Jennifer Lopez and her husband Marc Anthony. - reuters

DUBLIN, Ireland:

Singer-actress Jennifer Lopez and her salsa star husband Marc Anthony launched a chain of European libel actions on Tuesday against U.S. celebrity magazine the National Enquirer over drug scandal allegations.

Belfast-based lawyer Paul Tweed, who specialises in fighting U.S. libel cases in European courts, said he had filed a lawsuit with the Belfast High Court on Tuesday and a writ of summons would arrive at the magazine's New York headquarters shortly.

"We will now make similar applications in Dublin, London and other jurisdictions," he told Reuters.

Lopez and Anthony were seeking "substantial damages", a full retraction and an apology over an Enquirer article last month that alleged the couple were linked to a drug scandal after Anthony was pictured with a photographer later charged with heroin possession.

The story was "totally unfounded", said Tweed, who last year won an apology from the Enquirer for singer Britney Spears over an article claiming she was about to divorce her husband.

No comments

Richard Valvo, a spokesman for the National Enquirer, said the company had no comment to make on Tuesday.

Tweed said U.S.-based celebrities were increasingly pursuing libel claims in European courts.

"It's virtually impossible to sue for libel in the United States because of First Amendment protections," he said.

"But these publications are now appearing in Ireland, the U.K. and France, and on the Internet, and they're now subject to the libel laws of these jurisdictions."

He pointed out that the option only really applied to internationally-known stars who could prove they had a reputation to protect.

In most cases defendants opted to settle out of court rather than risk paying damages in numerous jurisdictions, he said, adding that if the Enquirer chose to fight, the case was likely to take between 9 and 15 months.

Tweed, a libel lawyer for 30 years, has previously taken cases for Irish actor Liam Neeson, singer Whitney Houston and U.S. film producer Steve Bing.

Lopez, who has successfully combined musical and screen careers, married New York-born singer Anthony, the biggest-selling salsa artiste of all time, in 2004.