Diaz wins libel battle over cheating claim

Actress Cameron Diaz accepted “substantial” libel damages today over a claim that she was caught cheating with a married man.

Diaz, 34, who announced the end of her four-year relationship with singer Justin Timberlake last month, sued American Media Incorporated, publishers of the National Enquirer, over an article published on its website in May last year.

Her solicitor, Simon Smith, told Mr Justice Eady, at London’s High Court, that the article reported that she had a “smooching session” with Shane Nickerson, the supervising producer on her MTV show, Trippin’.

It claimed that Diaz had been caught kissing Nickerson in the bushes outside a sound studio in Santa Monica, California in broad daylight.

It went on to allege that she was facing a grilling from Timberlake after she was photographed in the passionate clinch.

And it said that the revelation was “certain to throw the future of one of Hollywood’s most famous couples into doubt”.

Mr Smith said that the article also reported that Diaz’s publicist denied that there was any sort of romantic relationship whatsoever but the magazine asked readers to see if they agreed.

He added that after Diaz complained, the article and accompanying photographs were removed from the website and the hard copy edition distributed in the UK did not contain either.

The magazine now accepted that the photos did not show Diaz and Nickerson kissing or in a passionate clinch, that the relevant incident involved no more than her giving a friend a goodbye hug, and that any suggestion of a romantic involvement was entirely untrue and without substance.

The magazine apologised unreservedly for the distress caused to Diaz, Timberlake, Nickerson and his wife, and had agreed to pay Diaz substantial undisclosed damages.

Sam Howard, the magazine’s solicitor, said that it was entirely accepted that the allegations were without foundation and ought never to have been published.