Actor Paul Newman exposed as ‘a drunk and a womaniser’

Seven months after Paul Newman's death from cancer, an American film critic is about to publish a book which suggests that the much-loved actor, famed for his charity work and his long marriage to his wife Joanne Woodward, was actually a drunk and a womaniser.

Shawn Levy, film critic of The Oregonian, and author of several showbiz books, depicts Newman as an alcoholic who would wear a bottle opener on a chain around his neck and drink a case or more of beer a day, before moving on to the hard stuff.

According to Paul Newman: A Life, to be published by Harmony Books in May, the actor drank so heavily that colleagues would observe him "drinking beers on the set, in his office, at parties, during interviews, watching TV, getting ready for TV and relaxing after dinner".

As for his reputation as Hollywood's most faithful husband, Levy relates an affair Newman allegedly had with a journalist during the making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The relationship lasted a year and a half until the journalists brought it to a close. "I finally said to myself, 'I can do better than this,'" she remembered. "I told him, 'You're always drunk, and you can't even make love.' I ended it."

Levy's biog on the website of The Oregonian, where he's been film critic for 12 years having previously edited American Film magazine, says he lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, three children - and a large dog.

Just as well: a lot of angry and disillusioned film fans could be headed his way.