Hollywood couple need "enduring love"

Newly-weds Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas

Veteran Hollywood star Kirk Douglas has warned that his son Michael and Welsh bride Catherine Zeta Jones have "a lot to overcome" in their married life.

Douglas senior said the couple's love needed to be tough enough to endure the long enforced separations caused by their thriving careers.

Douglas makes his comments during a BBC2 examination of his career in the Scene By Scene series to be shown on Thursday.

They are both stars working in different places, that's a lot of obstacles - your love has to be strong enough to endure

Kirk Douglas

The 31-year-old Swansea-born actress and her husband, 56, married in a glitzy private ceremony at the Plaza Hotel in New York on November 18.

The couple have a four month-old son Dylan

Since their marriage the actors they have seen their films given the seal of approval by critics with nominations for their films at the Golden Globes - a pointer to Oscar successes.

Douglas's films Wonder Boys and Traffic are short-listed for best movie drama, while he is nominated as best actor.

Zeta Jones is up for best supporting actress for starring alongside him in Traffic, which she made while pregnant.

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Kirk Douglas: Couple need enduring love

"Michael and Catherine have a lot to overcome," 84-year-old Kirk Douglas says in the BBC interview recorded after the November wedding.

"They are both stars working in different places, that's a lot of obstacles - your love has to be strong enough to endure."

Talking about his own career, spanning more than 80 films, Douglas senior said: "I'm not modest."

"If I was lousy, I say I was lousy. But if I'm good, can't I say I'm good?"

The programme, to be broadcast at 1400GMT, will be accompanied by two of Kirk Douglas's classic films - Champion, and Lonely Are The Brave.