Charlotte Rampling seeks to block book

The English film actress Charlotte Rampling, known for a series of roles in sexually explicit films, including Georgy Girl and The Night Porter, has brought in lawyers to try to halt publication of a biography from Bloomsbury, the 'Harry Potter' publishers.

After providing the writer Barbara Victor with 100 hours of interview material, plus access to private papers and letters, Rampling is said to have found the process of raking over the past too unpleasant and withdrawn her co-operation. At which point, Victor is understood to have signed a new contract with Bloomsbury to write an unauthorised biography, which Rampling now claims is an infringement of her right to privacy.

Victor, however, claims she did have Rampling's permission to continue on her own, with the proviso that the actress could make changes to the draft manuscript.

Victor told the Mail on Sunday that her book was supposed to be "a cautionary tale about how she [Rampling] had gone through many trials and emerged to have a fulfilled life". The biography would also cover Rampling's two marriages, both of which ended unhappily.

In 1976, the actress divorced her first husband Bryan Southcombe, an actor and agent, after four years of marriage during which they were alleged to be living in a menage a trois with Randall Laurence, a male model - though Rampling has always denied there was a sexual relationship saying, "We were just like any people sharing an apartment".

In 1978 she married the French composer Jean-Michel Jarre, son of the great film score writer Maurice Jarre (the father died ten days ago). The marriage was dissolved in 1997 amid reports that Jarre was having an affair with a younger woman.

According to Victor, the lawyers were brought in after Rampling was "devastated" to read a draft passage which she was worried would hurt her children and grandchildren. Victor has not revealed the subject matter of the passage. ·