STARCHIVES
Catherine Zeta Jones
Interview - Girls
11/22/2001

LONDON, England -- Hollywood couple Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas have won £14,600 ($24,000) in damages from Hello! magazine for publishing unauthorized photographs of their wedding.

Zeta-Jones, 33, and Douglas, 58, had sued Hello! for £500,000 for invasion of privacy when photographers gate crashed the couple's New York wedding and published "surreptitious" photographs.

The pair had signed a £1 million ($1.6m) deal with rival society magazine OK! -- which had sued Hello! for £1.75 million over the unauthorized pictures.

But the High Court ordered Hello! to pay damages of £1,033,156 to rival publication OK!

Hello! Publishing Director Sally Cartwright told CNN: "We sold 150,000 extra copies but we are being held responsible for OK! not selling 1.4 million extra copies. Nobody can be happy to pay £1 million to their competitors. We don't mind paying the Douglasses £14,600."

During the trial Zeta-Jones, said she felt "violated" by the pictures taken at the Plaza Hotel in 2000.

"I felt devastated ... I felt violated and upset initially and that seemed to grow," she added.

She described the Hello! photos as unflattering and sleazy -- and was horrified at shots showing her being fed cake, saying it made her look as if all she did was eat.

Her husband said the photographer had committed "one of the most vindictive and mean-spirited acts you can imagine."

"I felt like a peeping Tom was present," he added.

The couple had claimed damages on the basis of loss of income, stress and breach of privacy.

But Hello! maintained that the couple had forfeited the right to privacy by selling pictures to OK! -- then agreeing to their syndication around the world.

High Court judge John Lindsay ruled Friday Hello! had breached the couple's rights of confidence but he ruled against their claim of invasion of privacy and rejected their demands for "aggravated and exemplary damages.''

Lawyers acting for the couple hailed the award as "historic" and said they would be donating their damages to The Family Learning Centre.

Starchives - Catherine Zeta Jones - Interview - Girls
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