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Cruise, Hayek Offices Threatened With Anthrax

Star production companies face second potentially lethal threat this week

By Gina Serpe, Matt Donnelly Aug 08, 2008 9:00 PMTags
MGM Tower, Tom Cruise, Salma HayekCarlo Allegri/Getty Images/Nancy Kaszerman/ZUMAPress.com

What has more potential explosions than a Tom Cruise movie? A Tom Cruise office building, it turns out.

For the second time this week, Los Angeles' MGM Tower, a professional complex housing the production companies of both Cruise and Salma Hayek, has been hit with a security threat, this time over an anthrax scare.

Sources confirmed exclusively to E! News that a building-wide memo has gone out informing all tenants of an anonymous threat phoned in to the building's main switchboard stating the deadly virus would be placed into the building's ventilation system, starting on the 20th floor.

The Cruise-run studio United Artists is housed on the tower's 11th floor; Hayek's Ventanarosa production company is located on the second.

It was not immediately clear whether either star was at the office building today.

A memo circulated earlier today claimed that "due to lack of credibility of the threat, the building, LAPD and MGM are not recommending that we take any actions." Despite the assurances, Los Angeles police have since been called to the Century City site.

An updated notice confirmed that the building's management had dispatched engineers to examine the ventilation system and that no signs of tampering were found.

Nonetheless, the management is still taking precautions, blocking outside air from entering the building and tightening security on the complex's heat- and air-control rooms by prohibiting tenants or guests from entering the areas. Any contractors on site today are being escorted around the premises by security.

Additionally, several companies located within the MGM complex have issued a list of symptoms indicative of anthrax poisoning.

It's the second big scare this week.

On Tuesday, the tower was evacuated for roughly four hours after an anonymous bomb threat was called in to one of the building's tenants (though not to the companies of Cruise or Hayek).

The LAPD was called to the scene and determined that it was a hoax.