Tom Cruise has filed a 50 million US dollars defamation lawsuit against the publishers of Life & Style magazine for articles that said the actor has abandoned his six-year-old daughter Suri.

The Hollywood star's lawyer Bert Fields said the lawsuit was in the Los Angeles federal court. He added that Tom did not like to file lawsuits but that the assertion that the actor had abandoned his daughter is a "vicious lie".

If the actor prevails, Mr Fields said his client would give the money to charity.

An email message left for a spokeswoman for Bauer Publishing, which produces Life & Style, was not immediately returned.

Tom and Suri's mother, Katie Holmes, were divorced earlier this year. They had been married for six years.