| Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas feel 'violated' | |
LONDON, England -- Film stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas are set to sue Hello! magazine for millions of pounds over "surreptitious" photographs of their wedding.
The couple signed a 1 million ($1.48m) deal with OK! magazine for exclusive pictures of their wedding in New York, but it was beaten to the newsstands by rival Hello! with its own "exclusive" photographs of the stars.
The legal action is to follow a landmark ruling by the Court of Appeal on Thursday recognising that celebrities have rights to privacy.
The pair married in a lavish 1.2 million ceremony last month, carefully guarding their magazine deal by banning guests, including actors Danny DeVito, James Woods and Goldie Hawn and director Oliver Stone, from bringing cameras.
When the unauthorised photographs appeared they took out an injunction banning Hello's! print run -- although 15,750 copies of the magazine had already been sold -- but this was overturned days later.
Explaining the lifting of the ban on Thursday, court of appeal judges Lord Justice Brooke and Lord Justice Sedley said they had "misgivings" that the couple's privacy and confidence could not be protected by an injunction, but it could be compensated for by damages.
Should the couple, together with OK! Magazine, succeed: "the bill which Hello! will have to pay is likely to be enormous, but this is a risk it decided to take, with its eyes open, after we discharged the injunction," said Lord Justice Brooke.
Lord Justice Sedley said the courts had reached a point "which it can be said with confidence that the law recognises and will appropriately protect a right of personal privacy."
Mr Maninder Gill, the couple's solicitor, said they would not only feel violated by an intruder, using what must have been a hidden camera, but also because the photographs would not have been carefully selected and retouched.
Gill told the appeal judges the portrayal of an image in the film world and entertainment industry was of "incredible importance" and the photographs had caused the stars "irreparable harm."
Chris Hutchings, a solicitor representing Hello!, said the judges had ruled for the first time that there are rights to privacy in UK law and predicted an increase in actions against the media.
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