Celebrity couple Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick have launched a $15m (�9.6m) lawsuit against a cosmetics firm for using their images "without consent".

They are suing luxury goods firm Sephora over a Valentine's Day advertising campaign featuring photos of them.

Divorced couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman have already filed a similar $15m lawsuit against the company, claiming to have been used as "involuntary models".

Sephora used pictures of the couples in its "L'eau down on celebrity sweethearts" campaign to promote gifts for Valentine's Day.

Kidman and Cruise split in 2001

The advertisement cited products sold by Sephora that it felt matched the stars' individual personalities.

Parker, 37, stars as columnist Carrie Bradshaw on the hit US comedy Sex and the City.

Broderick made his name in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off and went on to star in Godzilla and Inspector Gadget.

He also has a successful stage career, winning plaudits for his performance in the Broadway show The Producers.

Red carpet glamour

Sephora have not commented on the legal actions against them.

Cruise and Kidman's joint lawsuit cites the advert used their images, giving the misleading impression they "used, preferred, endorsed or sponsored Sephora products".

In the advertisement, Cruise and Kidman were pictured alongside text reading: "Tom and Nicole - The red carpet glamour of Hollywood's royal couple never fails to leave us with eyes wide open."

They said that had they truly endorsed the company's products, they "would have been paid a very large sum of money".

Sephora is owned by the French conglomerate Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, makers of world renown designer luggage and clothes.