Julia Roberts Courts Controversy With Monkeys  11/1/06

Hollywood star Julia Roberts courted controversy this week (ends03NOV06) when she posed for photographs with chained monkeys in Morocco.

The Oscar winner took time out of filming Charlie Wilson's War in the North African country to enjoy the sights of Marrakech.

Roberts succumbed to the tourist attraction of cuddling up with performing Barbary monkeys in the city's famed Djemaa El Fna.

Animal rights groups and respected travel guides such as Lonely Planet encourage tourists to refrain from paying to pose with the macaques, who are kept in chains in the bustling city all day and are removed from their natural habitat in the nearby Atlas Mountains.