Penn and Bing in legal showdown

In Hollywood, Sean Penn and Steve Bing are known as two people you don't want to pick a fight with. And now they are going after each other in a a contract dispute over a film that looks as if it will no longer be made.

First into the ring was Mr Penn – the Oscar-winning actor, director, former husband of Madonna and former inmate of the LA county jail after an ugly incident with an amateur photographer – who filed suit on Monday claiming that Mr Bing owed him $10m (£6m). Mr Bing, he alleged, dropped him from consideration for a comedy called Why Men Shouldn't Marry because of Mr Penn's views opposing war in Iraq.

Mr Bing – scion of one of LA's richest families, film producer and reluctant father of Liz Hurley's child – shot back with a counter-suit 24 hours later, denying the claim, accusing Mr Penn of attempted "civil extortion" and saying the actor never really wanted to be in the film in the first place. He wants Mr Penn to pay him $15m.

Mr Penn accuses Mr Bing of "borrowing a page from the dark era of Hollywood blacklisting". Mr Bing's lawyer, Marty Singer, insists: "My client is not going to be threatened by bullying behaviour."