The deposition recorded by Tom Cruise on September 9 in the offices of his Hollywood lawyer Bert Fields is a curious document. Until now, only the summary has been reported.
The full account is 48 pages long, and full of repetitions and scratchy disagreements between Cruise and Elizabeth McNamara.
She is the lawyer for two celebrity magazines, Life & Style and In Touch, who are defending a £31 million lawsuit Cruise is bringing against them.
Daddy's girl: Tom Cruise, pictured with Suri last year, claims he would have been there for his daughter's first day of school had she asked him
They said in cover stories last summer that he had ‘abandoned’ his daughter Suri. The case is expected to go to court next summer.
The deposition, given under oath, repays a close examination, for its content is nothing less than jaw-dropping and casts Cruise in a rather harsh new light.
Furthermore, given that it shows how Cruise repeatedly refused to accept any blame for the amount of time he spent away from his young daughter, one begins to sympathise with her mother Katie Holmes, who looked grey and downtrodden during their marriage.
(This week she is making a film in South Africa and has been pictured having fish and chips in the afternoon sun with Suri, looking radiant and relaxed.)
The revelations start on the second page, where Cruise - who has frequently employed lawyers in the past - has to admit that he’s not quite sure how many times he has given a deposition before: ‘One, two, three. Maybe four,’ he says.
He then admits to not having seen Suri Cruise for a period of 110 days, or three and a half months.
To be clear, the period in question is last summer - immediately after Cruise and Holmes divorced following five years of marriage amid claims that Holmes was concerned about Cruise’s controlling behaviour and his obsession with Scientology.
Suri was six years old and preparing to go to school for the first time after being home-tutored.
Cruise accepts that during a five-month period, he saw Suri for just ten days in total, six of which were a father-daughter bonding break at Disney World, Florida.
School girls: Suri is pictured being dropped off at her $40,000-a-year private school in Chelsea, Manhattan by her mother Katie Holmes, 34, late last month
'Not an ideal situation': Tom Cruise is suing Life & Style and InTouch for claiming in two cover stories that he had 'abandoned' his daughter Suri
During this time we know — because he admits to it — that Cruise flew from Pittsburgh to London and back again in a day for an annual Scientology event.
We also know, because he was photographed, that he spent a few days in the Croatian resort of Hvar with friends. We know, too, because he admits it, that Katie Holmes invited him to spend some time with Suri that October, but that he wasn’t able to make the journey.
Dan Wakeford, the editor in chief of Life & Style, says pithily in his deposition: ‘Any father who is not seeing their daughter at the most traumatic time of their life has deserted her.’
The fact is that Suri has put down permanent roots in New York with Ms Holmes, 34, who has custody of her, while Cruise remains in the former marital home in Los Angeles.
Conor, his adopted son with Nicole Kidman, is also at home there. Bella, his adopted daughter, is currently studying in London.
However, although he agrees he was an absent father, he won’t accept that this had a negative effect on his six-year-old daughter.
He will not concede that, to a six-year-old who has not been apart from him for more than a week at a time previously, that might feel upsetting.
When McNamara says: ‘Three months to a six-year-old feels like an eternity,’ Cruise says: ‘I don’t know that to be true.’ Asked: ‘Would you accept that many people believe it?’ he simply says: ‘No.’
Would it be fanciful to detect a glimpse of what used to be known as ‘Cruise Control’ in all this? For the man who raged: ‘Ask Nicole, she knows’, when questioned by an interviewer about the sudden end of his ten-year marriage to Nicole Kidman in 2001, is perhaps visible again here.
But surely the most peculiar passage in the recorded interview comes when he compares making a movie to a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
It will, surely, appal servicemen and their families, as well as many others.When the parallel is drawn between his film work and going to war, he says: ‘That’s what it feels like, certainly in this movie. It was brutal. It was brutal.’
In happier times: Tom and Kate are seen doting over their daughter Suri in New York in 2008 during Katie's rehearsals for the Broadway play All My Sons
Indeed, his role in the film All You Need Is Kill — due out next year — is far more than a case of turning up and saying the right words, he insists.
He says that the whole epic production depends on him, which means he is responsible for the livelihoods of thousands of people.
At another point, discussing his lead role in the thriller Jack Reacher, he talks about having to avoid ‘inflammatory’ foods at lunchtime and compares the demands of film-making on his body to those endured by Olympic athletes.
‘The Olympians, they only have to run two races a day. When I’m shooting I could potentially have to run 30 or 40 races a day.’
