Film Director Cops Plea over Sex Charge

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday February 24, 2006 08:40 AM EST

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Die Another Day director Lee Tamahori copped a plea in a Los Angeles courtroom Thursday and was placed on probation after pleading no contest to a sex charge after he was arrested last month for alleged soliciting a police officer while wearing a woman's dress and wig.

The New Zealand-born filmmaker, 55, was also ordered to attend an AIDS education course, Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the L.A. City Attorney's Office, tells Reuters. Tamahori was not in the courtroom for the sentencing.

The director best known for the 2002 James Bond movie was arrested on Jan. 8 in a police sting operation and charged with prostitution and loitering in a public place. He was accused of offering to perform oral sex on an undercover police officer in exchange for money.

The no-contest plea (equivalent in California to pleading guilty) was entered on the trespassing charge in exchange for prosecutors' dropping the more serious charge of prostitution. The loitering count also was dismissed.