The actress, Internet, and a sex film - in Iran

Sex films, soap stars and international fugitives were an unheard of combination on the front pages of newspapers in conservative Muslim Iran until now.

For Western readers who regularly feast on celebrity antics in popular scandal sheets, a grainy film of sexual activity is probably no big deal.

But Iranians have been transfixed by a judicial inquiry into media reports that a budding starlet is the woman in a graphic film widely distributed across the Internet.

The starlet, Zahra Amir Ebramhimi denies she is the woman in the film. The man who appears in the movie is said to have fled the country to Dubai. The punishment if either are found guilty could be severe.