Tom Cruise - Tom Cruise's Attorney Threatens To Sue Over Tabloid Cover Story

The sensational article, headlined "Inside Tom's House of Horrors!", hit newsstands on Wednesday (11Jul12), and details Holmes' alleged "secret breakdown" and her "tortured life" with the actor at their Beverly Hills mansion - but the unfounded allegations have been dismissed by Cruise's longtime legal representative Bert Fields, who is now threatening legal action.

Fields has fired off a blistering cease-and-desist letter to bosses at American Media, the Enquirer's parent company, calling the headline-grabbing article "disgraceful and lurid".

The note, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, reads: "Your cover announces, as a fact, that 'THE REAL Tom Cruise IS A MONSTER.' Mr. Cruise is certainly not a 'monster.' He is a caring father, a hardworking actor and, above all, an honest, decent man."

Fields claims the fabricated article will cost Cruise "hundreds of millions of dollars of professional and personal damages" and is demanding editors retract the "disgusting lies" immediately, or face a costly and lengthy lawsuit.

Cruise and Holmes reached a divorce settlement on Monday (09Jul12), less than two weeks after the Batman Begins actress filed papers to end their marriage.

She has since moved into an apartment in New York with their six-year-old daughter Suri, while Cruise has thrown himself into his work, shooting his next film, Oblivion, in California.