But Jude Law insists he loathes the celebrity culture and wants nothing more than a quiet life.

"This obsession with gossip and second rate information is like a cancer that's taken over," he says.

"I have never had an interest in what someone weighs or what they wear."

Whether he likes it or not, the London-born star has become a paparazzi favourite thanks to his volatile split with ex-wife Sadie Frost and his subsequent on/off relationship with Sienna Miller.

Though his career has gone from strength to strength with starring roles in movies such as Cold Mountain and The Talented Mr Ripley, Law admits he's paying a high price for fame.

"I do hate the intrusion into my private life. It's like being followed by snipers. But I just try hard to ignore it and lead a quiet life."

The battle between the 34-year old and the paparazzi escalated last year when he was accused of assaulting a photographer. All charges were later dropped but he is still seething.

"The photographer that I supposedly assaulted reported it to the police and they were very sheepish when they called me in, but even then the photographer was waiting outside the station trying to get a photograph of me."

Fortunately the odd altercation with snappers doesn't seem to have done any permanent damage to his movie career. In just a few years Law has gone from bit-part actor in short-lived soap Families to one of our most successful exports to Hollywood.

He has worked alongside some of the biggest names in the business including Gwyneth Paltrow, Renee Zelwegger and Tom Hanks, and his latest movie sees him sharing the big screen with acting legend Sir Michael Caine.

The pair appear in an updated version of the 1972 film Sleuth. Though Caine starred in the original - about two men fighting over a woman the audience never meets - Law, who co-produced the latest version, insists it's not a remake.

"In the 1972 version there are six characters and in this one there are just two, and most of the dialogue in this film is not in the original.

"I was fascinated by the premise of how two men fight for a woman you never meet."

As well as starring in and producing the movie, he also proves he's become a real player by enlisting acclaimed playwright Harold Pinter to pen the latest screenplay and Kenneth Branagh to direct it.

"Harold had never seen the original version so I took it to him and he loved it.

"He really embraced this idea of men at war and what lengths they will go to. In the end you forget about the actual prize. It's all about domination.

"Once Harold was involved, Michael became interested and then Kenneth.

"I was just involved as a producer at first; it was only after five or six months into the process that I started reading the film as an actor.

"But it was truly wonderful working with these three incredibly talented people.

"They are very open and generous men."

It's not the first time Law has followed in the footsteps of Caine, as two years ago he appeared in the remake of Alfie, where Jude hooked up with now ex Sienna Miller. But though the film made a star of Caine in 1966, Law's version bombed at the box office.

"You can't regret choices you've made in this business. You learn from them and you pick yourself up, dust yourself down and move on. Sometimes you're rewarded.

"The lesson I learned with Alfie was that it was very much of its time and didn't work in a modern setting."

Law is set to team up again with Kenneth Branagh when the acclaimed thespian directs him in Hamlet next year.

Already the star is gearing himself up for the critics.

"I can guarantee my reviews will be awful," he says.

"But having Kenneth direct, it is almost worth it.

"I don't mind bad reviews but criticism about my personal life is very hurtful."

The star speaks from bitter experience. A few years ago he endured a high-profile and acrimonious split from Frost.

"He was then forced to make a public apology when he cheated on Sienna Miller with his children's nanny.

These days Law seems to have put his troubles behind him and says his four kids by Frost have helped to ground him and enable him to focus on his work.

"They are their own little team now," he says of Rudy (5), Iris (7), Rafferty (10) and stepson Finlay (17).

"That meant that my responsibility was to myself and I could change the rhythm of my work."

There's no shortage of work, either. With his packed schedule it looks as if he'll have to put up with the inevitable lack of privacy for a while longer.

"I suppose I didn't have to go for it," he says.

"There was an opportunity that existed to either ignore and miss something forever or surf it and I just thought I'll go with the wave," he says philosophically.

¿ Sleuth is released on Friday.