Lennon's sister faces legal row

A NEW biopic on the childhood of John Lennon is at the centre of a bitter row after it emerged the late Beatle’s half-sister Julia Baird and the film’s makers face possible legal action.

COURT ACTION Julia Baird COURT ACTION: Julia Baird

US author Geoffrey Giuliano, who has written several books on the Fab Four, collaborated with Baird on the biography John Lennon, My Brother, published in the late Eighties.

Baird, 62, wrote a second book, Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon in 2007 without Giuliano, although the writer says it is based on his previous research into John’s life.

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Giuliano now claims he is entitled to 50 per cent of Baird’s earnings from the forthcoming film Nowhere Boy and plans to pursue his case in the courts.

The movie stars Kristin Scott ­Thomas as John’s aunt Mimi and Anne-Marie Duff as his mother Julia.

The 55-year-old writer met Julia at a Beatles convention in Liverpool in 1986. Shortly after their first encounter, he says he persuaded her to work on the Lennon book.

“In doing my own research, I filled in a lot of blanks for her. More than half the material in the book is a result of my research,” he says.

Giuliano goes on to claim that the new material that appeared in Baird’s subsequent, more recent book on Lennon, including the fraught relationship between Mimi and their mother Julia, was a result of his original findings.

“Additional information in Imagine This was uncovered by me in my original research,” he adds. “I was the person who conceptualised the original book.”

We contacted Baird’s publisher yesterday but have so far been given no comment.

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