Prosecutors in Geneva are looking into allegations that a Swiss-based Madame supplied escort girls for work on the set of Asterix At The Olympic Games, which has just finished filming in Alicante, Spain, and which stars, among other sporting heroes, England's David Beckham.

Maria Antoniatta Dos Reis Furtado, a 35-year-old ex-stripper and model from Cap Verde known as Maite, has been in custody since late November on suspicion of "incitement to prostitution", extortion and drugs offences, after she allegedly put the frighteners on the film's young director, Thomas Langmann.

According to reports in the Swiss and French press, Langmann, son of top director Claude Berri, has admitted asking Maite to fly women to the Asterix set several times.

In theory, the escort girls were to make discreet appearances on screen, but in fact their services were of another nature.

Then in September Maite claimed that Langmann refused to pay the girls' bill of some 45,000, and so had a lawyer send a threatening letter. This, according to the Swiss investigators, was explicit enough to constitute a prima facie case of blackmail, and so the lawyer also spent Christmas behind bars.

Meanwhile, Langmann has made a counter-accusation, alleging that Maite procured his company credit card details and used it to pay her bills.

The connection to the Asterix film emerged as Maite was already under surveillance by Swiss police, suspected of operating a European prostitution network that masqueraded behind a legitimate escort service for the rich and famous.

Described in the local press as a "black panther", Maite arrived in Switzerland in 1994 on a Guinean passport. Working as a stripper at the Moulin Rouge, a more raunchy establishment than its demure Paris namesake, she combined feline beauty with a ruthless business sense, and quickly made her way up the Geneva social ladder, marrying and divorcing on the way.

According to local press reports, the city's jet set is now anxiously speculating on what secrets might be contained in her address book, which has been confiscated by police.

"My client openly admits her work as an escort agent . . .

which is, after all, not a crime.

She may not be in line for the legion d'honneur but she certainly doesn't deserve to be in prison, " said Maite's lawyer, Jacques Barillon.