Zeta-Jones photos in porn mag

Official wedding pics of Catherine Zeta Jones and husband Michael Douglas appeared in a hard porn mag, the High Court was informed yesterday.

The OK pictures, part of an exclusive million pound deal with the couple, were shown in 21 countries throughout the world.
OK! mag is produced by Northern and Shell - headed by tycoon Richard Desmond - which publishes the Daily Express and Daily Star newspapers as well as a range of adult magazines.

The Hollywood couple are suing OK!'s rival magazine Hello! for £2.25 million for printing the unauthorised photographs of the Plaza Hotel wedding in New York's in 2000. Mr Price, representing Hello!, said their suggestion that the Hello! photographs are offensive was 'extremely difficult to accept' considering what the couple had authorised could happen to their wedding pictures.

James Price QC said: 'In the Danish publication of SE Og Hor, which is shown in most Scandinavian countries, an authorised wedding photograph is shown on the front cover in close proximity to a picture of a bare-breasted woman.' He said the magazine had further images 'of a lascivious nature' on many of the inside pages, which is including a 'particularly hard-core image'.

In the heated exchange Mr Price said the publishers of OK! magazine are pornographers.

Mr Price told the court: 'Northern and Shell's business, to put it bluntly, is pornography.' He said the celebrity couple could not have known what Northern and Shell were involved in when they signed the deal for exclusive coverage of the wedding.

Michael Tugendhat QC in court rose to his feet to interrupt: 'I don't understand what he is saying. It is obviously a smear.' Mr Price replied: 'Yes, but it is true.' The barrister said in his closing speech that Mr Douglas's suggestion that the Hello! photographs were lascivious and his wife's claimed distress had to be viewed against the way the authorised pictures bought by Northern and Shell were presented to the public. Mr Price said the Hollywood stars had launched the 'enormous' action against his client claiming it had breached their privacy and confidence.

He added: 'Confidence and privacy is essentially what this trial is all about. 'But what has been proved is that the Douglases wanted control of publicity and not privacy. Control of publicity and privacy are two different subjects.'

Following a summing up yesterday, it will be the time for the lawyers acting for the Douglases to show their case.

Mr Justice Lindsay is expected to spend several weeks working through the arguments before giving the verdict.

Is all forgiven? Catherine Zeta-Jones, the actress who had an unfortunate experience with Glamour magazine four years ago, is gracing Glamour's December cover.

The actress had been something of an unwitting pawn in a power play in 2001 by Bonnie Fuller, then Glamour's editor. According to accounts at the time, Ms. Fuller put Ms. Zeta-Jones's picture on the magazine's June cover that year without permission and recycled quotations from her, giving the impression of an authorized interview, which it was not.

The move pre-empted Vogue, Glamour's sister Condé Nast publication, which was featuring the actress on its cover a month later. With Glamour's newsstand circulation falling, the Zeta-Jones episode was a factor in Ms. Fuller's departure as editor.

A call to Ms. Zeta-Jones's publicist seeking comment about what led her back to a Glamour cover this year was not returned.

Since Ms. Fuller's departure, the magazine has been in the hands of Cindi Leive, the former editor of Self. Ms. Leive said she would not speculate on why the actress returned to Glamour. But she said she wanted her for the cover of the magazine, which won the industry's top award for general excellence this year, because Ms. Zeta-Jones was "an icon for strong, smart women."

Glamour also named Ms. Zeta-Jones among its "women of the year," who will be honored next month at Lincoln Center. Others include Mukhtar Mai, the Pakistani woman who was gang-raped in 2002 and used her settlement money to start the first two schools in her village. KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

If you’ve seen the commercials and trailers for “No Reservations,” you’re probably anticipating a glossy, goofy romance between a tightly-wound head chef named Kate (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and her new sous-chef, Nick (Aaron Eckhart), a rugged blond life force. Faithfully adapted from the German filmmaker Sandra Nettelbeck’s 2001 feature “Mostly Martha,” the movie provides these stock elements and many others, including a wisecracking preteenage girl (Abigail Breslin of “Little Miss Sunshine”), lyrical montages and too-cute therapy scenes (with Bob Balaban as the shrink) that play like unsubtle attempts to fill in the taciturn heroine’s past.

