The British actor Liz Hurley has made a formal apology to the US screen actors' union for shooting an Estee Lauder commercial that broke its strike, and has also made a "significant" donation to the strike fund.

Her move follows the scrawling of "scab" on posters for the film Bedazzled, in which she plays the devil, and picketing of her at the film's premiere in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.

"She is making the contribution happily and freely to support the union," said Loren Plotkin, Hurley's lawyer, yesterday. "She has been really embarrassed over this. She really wants to put this behind her."

In April the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists went on strike over a proposed cut in rates paid to members appearing in commercials, and were monitoring to see if any ads had been made after the strike was called. When Hurley's ad appeared in June, she was called to account by the strikers; she made a statement claiming to have been unaware of the dispute. Since then she has made repeated attempts to convince the unions that no breach of the strike was intended. Ms Plotkin said that the agency concerned had not informed Hurley at the time that the work was non-union.

The donation and formal apology were seen as a move to stop the sniping from union activists, not least the ones who have been defacing the posters for the remake Bedazzled. Hurley has been working hard to promote the film in the US and has received much friendly pre-publicity.

Yesterday the guild made it clear she would still have to appear before a disciplinary committee. "She has expressed her regret in a letter to the union but she is definitely going to have to appear before a trial board," Jerre Hookey, the guild's national strike coordinator, told Variety, the US entertainment industry paper.