US actress Lauren Bacall has branded Tom Cruise a "maniac." Screen legend Bacall worked with Cruise's ex-wife Nicole Kidman on 2003 film "Dogville", soon after her divorce from the "Mission: Impossible" actor, and says she appeared "unhappy" during filming, before launching an astonishing and scathing attack on Cruise.

Bacall told Elle magazine: "Tom had taken off for Penelope Cruz or some goddamn thing - one of his more ridiculous moves. Tom Cruise is a maniac. I can't understand the way he conducts his life." This is not the first time "The Big Sleep" actress has hit out at Cruise.

In 2005, Bacall said: "When you talk about a great actor, you're not talking about Tom Cruise. His whole behaviour is so shocking. It's inappropriate and vulgar and absolutely unacceptable to use your private life to sell anything commercially, but, I think, it's kind of a sickness."

Kidman recently revealed she was surprised to find love with new husband, country singer Keith Urban, after her 10-year marriage to Cruise.

She said: "I didn't foresee it, that you can meet somebody who you have a deep and more profound love with. I don't mean to take away anything with Tom, but I would hope that he has the same thing." Kidman gave birth to her first daughter with Urban, Sunday Rose Kidman, in July. She and Cruise adopted two children, Isabella, 15, and Connor, 13, during their marriage.

(China Daily/Agencies October 9, 2008)