Mag Owner: Catherine, Michael Mercenary

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday February 14, 2003 10:20 AM EST

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Suggesting that Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas were more concerned with money than with their own privacy, Hello! magazine owner Eduardo Sanchez Junco told London's High Court that the Hollywood couple tried to get the highest possible price for exclusive rights to their November 2000 wedding pictures.

Sanchez stressed that those who wish to protect their privacy do not seek out magazine coverage to do that, the BBC reports.

Zeta-Jones, 33, and Douglas, 58, are suing Hello! for running unauthorized paparazzi photos of their splashy New York wedding, after they had signed a $1.5 million deal with rival OK! magazine. (OK! ended up hitting the streets three days after Hello! appeared with its unsanctioned pictures.)

Besides the couple's suit against Hello!, the magazine is also being sued by OK! for $2.8 million.

In their suit, the Douglases are claiming breach of privacy and damage to their careers. (Of course, she was nominated for an Oscar his week for her supporting role in "Chicago," and he reportedly has two new movies in he pipeline.)

On the witness stand, Sanchez testified that Hello! had been used by the couple's publicist to encourage a bidding war among publications, "not in order to maintain privacy, but solely in order to establish competition which would raise the price for exclusivity," he said.

"Exclusivity is not the way to maintain privacy, nor is exclusivity granted for that purpose."

The trial will resume on Monday.