Tom Cruise’s run of bad luck

Tom Cruise is not having the best of luck at the moment. Last week the actor and leading light of Scientology had to contend with protestors disrupting the premiere of Tropic Thunder, the comedy in which he stars with Ben Stiller, amidst claims that it is offensive to the mentally disabled. Now he has been served with a multi-million pound lawsuit after a group of extras in his long-awaited film about the 1944 plot to kill Adolf Hitler, Valkyrie, suffered injuries while filming in Berlin.

The extras were wounded last year when the side panel of a Nazi-era truck gave way as it rounded a bend. Eleven of them, all wearing Wehrmacht uniforms, were sent to hospital with an array of injuries, ranging from bumps and bruises to broken ribs and pulled ligaments. One was kept in hospital for four days on suspicion of internal injuries.

Now they are suing United Artists, the mini-studio which Cruise co-owns with MGM, for £6m in compensation. The lawsuit could further delay the project, which features Cruise as Claus von Stauffenberg, leader of a failed plot to assassinate Nazi dictator.

The lawsuit is not the first bit of bad luck to hit Cruise and his production. Before the accident, United Artists caused controversy by asking for permission to hang swastika banners in Berlin. Displaying the symbol is illegal in Germany. Then key scenes had to be re-shot after film was inadvertently destroyed in a developing lab. There were rumours of sabotage. Then sneak previews of the film revealed that audiences found it boring. A frantic re-working means the earliest that it can be released is February next year.

If all that wasn’t enough, the chief executive of UA, Cruise's long-time producer partner Paula Wagner, quit her job earlier this month, frustrated at not being be able to get new projects off the ground. She remains a co-owner of the studio – but its future is in doubt with MGM itself now the subject of takeover rumours.