mod_webapp mod_rewrite problem

[xanthapus]

one of my sites has stopped working since upgrading apache in response to "security vulnerability in apache
DATE : Wed Jun 19 18:55:49 UTC 2002"

the site uses mod_webapp and mod_rewrite directives and since doing the emerge i've started getting

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access {given file} on this server.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/1.3.26 Server at filmscouts.co.nz Port 80

the Vhosts.conf file contains the following

<VirtualHost 210.54.139.226>
ServerName filmscouts.co.nz
ServerAlias filmscouts.co.nz *.filmscouts.co.nz
DocumentRoot /home/filmsco/htdocs
User filmsco
Group users
<Directory /home/filmsco/htdocs>
Options All
allow from all
</Directory>
#TransferLog /home/filmsco/logs/access.log
WebAppConnection filmsco warp 192.168.2.253:8100
WebAppDeploy examples filmsco /
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule /film_location_database.html /locations.jsp?rewrite=true [PT]
RewriteRule /film_locations/([\%-\.0-z]+)/(.*) /locations.jsp?type=catagory&query=$1&limit=$2&rewrite=true
RewriteRule /film_location/(.*) /location.jsp?rewrite=true&imageid=$1 [PT]
</VirtualHost>

if i comment out all the mod_rewrite bits it all starts working again and mod_rewrite does not cause any problems on other sites that do not use mod_webapp

does anyone have any idea what might be causing this frustrating problem?