Michael Douglas' publicist disputes STD cancer claim

A publicist representing Michael Douglas has denied that the actor blames a sexually-transmitted disease for his throat cancer.

Allen Burry issued a statement in which he claims Douglas never said that oral sex was the specific cause of the disease.

"In a discussion with the newspaper, they talked about the causes of oral cancer, one of which was oral sex, which is noted and has been known for a while now," Burry said.

But The Guardian newspaper, which originally quoted Douglas in an interview with reporter Xan Brooks, is standing by its story and has published an audio recording of the exchange.

"This particular cancer is caused by something called HPV, which actually comes about from [performing oral sex]," Douglas can be heard to say.