Scottish shooting star Gerard Butler slammed rumours of his personal life as “getting ridiculous”.

Speaking to GMTV in the UK, Butler said simply being seen with a woman is parlayed into him dating her. The press makes the assumption “even if I’ve just spoken to them for two seconds”, he said.

Butler’s date for the European premiere of his new movie, Law Abiding Citizen, was his mother. He said: “Even if it’s the early stage of you dating somebody, or even just a friend who’s a girl and you go ‘I want to take her down the red carpet’– it’s not worth the bother.

“In actual fact, the crazy thing is I’ve had a couple of relationships during this that nobody knew about. Meanwhile they’re speculating about people who I have nothing going on with, so it’s been quite funny to witness this.”

Butler appeared to take annoyance over his linking with The Bounty co-star Jennifer Aniston over summer. This month he denied kissing Lindsay Lohan.