October 25, 2001

From Reuters:

DIRECTOR BURTON GOES APE FOR ENGLISH ACTRESS

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Director Tim Burton has split with his long-time girlfriend in favor of his "Planet of the Apes" star Helena Bonham Carter, a spokeswoman for the English actress said on Thursday.

"It is a brand new relationship. Nobody knows where it's headed yet," Melody Korenbrot told Reuters.

She added the couple met in London and will celebrate their three-week anniversary next Monday.

Burton, 43, had previously enjoyed a lengthy relationship with Lisa Marie Smith, a model he cast in four of his films, most recently this year's "Planet of the Apes" update. The couple fell in love in the early 1990s after the dissolution of his marriage to German painter Lena Gieseke.

In an interview with the August issue of Playboy magazine, Burton said Smith inspired him, and "keeps a certain heartbeat going in my life." A call to Burton's office was not returned.

Bonham Carter, 35, played a spunky simian in the "Apes" film. Her other credits include "Fight Club" and "The Wings of the Dove." She dated British actor/director Kenneth Branagh for several years in the late 1990s.