Soprano Julia Kogan is demanding a writer credit for the screenplay for the new biopic of the world’s worst singer.

Soprano Julia Kogan is locked in a legal battle with her ex-boyfriend, screenwriter Nicholas Martin, claiming she ‘collaborated’ with him on the screenplay for the new Meryl Streep film Florence Foster Jenkins. The biopic, starring Streep and Hugh Grant, tells the story of the notoriously terrible (but wealthy) American heiress who obsessively pursued her dream, believing that she was a great opera singer .

Nicholas Martin apparently wrote the screenplay after he saw Kogan watching a video of the infamous singer on YouTube and she explained the story to him. According to an article in the Daily Mail, Kogan (who, like Foster Jenkins, has performed at Carnegie Hall) asserts that she contributed detailed information about operatic life and worked closely on numerous aspects of the script, claiming: “I contributed a large chunk of the actual screenplay – every aspect of it. I sat him down and pitched him the idea for the film.” She also claimed: “When I met Nicholas, it was an absolute delight for me to work with him on screenplays.” Kogan has written children’s books in the past and recently wrote and presented a BBC Radio 4 documentary on Hollywood composers.

Martin’s lawyer Dominic Bray issued a statement saying, “Julia Kogan was the girlfriend of Nicholas Martin at the time that he was writing the screenplay. They recently separated and subsequently Julia has claimed to have helped write the screenplay.” He says that Martin has taken legal action to “put an end to what he believes to be groundless allegations,” claiming, “Julia is a singer, not a writer. Nicholas has been writing professionally since he graduated from the National Film and Television School in 1992.”
The film was released in Australia last week and has received largely positive reviews.