Jude and Samantha: actor demands DNA test

Two very different versions emerged at the weekend of actor Jude Law's reaction to being told he was the father of American model Samantha Burke's unborn child.

On the one hand, there's the serious and dutiful father-to-be, even keen to attend the birth. On the other, there's the reluctant cad who had to be persuaded by the girl's father and lawyers to "step up to the plate" and accept responsibility and who now wants a DNA test to prove it wasn't another man.

The first image was supported by the Sunday Telegraph in a report that might have been written by Law himself, so kind was it to the English actor.

"He is already taking his duties seriously," read an item in the Mandrake column which went on to quote "a pal" of Law's saying: "Obviously, it will be up to the mother whether she wants him there, but Jude is keen to fly to Florida for the birth, if he can."

Mandrake then went on to explain how Burke had "lost touch" with Law after he had stopped using the mobile telephone for which he had given her the number. He "found out" about her pregnancy through a letter sent by her lawyers.

Now for the other version, as reported in the Mail on Sunday. This has Samantha's father Denis Burke, an airline pilot, having to read Law the riot act after he "took advantage" of his "very young" daughter - Samantha is still 24.

The Mail tracked down Samantha's grandmother Dolores - Denis's mother - who claimed the 36-year-old actor had shown "nothing but contempt" for Samantha, "casting her aside without a second thought" following a two-week fling in New York after they met through mutual friends last Christmas.

"She [Samantha] said that afterwards he ran back to England and basically dumped her," said Grandma Burke. "He doesn't sound like much of a man.

"Then she found out she was pregnant. What I want to know is how a girl gets pregnant in this day and age? Yes, it takes two people, but he is the older and wiser man and he should have made sure nothing like this happened."

According to the Mail version, Dolores is not the only woman on the warpath - Law's former wife, Sadie Frost, the mother of his three children, is angry too. A "friend" told the Mail that when Law first got a phone call telling him of Samantha's pregnancy "he immediately went round to Sadie's house where he promptly burst into tears".

The friend went on: "He told Sadie that he only slept with her [Samantha] once after a drunken party and never had any contact with her afterwards. Sadie has promised to be supportive but she is angry on several levels. Her first response was to call him an idiot."

Law is famous for leaving Sadie Frost for Sienna Miller and then breaking up with Miller when he had an affair with his children's nanny. It doesn't help Law's reputation that Samantha Burke, described in early reports as a model and actress, turns out to be a part-time model who supports herself by working as... a nanny.

According to the Mail, Law is now demanding a DNA test to prove his paternity, which the family say they are happy to arrange after the baby's birth in early October. ·