The actor Cameron Diaz accepted
"substantial" but undisclosed libel damages in an-out-of-court
settlement yesterday after suing in the British courts over a false
claim on a US website that she had been caught cheating with a
married man.
Ms Diaz, 34, who announced the end of her four-year relationship
with singer Justin Timberlake last month, sued American Media
Incorporated, publishers of the National Enquirer, over an article
published on its website in May last year.
Her action is part of a trend which has seen London dubbed the
libel capital of the world. Libel actions can be brought under
English law if copies of a foreign publication were sold in
England, or a foreign website read in England, even if only a few
English readers saw it.
Ms Diaz's solicitor, Simon Smith, told Mr Justice Eady, at the high
court in London, that the article claimed she had a "smooching
session" with Shane Nickerson, supervising producer on her MTV
show, Trippin'. It claimed that Ms Diaz had been caught kissing Mr
Nickerson in the bushes outside a sound studio in Santa Monica,
California, in broad daylight.
Mr Smith said that although the article stated that Ms Diaz's
publicist had denied there was any romantic relationship, the
magazine had still asked its readers whether they agreed.
He added that after Ms Diaz complained, the article and
accompanying photographs were removed from the website and
withdrawn from the print edition distributed in the UK. Mark
Stephens, a leading media solicitor, said "substantial" could mean
as little as £5,000, but added that the publishers would have had
to agree to pay all the lawyers' costs.
