Actor TOM CRUISE is to go to court to prove he isn't gay.

The MISSION IMPOSSIBLE (1996) star has long been dogged by rumours that he is homosexual even though he has been married to two impossibly sexy women.

Yesterday (2MAY01), Cruise filed a $100 million (£66million) defamation lawsuit against a gay porn star, who allegedly claimed in tabloid reports that he had an affair with the actor.

The complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims CHAD SLATER (an "erotic wrestler" who also uses the name KYLE BRADFORD) "concocted and spread the completely false story that he had a continuing homosexual affair with Tom Cruise and that this affair was discovered by Mr Cruise's wife, leading to their divorce".

According to the suit, Cruise "had no relationship of any kind with Kyle Bradford and does not even know him". Bradford allegedly told international magazine ACTUSTAR that he had an ongoing affair with Cruise, and that NICOLE KIDMAN walked in on them during a "romantic encounter," prompting the couple to split up.

Bradford's story was translated and later repeated in the Spanish-language magazine TVYNOVELAS. "It is absolutely 100 per cent false," Cruise's attorney, BERT FIELDS, said. "Cruise is a great respecter of homosexual rights, but he's not gay, and he's ready to prove this in court. Tom is tired of it and it hurts his children. It's something that will be there forever. And damn it, he's going to stop it."

Bradford, whose film credits include THE COCKPIT CLUB and FORCED TO SUBMIT, is apparently known in America "for his porn movies where he likes to climb into a ring and have encounters with his partners," according the Actustar article. The skin-flick thespian claimed to Actustar that he received a phone call while in Paris "from a Tom Finigham, who proposed to have a private encounter, specifically in a ring." Bradford claimed in the article that it was actually Cruise, and that they had an ongoing affair.

Fields says Actustar has since published a retraction of the story. But Cruise is now prepared to target any other publications - domestic or foreign - that reprint the tale. "He's going to sue anybody who repeats this story, even as a rumour," Fields said. He added that Cruise is willing to take the case as far as necessary. "We're very anxious to hear what this porn actor says under oath about this garbage story he's handing out." (PDD/WNWR)

Source: WENN