Women who won worldwide fame by stripping for a charity glamour calendar have clashed over who should turn their story into a film.

Five of the eleven women who went nude to raise £330,000 for Leukaemia Research want top British comic Victoria Wood - who has a house near Skipton - to make the movie.

But the other six, including Angela Baker, whose late husband John was the inspiration for the Rylstone and District WI calendar, insist the film is made by London-based Harbour Films, with money from Hollywood.

They are expected to sign with Buena Vista UK, part of the Disney empire, later this week. But five rebels are not expected to sign.

Miss May, Moyra Livesey, 51, said the offer from Victoria Wood was twice that of the Disney deal.

"It's all down to preference and how people think the story will be treated - sympathetically and sensitively," she said.

"As far as the money is concerned, the Victoria Wood offer was amazing - unprecedented in British film industry. The main thing is to make as much money as possible for Leukaemia Research."

Mrs Baker, 53, said: "It was my decision - I feel more comfortable with Harbour Films, I have known them longer and I think they will do a good job."

She said Victoria Wood had offered more money but in the long run believed the Harbour Films picture would make as much.

Susanne Mackey, who is to produce the movie for Harbour Films, said today: "We have known for some time that some of the women didn't want to take part. We are making a British comedy with British actresses for Buena Vista UK. It is very much going to be British with British sensibilities. It's not going to be a Hollywood film."

She said it would be written by a British writer and probably directed by a Briton.

A Leukaemia Research Fund spokesman said: "It is Angela's and her family's story. It was her husband who had the dreadful disease and her family that went through it and she must be the judge of what is best for them."

Tricia Stewart, 50, the driving force behind the calendar, said: "It will be a mixture of sadness, poignancy, friendship and humour - all the things that made the calendar so popular."

The women are about to launch a new version of the calendar which will be sold in America.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.