Fridae

Actor Tom Cruise has dropped a US$100 million defamation lawsuit against a magazine publisher after the publisher stated he does not have a videotape showing the actor having sex with another man, according to Associated Press.

Michael Davis of Bold magazine has retracted his claim and now says he has never seen a video of Cruise having gay sex and does not know of the existence of such a video.

The lawsuit which was filed in June, accused Davis of sending news releases to at least a dozen US media organisations alleging Cruise engaged in a homosexual relationship during his marriage to Nicole Kidman.

Bertram Fields, Cruise's attorney said his client was pleased at the outcome of the case: "Essentially, what Tom was after was the very finding that the court made� The story was false. He's not gay, and the judge so ruled.''

"The plaintiff is not, and never has been, homosexual and has never had a homosexual affair," a Los Angeles judge wrote in the court documents.

After the settlement, Fields emphasised once again that: "Tom is a great respecter of homosexual rights, but he's not gay.

Cruise is said to be in a new relationship with Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, whom he met and fell in love with during production of his film Vanilla Sky.