One is presumably meant to admire him for his stamina.
As you might expect, the blame for the separation is laid none too subtly at the door of his former wife Katie Holmes. There is a telling exchange when Miss McNamara asks him why he was able to go to the Scientology conference in London on October 14 last year.
‘It was an important event,’ said Cruise. ‘I felt it was important.’
Ms McNamara then asks: ‘Based upon this, you could fly from the East Coast [of the U.S.] to London for 24 hours. Is that right?’
‘In that situation, yes.’
‘But you didn’t do it for Suri… isn’t that right?’ asks Ms McNamara. ‘When did I not do it for Suri?’ Cruise says.
‘In July, August, September, October,’ the lawyer replies.
‘That’s not true, different situation,’ says Cruise.
‘There was no 24-hour period of time that you couldn’t have flown to see Suri?’
‘Listen... if you look at this also in terms of Suri coming to me and certain agreements that you have when a divorce occurs, things change.
Deposition: Radar report that an 'angry' Cruise began to explain 'when there is a divorce... things change' at the interrogation held at the LA offices of Cruise's lawyer.
‘And it’s more complicated. You have to ask for permission and organise schedules to make things happen. So it wasn’t - it’s not an ideal scene. It’s not an ideal situation.’
McNamara presses Cruise on whether he was partly responsible for that absence, but he insists he wasn’t.
He explains: ‘When you’re thinking of your child and thinking what is the best thing for them and, of course, respecting Katie’s wishes in terms of Suri’s scheduling, the nature of making that film, the nature of having finished one film . . . agreements change, you know.’
But what never changed, he insists, is the love he has for his daughter. He never abandoned Suri emotionally, physically, or otherwise, he says.
He argues that he was able to be a good father to Suri by telling her ‘wonderful stories’ on the telephone.
‘You have to work at it,’ Cruise says. ‘I’ve gotten very good at it.’
To which McNamara replies: ‘It really doesn’t substitute for being able to be there, does it?’
Cruise admits: ‘No, it doesn’t.’
But he points out that Suri is ‘a very happy child and confident and has a good sense of herself’.
He agrees that he wasn’t there on her first day of school, but says that she didn’t ask him to be present.
Far apart: Katie Holmes and daughter Suri Cruise are currently enjoying a break in Cape Town, South Africa
Communicating: Katie - who recently joined Twitter - posted about the trip, saying: 'So happy to be on twitter!!!!!! Sending first tweets from South Africa!!!!! (sic)'
So, is he right? Is Suri happy and confident? Certainly, with or without her father, she gives every appearance of being a more normal little girl than some feared.
She no longer insists on being carried everywhere for a start. Her early penchant for high heels and designer clothes — so evident in the dying days of the Cruise-Holmes marriage — has disappeared.
She once wore lipstick, but no longer. And although Katie recently refused to buy her a dog, she appears not be pining for one.
Friends in New York observe that Katie works hard to provide a normal atmosphere for Suri. She is determined to surround her with ‘normal’ friends who are not Scientologists.
One New York friend said: ‘Katie practically stalks the other moms to set up play dates with Suri every day.’ She also goes into the school to work as a ‘reader’ — like a teaching assistant — for Suri and her classmates. They love Katie at The Avenues school, I am told. ‘She is very involved,’ says a source.
And at Suri’s seventh birthday party this year, Katie invited the entire class of 23 to attend a party held at Eleni’s New York bakery.
It was a very nice party, but nothing out of the ordinary, especially by the standards of wealthy New Yorkers.
Later. Suri had a pampering session with her mum and Katie’s mum, Kathleen.The trio had their toenails painted and Suri spent much of the time playing happily on her iPad.
There are, of course, elements of spoiling. Suri is always provided with San Pellegrino fizzy mineral water, her favoured brand.
She also has an immense collection of cuddly toys, comprising dozens of her favourite pandas. For Christmas, Katie reportedly gave Suri a Chloe fur coat that she had her eye on and was delighted with.
But, while Tom Cruise tops the box office and continues to add to his huge £190million fortune, Katie has scaled her film work back.
Recently, she has started endorsing shampoos and make-up, and she even mused out loud in an interview about the possibility of starting a new career and training as an attorney, like her father Martin.
Next summer’s court case will turn on whether anyone can prove whether a six-year-old was upset a year ago. Cruise will give evidence, Katie will not. And - with luck - Suri won’t know a thing about it.
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