Sign-up supremo 'asked to lie' over wedding

THE Marquesa De Varela, the sign-up supremo of the celebrity magazine world, came close to tears in the witness box yesterday as she described how she was persuaded to lie to save Hello!'s Catherine Zeta Jones wedding edition.

She had told High Court judge Mr Justice Lindsay Hello!'s managing director Javier Riera had asked her to sign untrue statements, later used to lift injunctions barring the sale of the magazine.

"I was very upset and very nervous about the whole idea. But when the magazine you have worked for, for 20 years, asks you to do something, it is very difficult to say I can't do it."