the bunte was repeatedly embroiled in court cases with celebrities. in 1995, for example, caroline, princess of hanover, won what up to that time was the largest-ever award for damages for pain and suffering in the history of the german press before the higher regional court of hamburg, because the "bunte" had published a totally fabricated interview with her. the interview contained numerous untruthful details on her private life. the "bunte"'s chief editorial staff's counterargument was that they had been duped by an outside agency, which had sold the interview to the publication. in 1996, tom cruise sued the "bunte" for damages because it wrongly quoted him in an interview as allegedly being "sterile". the deputy editor-in-chief günter stampf, who had manipulated the interview, was then forced to leave the publishing company. the "bunte" apologized to cruise, who subsequently dropped the lawsuit.