Actor Hugh Grant, his ex girlfriend Liz Hurley and her new husband won
thousands of dollars in damages after paparazzi pictures taken while they were
on holiday were published in tabloid newspapers.
The pictures of Grant, Hurley and her businessman husband Arun Nayar at a
private resort in the Maldives, were distressing and an invasion of their
privacy, London's High Court was told.
They were taken by photographers from agencies Big Pictures (UK) Ltd and the
French-based Eliot Press.
The pictures were published in the News of the World (NoW) newspaper and its
rival the Mail on Sunday (MoS) last October.
The court was told the MoS article was headlined "Hugh's that gooseberry?"
while the NoW published the pictures under the banner "Liz does the
blokey-cokey".
Hurley, Grant and Nayar accepted a total of¡ê58,000 in damages for invasion of
privacy and a public apology from the agencies.
Publishers Associated Newspapers and News Group Newspapers will also
contribute to the settlement, the court was told .
Laura Tyler for the trio - who were not in court - said the articles had been
distressing.
"It has been most upsetting for (them) to have their privacy invaded by these
(organisations)," she told Mr Justice David Eady.
The agencies had accepted the photographs should not have been taken and that
their actions invaded the trio's privacy, she added.
Grant, 47, best known for his appearance in the romantic comedy Four Weddings
and a Funeral, split from Hurley, 42, in 2000 - ending a 13-year relationship
that survived Grant's well-publicized encounter with a prostitute.
Hurley, a model who appeared in films such as Bedazzled and Austin Powers,
married Nayar, a jet-set businessman and a friend of Bollywood film stars, in
March last year.
The traditional Hindu ceremony in the Indian desert state of Rajasthan
followed a week of lavish wedding celebrations after their civil marriage the
previous week at a castle in England.
