Bill Condon thinks Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson deserve "respect" from Twilight fans.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn director has urged fans of the popular vampire film franchise to remember that the stars — who play on-screen lovers Edward Cullen and Bella Swan — are just actors and have the right to privacy and respect, following weeks of abuse after Stewart cheated on Pattinson with married Snow White and the Hunstman director Rupert Sanders.

Condon told Entertainment Weekly: "The fact is, these are actors playing parts, and maybe it's not such a bad thing that people be reminded of that.

"Above all they have always shown great respect for the fans who made these movies such a success. Now it's time that some of that respect be returned to them."

The Twilight Saga director's plea comes after Stewart was caught on camera in the midst of an angry meltdown in Los Angeles on Tuesday (7 August), seemingly caused by the stress of the public interest in her "momentary indiscretion" with 41-year-old Sanders last month.

Although the estranged couple have moved out of the home they shared, reports have now emerged the pair are on speaking terms since heartbroken Pattinson (26) has been drunk diallng 22-year-old Stewart.

A source told InTouch magazine: "He's been drunk dialing Kristen. Rob had been avoiding her calls, but now they're talking ... well, they're barely talking.

"There's a lot of dead silence on the phone because there's not a lot to talk about."