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Travolta target of new gay claim

New details of an alleged gay affair between John Travolta and a Californian pilot have emerged, despite lawyers for the actor branding the talk as "ridiculous".

A judge this week ruled that Doug Gotterba was allowed to spill secrets of his "six-year relationship" with Travolta while working as a pilot for his aircraft company Alto in the 1980s.

When Gotterba first spoke to the National Enquirer about the affair in 2012 he was met with a gag order from the star's lawyers but the judge found there were no confidentiality restrictions on the pilot.

In an explosive new story published by the tabloid, Gotterba said his relationship with Travolta began soon after he was employed by the actor in 1981 on a trip to California.

"I got the sense I was being courted," the now 62-year-old said.

"As we walked from the restaurant back to the room, John suddenly said "Hey, would you like a massage?'"

Gotterba said the massage led to sex and more trips followed to other international destinations over the next few years. He added Travolta only started dating Brooke Shields in the mid-80s as a cover but his relationship fizzled out by the time he married Kelly Preston in 1991, with the two meeting for the last time a year later.

"We were making small talk when suddenly I blurted out 'So, John, tell me, now that you're married do you still prefer men - or women'," Gotterba said.

"Well, Doug, I still prefer men," Travolta replied, according to the pilot.

A representative for Travolta has slammed the story and pointed to a previous report by the same publication that alleged the star groped two masseurs, only for one of the sources to be demonstrably proven false.

"This ridiculous so-called 'new' story is a retread of a story published a few weeks ago by the same desperate supermarket tabloid," Travolta's representative said.

"That was the same tabloid that impossibly claimed that John Travolta had an encounter with 'Doe #1' in Beverly Hills when he was actually on the east coast working on a movie."