Bosses at a UK publishing company have bowed to pressure from Tom Cruise and dropped Andrew Morton's controversial biography of the Hollywood actor.

Morton's expose of the star was published in the US in January but British-based publishers Macmillan have now decided to scrap plans to launch the book in the UK because Cruise forced them to remove so much of the content.

In 'Tom Cruise: An Unauthorised Biography', Morton covered a series of controversial topics including the actor's high profile relationship with the Church of Scientology. But Cruise made so many legal threats, Macmillian has now decided it is not worth releasing the biography.

A spokesman for the company says: "We will not now be publishing the book. Although it was publishing in America, Cruise had so many complaints that by the time our lawyers had been through it, there was nothing left but red ink.

"We have explored every possible option but have concluded that once the potentially defamatory sections are taken out, there is not enough left to make a good enough read."