Liam Neeson fans learned yesterday that they will not get a chance to see him before The Phantom Menace goes on general release next month.
The Ballymena-born star was due to appear in a libel case at the High Court in Belfast next week along with his actress wife, Natasha Richardson. But the hearing has been postponed until the autumn.
The couple are suing Belfast Telegraph Newspapers Ltd as publisher of Sunday Life which published an article last September about the state of the couple's marriage. The case had originally been listed to start on April 12th, but was taken out because Ms Richardson had an engagement on Broadway.
The case was then listed to start on June 16th before a jury and was expected to last a couple of weeks. But the case had to be taken out after lawyers for Sunday Life lodged an appeal against a ruling by Mr Justice Coghlin in relation to meanings in the statements of claim.
The Court of Appeal cannot hear the appeal until after the summer recess in September, which means the full libel action is unlikely to be heard until October at the earliest.
Mr Paul Tweed, a leading libel lawyer who represents the couple, said: "I spoke to Mr Neeson by phone in New York at the weekend and he expressed his extreme disappointment that the action will not proceed next week as scheduled.
"He and his wife had cleared their extremely busy film and theatrical engagements to ensure they would be free to attend the hearing."