Tom Cruise, out to quash all homosexual rumors about him, won another court victory this week.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Thursday approved a final settlement between Cruise and a magazine publisher the actor sued for $100 million after the man claimed he had a video of the Top Gunner engaged in some serious, um, risky business with another man.
In exchange for Cruise dropping the megasuit, Michael Davis, the target of Cruise's ire, has issued a retraction, saying he never has seen a video of Cruise having gay sex and doesn't know of the existence of any such video.
Or, as Judge Emilie Elias states in legalese, "Plaintiff, Tom Cruise, does not appear on the videotape to which said defendant referred in his statement alleged in the complaint. Plaintiff is not, and never has been, homosexual and has never had a homosexual affair."
And, according to the settlement, revealed Friday, Davis is barred from ever making statements to the contrary.
Elias capped off the matter by ordering both parties to pay their own attorney fees before everybody went their separate ways. Naturally, both sides claimed victory.
"Tom is a great respecter of homosexual rights, but he's not gay," Cruise lawyer Bert Fields said. "Tom is tired of it and it hurts his children. It's something that will be there forever. And damn it, he's going to stop it."
For his part, Davis' lawyer, Edward Pilot, said his client was pleased with the deal.
"My client was sued for $100 million," Pilot tells Los Angeles' City News Service. "As it turned out, he did not pay Mr. Cruise a penny, so obviously we are pleased with the outcome."
Pilot also reiterates that Davis, the publisher of Bold magazine, had "no axe to grind with Cruise"--this, despite the fact that Davis offered a $500,000 reward to anyone who had conclusive evidence that Cruise was gay.
Cruise leveled the legal gun barrels at Davis in May, after he allegedly sent emails to a dozen media outlets claiming to have a videotape of Cruise putting on all the right moves with an unnamed man.
In his lawsuit, the 38-year-old actor said the claims were "unequivocally false" and no such tape exists.
Maybe now the Hollywood hunk can focus more on movies than lawsuits over his sexuality.
Earlier this year, Cruise filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against a self-described "erotic wrestler" named Chad Slater who was quoted in a French magazine saying he had an affair with Cruise and was the reason behind the actor's breakup with Nicole Kidman. Slater denied ever making the remarks, ended up defaulting on the lawsuit and confessed that he never met Cruise.
Cruise also targeted Slater's ex-wife, Kristina Ann Kirstin, accusing her of trying to sell a fake story to the National Enquirier saying her husband left her for Cruise. That complaint is moving forward with a hearing scheduled for December 4.
Cruise, whose divorce with Kidman became final earlier this month, continues to make the rounds with Penélope Cruz, his costar in the upcoming thriller Vanilla Sky. That film, directed by Cameron Crowe, hits theaters on December 14.