"We felt as if our home had been ransacked," noted Michael Douglas, who also testified in the $3.6 million lawsuit against Britain's Hello! magazine, which printed the pictures after the couple agreed to sell official wedding shots to a rival publication. On the stand Zeta-Jones, wearing a black suit and shirt and occasionally joking, said she had wanted her wedding to appear in the media as "classic, beautiful" but complained that the plundered photos—taken by photographer Rupert Thorpe, who had a hidden camera attached to his hip—made her look "large" and as if she was constantly eating. "It was extremely important for my career that I regain my figure after giving birth to Dylan [born in August 2000]," Zeta-Jones said. "It is all too easy for the film industry to conclude that an actress is past her best."
Perhaps, but some observers find the couple's claims on privacy hard to swallow, considering they sold official wedding pictures for $1.6 million to Britain's OK!, which then sold them around the world (including to PEOPLE, which bought the U.S. rights). Zeta-Jones explained that the deal was made to slake public interest and keep things out of the tabloids—not to make money. "One million pounds is a lot of money maybe to people in this room, but not to us," testified Zeta-Jones, who is pregnant with the couple's second child. "It's about control." One London barrister, William Bennett, who specializes in privacy law, predicted that the couple would have a hard time making their case to the judge. But they certainly made their point. The photos, said Douglas, are "seedy and voyeuristic. They demean the occasion."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
