Tom Cruise Wins Lawsuit Over Anthony Pellicano Wiretapping

A judge rules that former Bold magazine editor Michael Sapir should have brought his lawsuit sooner.

On Monday, the two prevailed on summary judgment against former Bold magazine editor Michael Davis Sapir, who accused the pair of hiring Anthony Pellicano to spy on him.

Sapir became entangled with Cruise more than a decade ago. The magazine editor offered a $500,000 reward for evidence that the actor was gay. Soon thereafter, the magazine claimed it had obtained video evidence that Cruise engaged in a homosexual relationship.

For making the claim, Sapir was hit with a $100 million defamation lawsuit. The suit eventually was settled, but before that happened, Cruise and his reps allegedly hired Pellicano to spy on Sapir.

For this, the editor filed a $5 million lawsuit against Cruise and Fields.

As evidence of the spying, Sapir's lawsuit said that the FBI recovered a file from Pellicano's offices titled "Michael Davis matter" and a computer file entitled "Bold" with the password "Bold cocksucker omerta." The lawsuit alleged that Pellicano was listening into conversations that Sapir had with his attorney about the Cruise defamation lawsuit.

Sapir's lawsuit against Cruise and Pellicano had other salacious tidbits. For example, Sapir also alleged that Pellicano taped recordings between Cruise and Nicole Kidman while the actors were going through their divorce.

But the lawsuit hasn't survived.

On Monday, a Los Angeles Superior Court ruled from the bench that the allegations weren't brought within the statute of limitations.

Cruise joins Brad Grey as escaping Pellicano-related lawsuits thanks to the claims being time-barred. Many other lawsuits proceed, including one against Michael Ovitz for allegedly hiring Pellicano to intimidate Anita Busch. Recently, the same judge ruled that Ovitz has failed to show that he's entitled to summary judgment on statute of limitation grounds.

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'Die Hard' Director John McTiernan Has Until April 3 to Surrender and begin his prison sentence.

More developments in the Anthony Pellicano saga: The infamous private eye might be appearing via teleconference at a hearing, and a judge sets a mid-June trial date in Anita Busch's lawsuit.

McTiernan was given one year in prison and fined $100,000 after pleading guilty to making false statements to the FBI in its investigation into the activities of Anthony Pellicano, the former Hollywood private detective whose spying endeavors have become famous.

Because of appeals, McTiernan wasn't immediately sent to prison. The director got caught up in trouble for hiring Pellicano to tap the phones The Dark Knight Rises producer Chuck Roven, with whom McTiernan worked on the 2002 film Rollerball. His appeals centered upon a judge's decision not to suppress a digital recording where he discusses an illegal wiretap. In January, the Supreme Court refused to take up the case.

He's been noticed about a deposition he needs to give in one of the many ongoing lawsuits involving Pellicano's activities. That deposition is scheduled to happen April 1, but it was revealed at a hearing Monday that McTiernan has not told his lawyer whether he is going to show up.

Judge Elihu Berle said he had no interest of getting on the phone with Pellicano nor entertaining what he had to say via a letter. Instead, the judge indicated that if Texas prison officials are OK with it, he'd like to have Pellicano speak for himself in open court via a teleconference.

Pellicano is scheduled to serve about five more years in jail for racketeering and wiretapping. He's been pleading for an early jail release, and there's been word that he might have concerns about speaking up in depositions in the ongoing civil cases and possibly incriminating himself.

But it appears that Pellicano's time to speak is coming. Among the other outcomes from Monday's hearing, Anita Busch's attorney is being given the opportunity to depose Pellicano separately from everyone else.
Busch is suing Pellicano and others for attempting to intimidate her. Among the defendants in Busch's lawsuit is former power agent Michael Ovitz, who recently failed to escape Busch's charges.

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