Zeta-Jones 'felt violated'

Catherine Zeta-Jones told the High Court today how she broke down in tears and felt "violated" when unflattering photographs of her wedding day were made public.

Dressed all in black, the seven-months pregnant Hollywood star said in a statement to the court that she had felt "devastated" and remains "distressed and angry to this day".

She was particularly furious over pictures showing her kissing her husband Michael Douglas, eating, and one which "made me look large".

The Welsh-born actress was giving evidence in the £500,000 action with Oscarwinner Douglas against Hello! magazine, which publ i shed unauthorised pictures of their £1million New York wedding.

She said she had planned "a homely wedding on a large scale" and intended the public only to see approved photos in a £1million deal with rival magazine OK! But the couple's joy was wrecked when Hello! published six snatched pictures in November 2000, the court heard.

"Michael and I were devastated. It was an appalling and very upsetting shock to discover that our wedding had been invaded in that way," said Zeta-Jones. "Our peace and happiness evaporated. I felt violated and that something precious had been stolen from me. Our distress and anger at what Hello! did to us continues to this day."

She added: "I remember sitting on the phone crying about the way that our memories of the wedding, which had seemed so wonderful, had suddenly soured."

At first they blamed one of their 350 guests, who included family, friends such as Hollywood stars Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe and politicians including UN secretary-general Kofi Annan - and " suspicions were aroused about many people".

Then they found out that English paparazzo Rupert Thorpe, son of former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe, had taken the shots in a carefully-planned operation with Hello! the court heard. Since then Hello! has continued to "taunt" her by publishing more unauthorised snaps, she added.

Zeta-Jones, 33, arrived at court in a black Mercedes with blacked-out windows with her husband, who is 25 years her senior. They were driven straight into the judge's car park to a reserved space and ushered through the judge's corridors into the courtroom, where they sat together at the front.

Called as the first witness, Zeta-Jones received a pat of encouragement from
Douglas and made her way to the witness box where she announced her name and took the oath.

Mr Justice Lindsay invited her to take a seat and said: "It may be as you are pregnant that you are particularly vulnerable to being weary or discomfited in the witness box and if that does come to pass, please let me know."

In a 24-page statement released before she faced questioning from Hello! counsel James Price QC, Zeta-Jones detailed what she described as media intrusion dating back to 1991.

She said she had been a victim of tabloid gossip and speculation including being "terrified out of my wits" by a photographer jumping out of a doorway, and swerving a car into a lamp-post trying to escape another cameraman.

She said she continued to be harassed after meeting Douglas at the Deauville film festival in September 1998. She said when the Press found out she was pregnant she hired a private investigator to track down the source of the leak.

"Michael and I tend to think of the paparazzi as game hunters who view us as their game which they have to stalk and hunt down. The photographs they take of us are their trophies," she said.

The actress said that both she and her husband were determined to maintain control of photographs taken of them and they way they look in public. "Any photographs of us that are published are important to us not just personally but professionally as well," she said.

"People go to see movies specifically because either Michael or I are in them and they have expectations, among other things, of the way we will look which are created to a significant degree by the images they see of us in the media.

"The hard reality of the film industry is that preserving my image, particularly as a woman, is vital to my career."

She spoke of her "constant battle" to retain control of photographs of her and how she paid people to surf the internet and comb magazines and newspapers from around the world to clamp down on unauthorised pictures.

When it came to their wedding she was determined to rule out media intrusion. Her husband had even suggested marrying in a register office but she wanted "the wedding of my dreams", not a ceremony in secret.

For her dress she approached Donatella Versace, Karl Lagerfeld and Richard Tyler of Dolce & Gabbana before choosing a Christian Lacroix design which matched her vision. Douglas did not see the dress until the day of the wedding - one of the bride's friends sat with it and the wedding jewels in a locked hotel room for 24 hours before the service, to ensure the Press got no hint.

The heavy security was imposed around the wedding to ensure the day would not be spoilt, said Zeta-Jones. "Our close friends and family know how paranoid we've been forced to become over the issue of intrusive and unwelcome photography in recent years," she said.

After OK! had covered the christening of their son Dylan, the couple decided to accept its £1million offer for wedding coverage and reject the Hello! approach for a similar amount, the court heard. But news that pictures had appeared in Hello! wrecked their dreams, said Zeta-Jones. "The photographs were poor quality, sleazy, unflattering and looked like they had been stolen, as indeed they had."

She said the main photo looked as if she was about to stab her husband with a cake knife which was "a light-hearted, faintly ridiculous moment which we did not want or expect to appear on news stands around the world".

Two more pictures of her eating wedding cake were intimate and private, while one shot of her kissing her husband was "precisely the type of photograph that I would not have wanted published".

She added: "There was a deeply unflattering photograph of me dancing with respected journalist Ed Bradley. The photograph made me look large. From a professional point of view this is an example of a photograph I would never have allowed to be published because it was extremely important for my career that I regained my figure after giving birth to Dylan."

Hello! also accused her of not dancing with her husband which she found "false, extremely offensive and very hurtful". She said the claim that they had used the wedding to boost their careers was "ludicrous and frankly offensive".

In a joint action OK! is also suing Hello! as well as its owner Eduardo Sanchez and others for £1.75 million in lost sales and rights.

The case continues.