A Response by Taymor To 'Spider-Man' Producers.

Julie Taymor, who filed suit after she was fired as director of the $75 million Broadway musical ''Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark'' last March, said in court papers Friday that the producers' counter-suit was ''highly sensationalistic, false and misleading'' and aimed at ''assassinating her character and professional reputation.'' In a 46-page answer to the producers' counterclaim, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, Ms. Taymor contended that they secretly conspired to oust her while still asking her to make changes on the show's book while public performances were going on. The filing argues that the producers fired Ms. Taymor and blamed the show's problems on her as an ''opportunistic way'' to calm worried investors, buy more time, and ''sway critics' opinions'' by insisting that the show had been ''re-imagined.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]