"LeAnn Rimes Caught in an Affair"

That's the headline on the cover of the latest issue of US Weekly, which claims the country singer is cheating on her husband of seven years. A photo (see below) inside the magazine allegedly shows Rimes kissing Eddie Cibrian, her co-star in the upcoming Lifetime TV movie, 'Northern Lights.'

"From the moment we rehearsed, LeAnn and Eddie honestly developed a really strong bond and a warm relationship," the film's director Mike Robe told US.

The picture was captured on a security camera inside a Laguna Beach, Calif. restaurant where the two were having dinner last week. The magazine also claims the co-stars later spent three secluded hours together at a hotel in Malibu.

Rimes married backup dancer Dean Sheremet in February of 2002, when she was 19 years old. Just last September, the couple told reporters they were ready to start trying for a baby. Cibrian has also been married for seven years and has two young sons.




Rimes is neither confirming nor denying the accusations. Instead, she writes in a note to fans on her website, "This is a difficult time for me and my loved ones, but I appreciate all your continued support. I would like to assure all of you that this is a place for you to hear things directly from me and as you all know, not everything in our lives is always black and white."

Cibrian's reaction has been much more combative. "Other than being friends and two actors who were romantically intertwined in a movie-for-television we filmed last fall, there is no truth to the reporting initiated by US Magazine," he writes in a statement first obtained by 'Access Hollywood.' "It is a fabricated story that is using random snapshots as connective tissue to create a scandalous relationship."

Sheremet has taken to blogging to assure friends that he is OK. "I love my wife!" he wrote on his Twitter page, just after the rumors began to swirl. His wife echoed that sentiment and dodged questions about the infidelity accusation when she visited the 'Live with Regis and Kelly' show on Wednesday.

"Everything's great -- there's rumors all the time," she replied when show host Regis Philbin asked about the US report. "Things pass, life happens ... Everything people read is not as easy as black and white. That's what it is. I let it roll off my back most of the time."