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LONDON: You can never be too rich or too thin goes the old adage, but the celebrity magazines disagree, devoting acres of critical coverage to skinny models and actresses that has now landed them in hot water.

Hollywood actress Kate Hudson, daughter of Goldie Hawn, is taking legal action against five publications for publishing pictures of her accompanied by articles suggesting that she was suffering from an eating disorder, which she denies.

The 26-year-old star of Almost Famous and How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days is complaining about a set of photographs that were published in several high-profile newspapers and magazines in the last two months.

The publications, including Heat, Closer, National Enquirer, Star Magazine and Daily Mail have been given seven days to respond to the complaint, after which Hudson has instructed the London law firm Schillings to issue writs against them.

If the case is not settled, it is expected to go to jury trial at the High Court in London next year.

Schillings said the images were "used to accompany and illustrate articles which suggested that she had an eating disorder that was so grave and serious that she was wasting away to the extreme concern of her mother and family".

The law firm added that the pictures could also, although not stated, be "of commercial and artistic concern to those who might cast her in movies and choose to use her image to endorse products".

Hudson will argue in court that "the images in question gave a seriously false and misleading impression as to her true physical condition, in that she was portrayed as being dangerously thin with an eating disorder, which is contrary to the true position of her weight and diet being of a healthy nature, both at the time of the images being taken and at present".

An analysis of how the photographs came to be taken, sold and published will form a key part of the case. Schillings will argue that the main image in question was stretched, making Hudson appear thinner than she really is, although there is no suggestion that the photograph was altered deliberately.

The coverage of Hudson is far from unique.

Splashed across the cover of the latest issue of Heat are "truly shocking skinny pics" of Kate Lawler, the winner of the third series of Big Brother, in which her ribcage can be seen prominently.

"BB star is a walking skeleton," the magazine proclaimed.

Last month, Heat featured pictures of a thinlooking Claudia Schiffer and Sophie Dahl on its cover, asking: "Are these models starving themselves?"

It is a long-running theme for the magazine, which earlier this year published a definitive list of "20 skinniest celebrities".

Janice Turner, the former editor of Real magazine, believes celebrity titles are targeting skinny women because it is no longer acceptable to criticise someone for being overweight.

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