LEGAL FILE

William Hurt is scheduled to appear in Manhattan Supreme Court today in a $5-million suit in which his ex-girlfriend, Sandra Jennings, a former ballerina and the mother of Hurt’s 6-year-old-son, Alexander, claims the actor forced her to undergo two abortions and that he beat her in drunken rages. “The main issue of this trial will be Bill Hurt’s outrageous behavior,” said Jennings’ lawyer, Richard Golub. Hurt spokeswoman Lois Smith denied the actor struck Jennings and said he has been a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for about two years. Jennings also claimed she and Hurt, 39, lived together as common-law husband and wife for about two years, mostly in New York. But since there is no common-law status in New York, the trial centers on four weeks that the couple spent in Beaufort, S.C., when he was filming “The Big Chill.” Hurt’s co-stars from the movie, Glenn Close and Jeff Goldblum, may testify.