Catherine, Michael Await London Verdict

By Stephen M. Silverman

Thursday April 10, 2003 10:00 AM EDT

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Friday will be decision day in the case of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones against Britain's Hello! magazine, which the married stars are suing for publishing unauthorized photos of their splashy November 2000 wedding in New York.

Reuters reports that the presiding judge, Justice Lindsay, will announce the verdict in the case, which lasted for most of March in London's High Court.

Besides breaking into their wedding, the Douglases claimed Hello! published unflattering photos of them, invaded their privacy and damaged their careers.

Zeta-Jones, 33, won an Oscar last month for her supporting role in "Chicago," while Douglas, 58, is soon to open in a film with his father, Kirk Douglas, a comedy called "It Runs in the Family."

When she took to the stand, Zeta-Jones, who is due to deliver her second child any second now, testified that she felt "violated" by the pictures that ran in Hello! (The couple sold exclusive rights to their wedding to Hello!'s rival, OK! Magazine. The magazine paid the Douglases $1 million for the rights, only to be scooped by Hello!'s earlier arrival on newsstands.)

"I felt devastated ... I felt violated and upset initially and that seemed to grow," Zeta-Jones testified, describing the Hello! photos as unflattering and sleazy.

Douglas testified that Hello!'s photographer had committed "one of the most vindictive and mean-spirited acts you can imagine."

Hello! argued that the couple had forfeited the right to privacy by selling pictures to OK! -- and then agreeing to their syndication all over the globe.