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Oscar winner Paul Haggis has hired a private investigator to dig into the life of publicist Haleigh Breest after she filed a lawsuit against him claiming he raped her five years ago after a movie premiere.

We hear Haggis, who first filed his own suit against Breest claiming she was trying to extort him, has hired former FBI agent Mark Mershon to look into her life.

“He’s trying to track down her friends and old roommates and asking them every question under the sun: whether she is financially responsible, hangs out with seedy characters, does drugs, or just if there is anything suspicious about her,” said a source.

The source added, “It shows the lengths this guy is going to, to try and discredit someone who is accusing him of misconduct.”

We are told the investigator has been calling Breest’s buddies out of the blue and not “specifically saying he is working on behalf of Haggis.”

But Haggis’ lawyer Christine Lepera told us: “As stated in Mr. Haggis’ complaint, Ms. Breest has improper motivations for the false accusations she has made against him. A private investigator has been hired to look into those motivations, by truthfully identifying himself to associates of Ms. Breest and asking them questions that are relevant to her work and financial history. Nothing inappropriate or irrelevant is being investigated.”

The “Crash” director’s legal eagles claim that Breest’s team did the same to him.

Lepera continued, “Indeed, Ms. Breest’s own team appears to be investigating Mr. Haggis, and began contacting sources who are close to him five months ago. Any objection on their part would be the height of hypocrisy.”

Breest’s lawyer Ilann Maazel says that’s not true. “This is a dirty attempt by Mr. Haggis to harass, silence and intimidate Ms. Breest. It won’t work. As to Mr. Haggis’ claim, it’s false,” he told us.

Three other women have also anonymously come forward against Haggis.

After Haggis went public that he’d left Scientology, he told Page Six in 2012 of the church: “There are private eyes going through my trash.”