Oscar winner Nicolas Cage today won a libel action against the Daily Mail and actor Kathleen Turner over false allegations that he had twice been arrested for drink-driving and had stolen a dog.
The false claims were made in Turner's memoir, Send Yourself Roses, and repeated by the Daily Mail in an article on January 28 this year, headlined "Why I detest Burt Reynolds and Nicolas Cage by Kathleen Turner".
Cage began legal action against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail, Turner and her publisher Headline Publishing Group at London's high court in February.
In court today, the defendants acknowledged that there was no truth to the statements and apologised to Cage, who won an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas.
An apology is to be published by the Mail and the paper has agreed to remove the story from its website, while a printed correction will be inserted into the existing stock of Turner's book.
The defendants will also pay all of Cage's legal costs and will make a "substantial donation" to his chosen charity, the National Adult Protective Services Foundation.
Barrister Jane Phillips, acting on behalf of the defendants, told the court: "Through me the defendants sincerely apologise to the claimant for the distress and embarrassment the book and published extracts have caused.
"They accept that the allegations are false and ought never to have been published."
Cage's solicitor Simon Smith, of media law firm Schillings, said the allegations had not been put to the actor or his representatives prior to publication.
"Had the defendants done so, they would have been informed of their utter falsity," Smith said in court.
"The publication of the allegations has caused damage to the claimant's personal and professional reputation and he has suffered considerable embarrassment and distress."
Smith added: "My client is extremely pleased with the outcome, which sets the record straight, since he has never been arrested for drunk-driving, dog theft, or anything else.
"As an actor who stars in many family-friendly films and who has a young child and teenager of his own, Mr Cage was understandably upset at having wrongly been depicted as condoning that sort of reckless, dangerous and criminal behaviour.
"Mr Cage is gratified that the defendants have done the right thing by acknowledging their errors and making amends, which Mr Cage has directed be donated to a worthy charitable cause."
The extract of Send Yourselves Roses published by the Mail described Turner's experience of working with Cage on the 1986 movie Peggy Sue Got Married, during which she claimed he was "arrested twice for drunk-driving and, I think, for stealing a dog. He'd come across a Chihuahua he liked and stuck it in his jacket."
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