Tom Cruise sued for $5-million for ‘spying’

[HMG] – In another example of the off-the-wall stories that surface at this time of year, Hollywood golden boy Tom Cruise has been accused of hiring a professional gumshoe to spy on a rival.

The 47-year old actor is being sued for $5-million by Michael Sapir, the editor of ‘Bold,’ a magazine with whom Radar says there’s some serious history.

In 2001, Sapir offered a $500,000 reward via his magazine, in return for video evidence that Tom Cruise was gay. An allegedly convincing tape was promptly received and the magazine announced that its search was complete.

Tom strongly denied the magazine’s allegations, and his attorney, Bert Fields promptly sued both Sapir and the magazine for $100-million in damages. Now — eight years later – Sapir is claiming Tom hired Hollywood’s favorite private detective, Anthony Pellicano to wiretap his phone as part of that lawsuit, and wants at least $5-million to get over himself.

If this was true, Mr. Pellicano would be the right choice for a case such as this; With a client list that included Yoko Ono, Rosanne, the Jacksons, Mike Myers, Chris Rock and dozens of others he was Hollywood’s go-to gumshoe when you needed some help. But in 2006 the 64-year old private investigator was found guilty on 110 counts of wiretapping, conspiracy, illegal explosives and racketeering charges, and is now serving at least 15-years in a federal jail.

Frivolous lawsuits like this tend to get settled in private, but we’ll let you know if they reach chapter two…

Photo: Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz seen shooting ‘Knight and Day’ on December 9, 2009 in Seville, Spain.