What’s unexpected and gratifying, though, is the film’s enlightened attitude toward parenthood and work, which the movie’s publicity campaign conspicuously glosses over, even though it’s the story’s driving force.

Ms. Breslin’s character, Zoe, is Kate’s smart, tough, 9-year-old niece, whose mother — Kate’s sister — dies in a car wreck. Kate, who has indefinitely deferred marriage and children to pursue her career and rarely regrets the decision, is torn between the necessity of maintaining her workaholic lifestyle and her obligation to raise Zoe, whose father skedaddled before she was born.

Modern Hollywood movies often genuflect toward feminism while implying that a woman isn’t truly a woman until she has gratefully surrendered to motherhood. While watching “No Reservations” you keep waiting for the other high-heeled shoe to drop, but it never really does. The director, Scott Hicks (“Shine”), and the screenwriter, Carol Fuchs, respect Kate’s ambition, skill and drive. Throughout, they imply that Kate’s biggest hurdle isn’t a lack of aptitude for motherhood but her credulous acceptance of society’s one-size-fits-all definition of good parents.

It isn’t easy for Kate to process her sister’s death — she returns to work too quickly, and won’t take time off until her boss (Patricia Clarkson) orders it — and the challenge of mothering Zoe is even more daunting. Yet the film dares to present Kate’s stumblebum early efforts — subcontracting child care to a chain-smoking goth babysitter, then to a flirty single-dad neighbor (a charming and woefully underused Brian F. O’Byrne) — as proof not that she needs to quit her job, but that she’s fallen for the false dichotomy of work versus parenting.

Kate’s professional, domestic and romantic lives begin to merge satisfyingly when she invites Zoe to hang out in the restaurant’s kitchen. When Kate finally warms up to her subordinate and potential rival, Nick — who was hired by Paula while Kate was off grieving for her sister — it’s because Nick demonstrates an effortless ability to relate to Zoe while never losing touch with his defining identity as a chef.

Nick’s middle-class rebel persona is a tad precious. He blasts opera while directing the kitchen staff and boasts that he never went to cooking school but learned the basics in a rural Italian restaurant he encountered while backpacking across Europe.

At the same time, though, his boyish exuberance marks him as a potentially great dad, and his “Song of Myself” confidence makes him oblivious to the doubts that plague Kate. Nick sees nothing wrong with building his relationship with Zoe around the fine art of cooking. His instinctive tendency to overlap work and parenthood gives Kate permission to do the same.

Make no mistake: “No Reservations” is a factory-sealed romantic comedy. It embraces dark emotions in early scenes showing Kate and Zoe’s grief, then moves on quickly, perhaps out of fear that viewers will deem it a downer. There’s never any doubt that Nick has Kate and Zoe’s best interests at heart, or that they all will find happiness on its own sweet terms.

But the emotional details of Kate, Nick and Zoe’s journey are surprising, honest and life-size, and the film’s determination to present their predicament sympathetically, without appealing to retrograde ideals of femininity and motherhood, makes it notable, and in some ways unique.

“No Reservations” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested) for some sensuality and language.

Catherine Zeta-Jones Biography

Catherine began acting at age 11, playing in a production of Annie and at 13 she starred in a West End production of the musical Bugsy Malone. When Catherine was 16 she took over the lead in David Merrick's 42nd Street. Her first regular television role came in the nostalgic British TV series The Darling Buds of May.

While the U.S. audience was unaware of her work, Catherine was rapidly becoming a star in the UK. In fact, with the popularity of The Darling, Catherine became a mega-star in the UK. Coupled with her role in the four-hour television docu-drama Titanic, Catherine got some attention in the United States. Most importantly, she was noticed by Steven Spielberg, who recommended Catherine for the female lead The Mask of Zorro. She followed up this strong Hollywood debut (which this is now considered despite her appearance in 1986's The Phantom) with the equally successful Entrapment with Sean Connery.Now it seems like everyone knows who Catherine Zeta-Jones is, and will for a good long while if her box-office is any indicator.