UK NEWS

NOW SHAMED HELLO! MUST PAY OK! £10M

Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas

Wednesday June 13,2007

By Tim Morgan

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(1)

SHAMED Hello! magazine was yesterday forced to make a multi-million payout to OK! magazine after sabotaging exclusive coverage of Catherine Zeta-Jones’s wedding to Michael Douglas.

The House of Lords, Britain’s highest court, delivered a damning ruling on disgraced Hello! magazine, which used underhand tactics to publish six grainy, low-quality photographs snatched at the glamorous New York event.

Yesterday, the tarnished magazine was ordered to pay a total of £10million in damages and legal costs for the epic court battle with OK! magazine.

It means OK! will not have to pay a single penny for its legal battle to make sure that justice was done for the golden couple and the magazine’s loyal readers.

Paul Ashford, group editorial director of parent company Northern & Shell plc, which also owns the Daily Express, said: “Justice has been done.

“It’s a solid and important victory for OK! and our relationship of trust with celebrities and our readers.
“Everyone at OK! is delighted with the ruling, especially in light of the misleading statements that initially came from Hello! as regards allocation of costs. It is a victory on all fronts.”

The judgment covers the costs of the court battles in the High Court, Court of Appeal and the House of Lords.

The Lords last month found in favour of OK! magazine in the dispute over the wedding photographs.

It ruled that Hello! should never have published pictures taken secretly at the ceremony.

The decision was a historic legal victory for the top celebrity magazine OK!.

OK! owner Richard Desmond took his case to the House of Lords after Hello! gatecrashed the lavish wedding in November 2000.

OK! had signed a £1million deal with Catherine, 37, and Michael, 62, for exclusive coverage of the star-studded ceremony.

The Hollywood golden couple had carefully chosen OK! magazine to cover the event thanks to its impressive reputation. But the couple were left heartbroken when Hello! magazine wrecked their big day.

Mr Desmond successfully sued Hello! at the High Court in 2003 claiming it had acted “illegally, in that they had wrongly and invasively trespassed” to take the snatched images in New York’s Plaza Hotel.

Ms Zeta-Jones told the High Court hearing that she felt “devastated, shocked and appalled” when she realised unauthorised photographers had gatecrashed her high-security celebration.

Sanchez Junco, the Spanish owner of Hello!, now faces a bill totalling £10million.

"YOU FIND YOU CANNOT EAT MONEY"

14.06.07, 11:28am

Who cares about this "a million pound a day is not really a lot of money to us" greedy pair.

"Only after the last river has been poisoned
Only after the last fish has been caught
Only then will you find you cannot eat money"

• Posted by: TicToc • Report Comment