Hartnett wins payout over sex claims

Hollywood actor Josh Hartnett accepted £20,000 (€15,214) libel damages today over newspaper allegations that he indulged in “steamy shenanigans” with a mystery woman at a London hotel and that they were caught on CCTV.

Hartnett, aged 30, who is appearing in the West End in a production of Rain Man, is to donate the money to a variety of charities.

Mr Justice Eady, sitting at the High Court in London, was told that the action concerned an article published in the Daily Mirror on September 1 entitled “Josh Hartnett’s saucy CCTV romp”.

The star’s solicitor Graham Atkins said: “The article alleged that the claimant ’took a mystery lady’ to the Soho Hotel in London and that ’their steamy shenanigans were caught on CCTV’.”

He added: “It further alleged that ’dumbstruck’ and ’cringing hotel workers saw all of Josh’s X-rated moves’ which resulted in the Soho Hotel asking the claimant ’to take his personal business elsewhere in the future’.”

Mr Atkins said the defendant, MGN Ltd, publisher of the Daily Mirror, accepted that the allegaations “are entirely false”.