Actor sues studio over pay in Brokeback backlash

ACTOR Randy Quaid has sued the studio and producers behind Brokeback Mountain for $10 million (€8.3m), saying he was underpaid for his supporting role in the acclaimed film about two cowboys who fall in love.

According to the lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, producers tricked Quaid into appearing in the movie for what was "effectively a donation of his time" by "falsely representing it as a low-budget, art-house film with no prospect of making any money."

Quaid, 55, played the no-nonsense rancher who hires Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) to tend his sheep on a Wyoming mountain, where the two men end up in a secret love affair.