Zeta-Jones cries foul over photos

Catherine Zeta-Jones said Monday that sneaky paparazzi spoiled the afterglow of her 2000 wedding to Michael Douglas with “tacky” images that made her look overweight and the reception look like a disco.

Before a packed London courtroom, Zeta-Jones and Douglas said Hello! magazine violated their privacy by publishing unauthorized images of their nuptials, despite their $1.6-million deal with another British celebrity magazine.

The couple said the money didn’t matter, and that they agreed to sell OK! magazine exclusive rights to their wedding pictures only to protect their privacy and control which images the world saw. But the rival publication Hello! hit the streets three days earlier.

Zeta-Jones, who had a son months before the wedding, complained in a written statement that one of the pictures made her look overweight. “It was extremely important for my career that I regain my figure after giving birth to Dylan,” she said in a statement submitted in November and distributed in court Monday. “It is all too easy for the film industry to conclude that an actress is past her best.”

Hello! lawyer James Price said that if Douglas and Zeta-Jones had wanted to deter the paparazzi, they should have kept the press out altogether or distributed selected pictures to the entire media.

Zeta-Jones and Douglas seek $800,000 from Hello! The publisher of OK!, Northern & Shell PLC, is asking for $2.7 million.