A Canadian writer is suing Universal Studios, alleging that its hit film, Knocked Up, borrows from her work. The film, writer-director Judd Apatow's follow-up to The 40 Year Old Virgin, follows the post-coital relationship of a young professional and the slacker who impregnates her during a drunken encounter.

Rebecca Eckler, a columnist for the Globe and Mail newspaper and other publications, claims the film takes many of its key plot points from her 2004 memoir Knocked Up, Confessions Of A Hip Mother-To-Be.

The suit was filed in LA in January but is not set to begin until March 2008. Writing about the suit in the Canadian magazine Maclean's, Eckler opening sentence reads: 'Did the 40 Year Old Virgin screw me''

Among the similarities, Eckler points to the religion and nationality (Jewish, Canadian) of the father, played, coincidentally, by Canadian actor Seth Rogen, and the profesion of the mother (up-and-coming journalist), played by Kath erine Heigl. Another is a reference to the father's concern about invading the personal space of his unborn child while having sex with the now-pregnant mother. Eckler tells a similar joke in her book.

Eckler says her book was released in the US in 2005 and received wide coverage. She also said had turned down several option offers from Canadian producers in anticipation of receiving 'the Big American offer.' She claims Apatow's sale to Univeral came five months after the US publication date.

Universal and Apatow have dismissed the allegations.

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