Nayar with Hurley: When lovebirds chirp (Reuters)

London, Feb. 15: Forget Darling, Honey, Sweetheart. Even My Pet.

Oompa Loompa is the latest.

That’s what Liz Hurley, the British celebrity model-actress, calls her beau, Arun Nayar, the Indian who is known as a businessman and is often seen holding the tiny hand of Hurley’s son — not by him.

The British Sunday tabloid newspaper has revealed that Hurley has lovingly nicknamed Nayar after the pygmies in the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

But the description hurled at Hurley is not loving at all. Duncan Roy, the director of Hurley’s new film, The Method, has called her an actress from hell for off-screen tantrums and antics during the shooting.

All this and the long sessions in her trailer with Oompa Loompa drove the director wild with fury, according to the report.

The film, made in Romania, is being acclaimed as Hurley’s best so far but Roy says the anguish she put him through turned it into a nightmare for him.

“We made a good film because Elizabeth did act well in it — but I want everyone to know what I think she’s like as a person. She is horrible,” Roy was quoted as saying.

“Liz wanted to control every aspect of the film. She seems to have the impression that she is a great actress. She totally believes that she’s someone special. She’s not.”

Roy said the 38-year-old Hurley threw a tantrum on the set when he gently tried to tell her that her acting in one scene was a bit “stiff”.

She also wrecked hair styling and make-up that had taken hours to create before one take by spending time with her Oompa Loompa.

Despite Roy’s rage, however, Oompa Loompas are nice people, really. Roald Dahl wrote a book called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and then scripted it for the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Oompa Loompas are a community of pygmies who make chocolates at the factory that runs a golden ticket contest which entitles the winner to a lifetime of candies.

With Hurley calling Nayar Oompa Loompa, it’s not clear who has won a lifetime of chocolates in this relationship. Is Hurley Nayar’s candy girl, or is Nayar Hurley’s chocolate hero?

Roy, at least, doesn’t think Hurley is sweet — even looks-wise. “She also thinks she’s really beautiful — well I have seen her without make-up and it’s not a pretty sight.”

Nayar obviously doesn’t think so — and he should know what she looks like when she sits up in bed and drinks her morning cup of tea or coffee or whatever.

Roy’s statements have sparked an almighty row with Hurley’s PR agent saying: “Elizabeth is astonished that Duncan should be telling these lies about her.

“She liked Duncan and fought very hard to get him the job. It is a mystery why he is being so unkind.”

One reason could be that she would call the director “Dunc” during the shooting while insisting that everybody refers to her as Elizabeth and not Liz.

The Method’s powerful producer Brad Wyman criticised the director’s sensational claims. He insisted that Hurley had behaved impeccably on the film and, if anything, was simply a victim of her own ultra-professionalism.

“This was my 30th movie, it was Liz’s 20th and Duncan had done one — it takes time to turn those things around.

“Elizabeth was flawless. She worked so hard on her costuming, her clothing and her tailoring. She is great in the movie.”

Wyman, who recently produced the Hollywood blockbuster Monster, said Roy’s complaints were “unfair”.

However, he accepted there had been “friction” during the shooting and put much of the success of the movie down to Roy’s huge talent. And Wyman hinted that Roy’s revelations about Hurley and Nayar’s private life were correct.

“They were really smitten with each other.”

Like Oompa and Loompa?

The revelation came too late for this Valentine’s Day. By the time the next comes around, who knows how many well-heeled women would be calling their lover-boys, who baby-sit too, Oompa Loompa.