BRITAIN: Hello! magazine yesterday claimed victory in its epic court battle over unauthorised pictures of the wedding of Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas.
The Court of Appeal allowed its challenge to a High Court order that it should pay more than £1 million damages and another £1 million in legal costs to rival magazine OK!, which had an exclusive £1 million contract with the Hollywood couple to cover their New York wedding.
Hello!'s appeal against the ruling in favour of the Hollywood couple - who received £14,500 damages over privacy and breach of commercial confidence - was dismissed.
But the appeal judges threw out the couple's claim for more damages and OK!'s cross appeal based on unlawful interference with trade.
Chris Hutchings, solicitor for Hello!, said after the judgment was handed down that the ruling meant that his magazine's liability to OK! was now nil.
He added: "Catherine Zeta Jones famously said in her evidence that £1 million was not very much money to her.
"To fork out three times that amount [in legal costs] to recover less than £15,000 defies all logic. This is a case that should never have come to court."
But a statement issued by Northern and Shell, publishers of OK!, said the appeal court had "fully vindicated" the Douglases action against Hello! "This decision will impact all publishers with exclusive rights as it means rivals will be free to run spoilers with no redress in law.
"OK! will therefore be appealing this judgment to the House of Lords." Hello! had admitted at a Court of Appeal hearing last December that the snatched pictures were published as a "spoiler" to lessen the impact of OK!'s contract with the Douglases to cover the wedding ceremony in November 2000.
James Price QC, representing Hello!, told three judges headed by the Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips, that "spoilers" were a well-known tactic in the newspaper and magazine industry and his clients had been victims in the past.
The ruling against Hello! came after a six-week High Court hearing in 2003 at which the actress told how she felt "devastated, shocked and appalled" when she realised unauthorised photographers had gate-crashed her wedding at the Plaza Hotel.
Paparazzo Rupert Thorpe, son of former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe, evaded the massive security cordon guarding the hotel and surreptitiously took photos of the groom and bride, her dress and the cake.