Tom Cruise: Wiretapper?

Magazine editor Cruise sued in 2001 claims actor and his attorney had phone illegally bugged

Anthony Pellicano's misdeeds are the gift that keeps on giving to the Hollywood elite.

Tom Cruise is the latest—and biggest—name to be sucked into the fray. The star was sued Friday for $5 million by a real mensch who claims that he was spied on by Cruise and his attorney with the help of Pellicano, years before the celebrity detective was convicted of numerous counts of racketeering, wiretapping and other abuses of P.I. power.

The reason the plaintiff believes he was targeted: his ultimately discredited claim that he had a tape of Cruise engaged in some same-sex action.

Michael Davis Sapir, the former editor of Bold magazine, was tagged in a $100 million defamation suit in June 2001 by the Mission: Impossible star over the alleged video, which Bold says it got a hold of after pubbing a $500,000 reward offer for "videotape evidence that Cruise was gay."

The case was settled that November for an undisclosed amount, with both parties stating that Cruise was not on any tape in Bold's possession.

But now Sapir claims that Pellicano, acting on orders from Cruise and his major-player attorney, Bert Fields, wiretapped his phone while the suit was still active.

His allegations include invasion of privacy, disclosure of confidential information and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

In an interview with the New Yorker in 2006, Fields—also a defendant in this suit, along with Pellicano—said, "Without question, tapping someone's phone line is not legitimate and proper."

Speaking for himself and Cruise, Fields called Sapir's suit "total baloney."