National action

Dublin, April 17 (Reuters): Singer-actress Jennifer Lopez and her salsa star husband Marc Anthony launched a chain of European libel actions on Tuesday against US celebrity magazine the National Enquirer over drug scandal allegations.

Belfast-based lawyer Paul Tweed, who specialises in fighting US 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 said.

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.