UK's top court to rule in Zeta-Jones wedding row

LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) Celebrity magazines OK! and Hello! are to meet in England's highest court today for the final round in a lengthy legal battle over photographs of the 2000 wedding of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

In a case that will help establish how far individuals are protected against media intrusion, the House of Lords must decide if OK!, which had a deal to buy exclusive rights to the wedding pictures of the Hollywood movie stars but was trumped by unauthorised shots in Hello!, is entitled to compensation.

OK! was originally awarded damages of just over one million pounds, but was stripped of that by the Court of Appeal. It is that decision which is now being challenged before the law lords.

Legal experts believe up to six million pounds are at stake in the case, with legal costs over the course of more than three years of up to five million pounds.

Douglas and Zeta-Jones will not be in court for the hearings, at which lawyers are expected to argue over whether by publishing the unauthorised pictures Hello! was guilty of ''economic tort'' by depriving OK! of sales.

The case also raises the question of whether publication of the unauthorised photographs amounted to a breach of a confidence shared by the couple and OK! Hello!'s lawyers are expected to argue that this would create a new law of ''image rights'' not recognised previously under English law.

Two cases in 2004 favoured celebrities over the media.

In 2004, the law lords decided that supermodel Naomi Campbell's rights were breached when a newspaper ran a story saying, correctly, that Campbell had visited Narcotics Anonymous.

In the same year, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Germany for failing to stop press photos of Princess Caroline of Monaco, which it said violated her right to respect for private life.

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