Amber Benson @ The Essence of Amber

Leonardo DiCaprio has hit back through his publicist, at least at claims he is trying to stop the release of an independent film he made before he became the sexiest man-child alive. On Tuesday, indie producer David Stutman and his production company, Polo Pictures Entertainment, filed a $10 million suit against Leo and his actor buddy Tobey Maguire (The Ice Storm). At issue is the unreleased low-budget pic Don's Plum, which was filmed over six days in 1995, before "newly anointed superstar" DiCaprio exploded onto the scene with William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and Titanic. The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, alleges that the duo are using DiCaprio's newfound box-office clout for their own "egomaniacal purposes" to block the sale of the film. DiCaprio and Maguire, Stutman claims, "carried out a fraudulent and coercive campaign to prevent release of the film and destroy its value."

But Leo's mouthpiece, Nancy Ryder, says that the twenty-three-year-old heartthrob arguably the most wanted actor working today—and Maguire agreed to be in the film as a "favor to a friend." She adds that they appeared with "the express agreement that it would never be exhibited as a feature-length motion picture." "It is incredibly disappointing to find Mr. Stutman attempting to exploit Leonardo and Tobey by converting Leonardo's twelve-hour favor to a friend into a multimillion-dollar studio feature release," Ryder said on Wednesday. "Leonardo and Tobey stand by their word and are saddened that Mr. Stutman is not standing by his."

The mostly improvised, eighty-nine-minute black and white film, shot by first-time director and friend-of-Leo R.D. Robb, is about a group of friends who gather at a diner one Saturday and riff on the seedier aspects of life. "Girls make me sick," DiCaprio screams at one point. His character, who comes off as a drugged-out, womanizing jerk, is quite a change from his heroic Titanic character, Jack Dawson. "He wanted to be an asshole times ten," a member of the staff told Mr. Showbiz last December. "The whole idea, originally, was to be an asshole, be on drugs. But now you have a situation where Leo is vulnerable to people's opinions."

Stutman, who financed and produced the film, alleges in his fourteen-page suit that at the film's first screening Leo "jumped out of his seat several times, laughing, clapping, and high-fiving his friends," and "said many times 'it was great' and that he 'really liked the film.'" But, Stutman contends, Maguire felt "he did not come off as strong a 'leading man' as DiCaprio and that some of the improvisational comments Maguire had made during the film revealed personal experiences or tendencies that would undermine his public image." According to Stutman, Maguire convinced DiCaprio to withdraw his support for the film and to pressure the producer to stop its release.

In Stutman's conspiracy theory, Maguire, "sensing [the film's] impending success . . . decided to use his friend Robb as an excuse for his change of mind. He falsely accused Robb of 'using' DiCaprio." The suit states that Maguire set up a meeting with Robb, DiCaprio, and other actors in the film, "where [he] staged another performance, screaming as loudly as he could, only inches from Robb's face, that Robb has used his friends for his own personal gain and that Robb was a 'whore,' 'prostitute,' and 'success-monger.'" Stutman says DiCaprio and Maguire contacted several potential distributors about the film, including Miramax. The suit claims the pair pressured the studio by saying DiCaprio opposed Plum's release, and "there would be serious and adverse consequences for Miramax if it were to distribute the film."