The Mission Impossible star - who is being sued for $5 million for allegedly conspiring with his lawyer Bert Fields and private investigator Anthony Pellicano, who is now in jail, to unlawfully record magazine editor Michael Davis Sapir's conversations - was reportedly quizzed by attorneys for the plaintiff at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in New York on Tuesday (18.12.12). It only took them three hours.

A source told RadarOnline.com: "It was all very secretive. This battle has been ongoing and getting to the point when Cruise had to sit for a deposition, it obviously took a long time."

The editor filed the lawsuit in 2009 against the 50-year-old actor and the editor's lawyers deposed him for the first time this week.

The ongoing lawsuit is said to be linked to a previous case filed in 2001, during which Tom sued the magazine editor for offering a $500,000 reward to anyone who could provide video evidence that the actor was gay and later claimed he received an email with a video.

It was later revealed that the video "never existed" but the editor claims that Tom and his team illegally recorded his telephone conversations to secure evidence against him.

Tom - who is also being accused of hiring the private investigator to tap phones during his divorce to Nicole Kidman in the lawsuit - has obviously denied any wrongdoing.