Martina Evans

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Fourteenth Hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice

The couple sued Hello! for £2m for stress, loss of income and damage to their professional careers because of the poor quality of the photos…Hello! published several snatched shots of the wedding reception including one photograph of Ms Zeta Jones eating wedding cake…Ms Zeta Jones, 33, said she felt “violated” when Hello! published the unauthorised photographs, which she claimed were “sleazy and unflattering”.
The Guardian, April 11, 2003

The Royal Courts of Justice (London’s High Court) is an enchanting building on London’s Fleet Street.
theroyalcourtsofjustice.com

Down Chancery Lane, past Ravenscroft’s window, makers of legal wigs
for centuries – Humphrey Ravenscroft patented the horse-hair wig in 1834,
cheaper than human hair and more practical – and onto The Strand, through
the enchanting gates and arches of the Royal Courts, past the stone cat
and dog representing fighting litigants, the figures of the Saviour, Alfred,
Moses and Solomon who suggested that a child should be cut in half.

We pass the Costume Museum, wait with counsel at the oak tables in
The Bear Gardens. The judge is a woman skilled in family matters, a child’s
peace of mind in her balance. The morning passes but she never appears.
We leave, tired, one thousand pounds lighter, to wait another six months.
Paparazzi position their cameras at the railings. Tomorrow Michael
Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones will successfully sue Hello! Magazine.

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MARTINA EVANS is the author of eleven books of poetry and prose. Her latest collection Now We Can Talk Openly About Men was published by Carcanet in 2018.