Cruise 'Playing Hardball' in Divorce
February 15, 2001 -- Megastar Tom Cruise isn't looking to play the good guy in his divorce from wife Nicole Kidman, according to People magazine.
Cruise, 38, reportedly shocked Kidman, 33, by rushing to file for divorce only two days after the pair announced their separation. "Nicole is not upset," an unidentified friend tells the magazine, "she is devastated."
"He is playing hardball," family-law attorney Lynn Soodik, who is representing Meg Ryan in her divorce from Dennis Quaid, tells the magazine, referring to Cruise's divorce petition, which reportedly spells out the actor's intention to block Kidman from making any alimony claims.
No lawyers actually working for Cruise or Kidman will comment to the press, but the New York Daily News reports that the Mission: Impossible star is hiring private-investigator-to-the-stars Anthony Pellicano.
Pellicano, whose client list includes Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Sylvester Stallone, James Woods, and notorious former Los Angeles Police Department Detective Mark Fuhrman, has been labeled "the Big Sleazy" by GQ magazine, according to the Daily News.
"I always start out by being a gentleman. I only use intimidation and fear when I absolutely have to," he told People magazine in 1993, when he was working for Michael Jackson during the pop star's molestation trial.
In 1992, Pellicano bragged to GQ that he'd beaten somebody with a baseball bat on behalf of a client, according to Los Angeles Magazine.
Cruise's rep, Pat Kingsley, denies that Pellicano is on the job, calling the report "inconceivable."
Cruise Out to 'Crush' Kidman?"Cruise looks like he's trying to crush her," a source who is "acquainted" with the couple tells the Daily News. "If he just calmed down and did nothing, things would probably go smoothly. But he seems to be worried about Nicole using something against him. At this rate, he may push her to do just that."
According to Entertainment Tonight, the couple had a prenuptial agreement, but it protected only their assets going into their marriage, not those acquired afterward. They are now worth $250 million jointly, a sum they must figure out how to share as they also divvy up their five homes around the globe.
"Just prepare for the cannons," a friend of Kidman's tells People. "This is going to get ugly."
If it hasn't already. A close friend of Kidman's, Australian director John Duigan, tells People, "Even though there were strains, the actual final breach was sudden and jarring."
The former golden couple is staying friendly in front of their two adopted children, People reports, and both are pouring themselves into their work. Cruise is putting in 12-hour days on the set of Vanilla Sky, and Kidman, who's still nursing a bad knee, did some voiceovers for the delayed musical Moulin Rouge.