Hello! magazine published unauthorised photographs from the wedding of Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas because it had failed to win the exclusive rights to the ceremony and reception, a judge has been told.

The Hollywood couple is suing the magazine for millions of pounds at a trial scheduled to start in January next year.

The couple have a baby boy

Douglas and Zeta Jones will claim at the trial that their private lives had been violated.

At a preliminary directions hearing at the High Court in London on Thursday, Michael Tugendhat QC, representing the couple, said Eduardo Sanchez, director and major shareholder of Hello!, should be added to the list of defendants.

Rival deal

Mr Tugendhat said the shareholder had direct involvement in the "plot" to publish the photographs.

He had authorised the "biggest investment ever made by the magazine" to win the rights for exclusive coverage of the wedding at the Plaza Hotel, New York in November 2000, Mr Justice Jacob was told.

But the offer of �200,000 was turned down in favour of an offer from its rival OK!, which had made a �1m deal with the couple.

Mr Tugendhat said: "He was miffed that his own offer had been rejected. The decision to publish the photographs was not just for personal gain."

Hello! published three days earlier than OK! with its own "exclusive" photographs of the stars, sparking court action against the magazine.

'Powerful case'

The couple won a High Court order banning further sales of the edition but this was lifted by the Court of Appeal.

It ruled that the couple were likely to be able to prove at trial that publication of the photographs should not have been allowed.

The judges then said the pair had a "powerful case" that they had a right to privacy at the wedding where guests and workers had been told not to take any photos and the media told to stay away.

Zeta Jones and Douglas are expected to tell the court that they had suffered stress, loss of income from syndication rights and their professional careers had been damaged because the photographs published by Hello! were of poor quality.