Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, Hollywood's premier couple, are furious with an American magazine for alleging that they needed sex therapists to help them perform on camera during the filming of Stanley Kubrick's final film, an erotic thriller called Eyes Wide Shut.
The actors have begun a multi-million dollar libel action claiming that the magazine, the Star, had 'acted with hatred, ill-will, malice and fraud'.
The couple say the magazine accuses them 'of being unqualified as actors because of their inability to portray sufficiently realistic or amorous love scenes', the lawsuit says. The article had damaged their credibility as 'romantic lead actors'.
Filed in Los Angeles after the Star refused to retract, the 12-page document adds that the piece exposed the pair to ridicule and derision, 'given that they are married to each other'.
The Star article quoted sources saying that their sex scenes were unconvincing, and that certain scenes did not satisfy Mr Kubrick. It claimed that two sex therapists, Wendy and Tony Duffield, were called in to demonstrate what the director wanted.
The Duffields never worked on the set, and the stars had never met or heard of them, says their lawsuit. When the allegations became known last month, the couple issued a furious statement saying that the claims were'totally false', and warning whoever was responsible 'their 15 minutes of fame will cost them dearly'.
Shot in England, the film is due to be released in July. A 90-second trailer, released a week after the director's death last month, shows Mr Cruise, 36, and Ms Kidman, 32, kissing and embracing while nude. It was deemed too explicit to be broadcast in full.
In October the couple sued and won damages from the Express for having falsely claimed that their marriage was a 'hypocritical sham' undertaken either to conceal their homosexuality or as a business arrangement.