," but "Probably Won't Sue"

Actor's attorney Bert Fields responds to magazine piece that alleges the Church of Scientology had a hand in fixing Cruise up with an Iranian-born actress

Tom Cruise isn't taking the latest rumors concerning his private life lying down.

The Hollywood star's attorney, Bert Fields, smacked down the Vanity Fair story in its October issue that alleges the Church of Scientology "auditioned" an Iranian-born female member named Nazanin Boniadi to be his girlfriend before he met Katie Holmes.

"Their story is essentially a rehash of tired old lies previously run in the supermarket tabloids, quoting the same bogus 'sources,'" the legal eagle tells E! News exclusively. "It's long, boring and false."

Fields called out the writer of the piece, Maureen Orth, raising the possibility of legal action if she made the media rounds.

"Unless Maureen Orth keeps spewing this garbage on television, we probably won't sue them," the lawyer added. "But anyone associated with this sleazy story should be ashamed of themselves—not just for publishing lies, but also for being unoriginal, sloppy and dull."

Fields' comments come on the heels of Scientology's own vehement denial yesterday, which deemed Orth's findings "hogwash" and accused her of relying on a few church defectors.

"Vanity Fair relied exclusively on a small and ubiquitous group of anti-Scientologists...for the preposterous allegations and corroboration of the fiction which none of them witnessed first hand," read a statement from the Church of Scientology. "Indeed, the article fails to quote a single source who is not a vociferous anti-Scientologist. These apostates have shamelessly exploited Tom Cruise's divorce by spreading false and invented tabloid stories in hopes of promoting themselves."

Writer and director Paul Haggis, a former Scientologist, publicly criticized the church for its treatment of Boniadi.

When asked by Matt Lauer this morning if the accusations the group leveled against her were fair, Orth fired back, saying she didn't think so at all.

"Scientology does not know everybody I talked to, for one thing. But all of my sources in this article with very few exceptions are on the record and these are people who were very high up in the Church at one point," the journalist said, adding that some of them are still Scientologists and have "gripes against the current leadership," but "they are not against the religion necessarily."

When the Today host suggested some people might find it hard to believe Cruise has a problem finding a girlfriend, Orth stated that despite his A-list good looks, he can't find his "Scientology soulmate."

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