Thursday gossip roundup: Justin Timberlake under fire for homeless wedding video

Questioning Tom Cruise‘s parenting skills can come with a hefty fee, as tabloid Life & Style Weekly has discovered. The movie star is suing the magazine — along with sister publication In Touch — for $50 million over stories alleging Cruise has all but abandoned his daughter, Suri, in the wake of his divorce from Katie Holmes, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “Tom is a caring father who dearly loves Suri. To say he has ‘abandoned’ her is a vicious lie,” Cruise’s lawyer, Bert Fields, says in a statement. “When these sleaze-peddlers try to make money with disgusting lies about his relationship with his child, you bet he’s going to sue.”

Justin Timberlake is coming under fire for a joke video played at his $6.5 million wedding to Jessica Biel that featured Los Angeles homeless people offering the happy couple well wishes, according to Gawker. The eight-minute video, “Greetings from Your Hollywood Friends Who Just Couldn’t Make It,” was produced by Timberlake friend Justin Huchel, a realtor, and features glassy-eyes and toothless men offering, “Justin and Jessica, I haven’t seen you for a long time. I hope the wedding goes fine for you. My gift is in the mail.” Huchel’s attorney insists it’s all in good fun, telling the Web site, “Mr. Huchel made [the] video to be used and exhibited privately at Justin Timberlake’s wedding as a private joke without Mr. Timberlake’s knowledge.”

New light is being shed on Britney Spears‘ infamous 2007 head-shaving meltdown. Former manager Sam Lufti — who is suing Spears and her family for libel, defamation, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract — claims that the singer had been using hard drugs at the time and was worried a judge might request a test of her hair, possibly leading to her losing custody of her young children, according to the Daily Beast. “She told me she wanted to get clean, but she was struggling with it,” Lufti said on the stand this week. “I told her she needed to do it. I explained to her that society is not going to tolerate a mother with two kids abusing drugs.”

Jessica Simpson‘s parents, Joe and Tina Simpson, are splitting up, with Tina filing for divorce from Joe in Texas last month, citing “discord or conflict of personalities,” according to People magazine. The news comes as the National Enquirer is also reporting that Joe has recently come out of the closet as gay to his family. “It is an amicable split and there is no third party involved,” a rep for the couple says. “Any other related allegations are completely false.” But amicable might not be the right word. In his response to the divorce filing, Joe reportedly requests that Tina get nothing in the split.

It looks like Bobby Brown’s rehab stint in August didn’t take, as the troubled singer was arrested for driving under the influence near Los Angeles this week, according to CNN. This is Brown’s second DUI arrest this year. Police on the scene reportedly detected “a strong scent of alcohol” on Brown and conducted a sobriety test. He was later released on bond. Brown’s stay in rehab over the summer was part of an agreement following his March arrest for driving while intoxicated.