Breaking news: tabloids exploit the truth.

In just the latest example, actor Tom Cruise filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit Oct. 24 against the publishers of Life & Style and In Touch magazines for cover articles that said the actor had abandoned his 6-year-old daughter, Suri.

Cruise's attorney, Bert Fields said that for the magazines to falsely claim the actor deserted his daughter is unforgiveable. 

"Tom is a caring father who dearly loves Suri. She's a vital part of his life and always will be," Fields said. "To say he has 'abandoned' her is a vicious lie. To say so in lurid headlines with a tearful picture of Suri is reprehensible."

The lawsuit was filed in a Los Angeles federal court.

Cruise and Suri's mother, Katie Holmes, were divorced earlier in 2012. They had been married for six years. The couple's breakup has been splattered across tabloids.

According to Cruise's attorney, the actor isn't fond of filing lawsuits, but felt it was appropriate because "sleaze peddlers" are trying to make money off the actor's relationship with his daughter.

"These serial defamers are foreign-owned companies with their global headquarters in Hamburg," Fields said. "They take money from unsuspecting Americans by selling their malicious garbage. Having to pay a libel judgment may slow them down."

Cruise's $50 million claim charges that Life & Style Weekly and In Touch magazines falsely claimed he "abandoned" his six-year-old daughter.

"Through his representatives, [Mr. Cruise] has attempted to correct these fabrications by providing defendants with the true facts before the lies went to press," according to the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

The lawsuit primarily concerns an issue of Life & Style published while Mr. Cruise and his ex-wife, actress Katie Holmes, were undergoing their divorce. Ms. Holmes filed on June 29 for the divorce, which was completed on Aug. 20.

Life and Style began baiting its readers July 18 with a new magazine cover that featured a photo of the couple's daughter and the headline "Suri in Tears, Abandoned by Her Dad," but with no accompanying story, according to the complaint.

When the magazine finally published the complete issue, with the accompanying story titled "Suri's Emotional Struggle," the story "[did] not remotely purport to provide any facts indicating or suggesting that Tom 'abandoned' Suri, as proclaimed on the cover," according to the complaint. The six-year-old's tears mentioned on the cover are explained in the story as the result of the child being unable to take home a puppy from a pet store, says the filing according to Associated Press.

According to the lawsuit, Mr. Cruise's lawyers read the magazine cover and complete story on July 18, and then refuted the headline by telling publishers Cruise had spoken to Suri regularly during the previous month, while he was shooting a film.

The lawsuit also reportedly concerns an Oct. 1 issue of In Touch, that featured a cover displaying a photograph of Suri with the headline "Abandoned By Daddy."