Zeta Jones wedding photos 'sold to porn magazine'

Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas sold their wedding pictures to a pornographer who sold them on to a raunchy Scandinavian magazine, it was alleged at the high court today.

At the start of Day 18 of the Hollywood stars' lawsuit against Hello! magazine for publishing sneak pictures of their wedding, OK!'s publisher, Northern & Shell, came under fire.

James Price QC, representing Hello!, which is being sued for a total of £2.25m, told Mr Justice Lindsay: "Northern and Shell's business, to put it bluntly, is pornography."

He said the Douglases could not have known that Northern & Shell, owned by Richard Desmond who is also proprietor of Express newspapers, was involved in when they signed a £1m deal with OK! for exclusive rights to their New York wedding in November 2000.

Michael Tugendhat representing the Douglases and Northern & Shell said Mr Price's allegation was "obviously a smear".

"Yes, but it is true," Mr Price retorted.

In his closing speech in the trial, Mr Price said Mr Douglas' suggestion that the Hello! photographs were offensive and had caused distress to his wife should be viewed against the way the authorised pictures bought by Northern & Shell were presented to the public.

In a written copy of his speech, Mr Price pointed out that the pictures were syndicated to a Danish magazine SE Og Hor, where they appeared in close proximity to a picture of a bare-breasted woman.

He said the magazine contained further images of "a lascivious nature" on 16 inside pages, including one "particularly hard-core image".

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