The actress and blogger, who was once romantically linked to Spade, claims she pitched the Joe Dirt star an idea for a fake talent show, called Frauditions, last year (14) and he seemed very interested, offering to share the profits with her if the programme got picked up.

In her lawsuit, obtained by TMZ.com, Allen claims Spade's lawyer attempted to change the deal from 50/50 to 70/30 in his client's favour when the show went into development.

To make matters worse, Spade then produced and hosted a show called Fameless, which is now on U.S. cable channel truTV.

Allen insists the programme is a rip-off and she wants more than $1 million (£635,000).