Mariella Frostrup, the Sky Arts and Radio 4 presenter, is taking legal action against the Sunday Times over claims she "snogged" author Salman Rushdie at his bachelor party in 2004.

In an interview with Rushdie in the Sunday Times magazine on 26 September, the paper's interviewer, Camilla Long, alleged that Rushdie "finished the evening by snogging fellow guests Nigella [Lawson], Mariella Frostrup and Dannii Minogue in a game of spin the bottle" at a bachelor party prior to his wedding to author, actor and model Padma Lakshmi in 2004.

Frostrup said she had been invited to – but never attended – the party and the claim that she "snogged" Rushdie was defamatory and undermined her professional standing.

"I am not po-faced but yes we have filed a writ and I am talking to them [the Sunday Times] through my lawyer at the moment. They made what I consider a defamatory claim about my behaviour at a party which I did not even attend," she added.

Frostrup said the claim caused her particular embarrassment because it appeared two weeks before she interviewed Rushdie for her Sky Arts book show programme at this year's Cheltenham literary festival, which is sponsored by the Sunday Times' News International sister title the Times.

"I had to appear in front of 500 people with this claim hanging over me," she added. "I make my living presenting two serious books programmes and I do not go around snogging authors like this."

It is understood Frostrup's lawyers initially sought an apology from the paper to appear in advance of the Cheltenham interview but that it did not appear.

A spokeswoman for News International declined to comment.

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