'I'm proud of topless shots'

Cameron Diaz has told a court she is not ashamed of topless pictures taken early in her career.

The actress said the pictures, taken by John Rutter, had been tasteful, adding that the photographer had told her they would be "edgy and circus-y".

Diaz was testifying in the trial of Rutter, whom she has accused of trying to blackmail her by threatening to sell the pictures in the run-up to the release of one of her films.

Diaz said Rutter approached her days before the release of Charlie's Angels: Fully Loaded in 2003 and asked for $3.5million (£2 million) for them.

The 32-year-old actress told the court in Los Angeles: "I was furious. I had never felt so violated."

The star was on the stand for about two hours talking about her early modelling career, including the May 1992 photo shoot with Rutter in an abandoned warehouse when she wore fishnet stockings and leather boots.

She told the court she was worried that her boyfriend would not approve of her posing topless but added: "I felt that it was a safe environment. It was a professional shoot.

"It wasn't like in a back alley, 'Take your shirt off.' I don't have any problem with showing my breasts."

Diaz, who shot to fame in the 1994 movie The Mask, said she had not been paid for the pictures, which Rutter planned to sell to European magazines. She said he specialised in photographs depicting the "big-hair kind of vixen".

Diaz told the court that during the June 2003 meeting with Rutter, the photographer had presented her with a model release form dating from 1992 complete with her forged signature.

She said that Rutter had told her he planned to sell the pictures to people who were intentionally trying to hurt her and that the prospective buyers, some of whom were willing to pay up to $5 million (£2.8 million), wanted to portray her as "a bad angel".

At the 2003 meeting, Ms Diaz told the court, she had proposed a partnership with Rutter in which up to 10 photographs would be released to publications she was comfortable with and part of the proceeds would go to charity.