Catherine Zeta-Jones, her husband, Michael Douglas, and OK! magazine were yesterday awarded more than three-quarters of the £2m they spent suing Hello! magazine for publishing snatched photographs of the couple's wedding.
Hello!, which used unauthorised pictures of the New York wedding in 2000, must pay most of its opponents' legal bill plus more than £1m damages awarded last November, and a six-figure sum in interest.
The ruling will leave Hello! with a total bill of around £5m, including its own costs for publishing the "spoiler" after failing to win the rights to cover the wedding.
But the Douglases and OK! will still be left to pick up a substantial chunk of their own legal costs, wiping out much of the £1m damages award.
"Hello! obviously faces a massive bill, but when these figures are finally settled the Douglases and OK! will also be hugely out of pocket," said Christopher Hutchings, solicitor for Hello!.
Hello! is appealing against the judge's ruling last April that publication of the pictures was a breach of confidence. The appeal is expected to be heard in the autumn.
"The competitive practice of muscling in on other people's scoops is long-established in the media," said Mr Hutchings.
"Hello! has always said that this litigation shouldn't have gone ahead and this judgment means that the other side's decision to go to court was probably not OK."
A spokesman for the couple and OK! said they were also considering an appeal on some of the issues in the case.
Mr Justice Lindsay yesterday awarded the Douglases and OK! 75% of the costs of the trial which decided that Hello! was legally liable, and 85% of a second trial to determine damages.
The judge said Hello!'s conduct had "fallen well short of what is to be expected and in some respects was downright deceitful or misleading".
OK! said: "Such conduct is and has always been illegal and it is astonishing that Hello! are unable to grasp the gravity of their misconduct in spite of being severely criticised by a succession of judges."
Mr Justice Lindsay ruled in April that Hello!'s use of pictures taken secretly at the wedding was a breach of commercial confidentiality. In November he awarded £14,000 to the couple and £1,033,156 to OK!.
The litigation began more than three years ago after Hello! produced a Douglas wedding edition ahead of OK!'s. Martin Kramer, solicitor for the Douglases and OK!, said: "The judge's decision on costs further demonstrates the absurdity of Hello!'s earlier claim that it had won the case.
"It was a landmark case and the very high damages award should serve as a warning to the media that it cannot spoil opponents' exclusives with impunity."
