Photos a ‘gut-wrenching’ experience

THE “wonderful memories” of her wedding day at the Plaza Hotel in New York were ruined by the “sleazy, unflattering” pictures of a paparazzo gatecrasher, Catherine Zeta Jones said yesterday.

The 33-year-old and her 58-year-old husband, Michael Douglas, are suing Hello! for publishing unauthorised photographs in breach of their privacy, after they had done a $1m deal with OK magazine for exclusive pictures.

In a 12-page written statement prepared for the couple's High Court action against Hello! magazine, Mr Douglas described the bizarre lengths he and his wife have been forced to go to protect their privacy. "We take proactive steps to protect our family from intrusion, including shredding correspondence before putting it in the garbage, having our home regularly screened for possible bugging devices and, after Dylan was born, taking steps to prevent people scanning the airwaves to listen to our baby monitors."

Mr Douglas said Hello! publishing the photographs was a "truly gut-wrenching" experience.

"We believed that Hello! was exacting revenge on us because we had decided to provide the rights to publish photographs of our wedding to their competitor, OK!"

"I share Catherine's view of the Hello! photographs. They were seedy and Voyeuristic...They demean the occasion and they show intimate moments that we would not have chosen to publish to the world," Mr Douglas said.

Mr Douglas also accuses the Hello! coverage of being "spiteful" because it included photographs of him and his first wife, Diandra, next to photographs of him and Catherine. "It was a clear attempt to deprive us of the joy and love of a magical and wonderful event. Frankly it was disgusting."

Miss Zeta Jones said: "Over the last few years, and particularly since my pregnancy, I have become increasingly concerned about photographs of Michael and me and more recently of Dylan at private moments finding their way into the media."

She said she did not want the world to know she was having a baby before she had told her friends and family and if she was having a disagreement with a loved one, she did not want the world to know.

Press attention increased considerably, Mr Douglas said, when his relationship with Ms Zeta Jones became public knowledge.

"This was something for which I was unprepared. Catherine is a film star, of course, in her own right but it was not simply a question of one plus one equalling two it seemed to equal five in terms of increased press attention for both of us."

"Just because I am an actor in the public eye does not mean that I have forfeited my right to a private life."